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The Last Detail
on DVD (1973)
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| Starring: |
Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid, Clifton James, Carol Kane |
| Director: |
Hal Ashby |
| Studio: |
SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time: |
100 mins |
| Certificate: |
 |
| User collections: |
The Greatest Films by the Greatest Directors |
| Genres: |
Comedy |
| Languages: |
English |
| Dubbed: |
French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Subtitles: |
Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released: |
05/08/2002
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Brief synopsis of The Last Detail
In THE LAST DETAIL the winning combination of director Hal Ashby, screenwriter Robert Towne, and actor Jack Nicholson turned an unheralded novel by Darryl Ponicsan into one of the first of what are now thought of as the classic films of the1970s. Navy lifers Badass Budduskey (Nicholson) and Mule Mulhall (Otis Young) are given a week to escort a teenage petty thief, Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid), from Virginia to the naval penitentiary in Maine. Their plan to bring him there quickly, and spend the remaining time having a good time themselves, changes when they come to sympathize with the naive Meadows. He's clearly an uncontrollable kleptomaniac given an unjust sentence, so they decide to include him in their plans. But as they escort him through the entire sixties scene, from bars, brawls, and drug-addled parties to a visit to a prostitute (Carol Kane), they come to feel that showing him the world he'll be missing in prison might not be the act of kindness they intended.
The film features a breakthrough performance by Nicholson. The killer smile, quick anger, and antiestablishment attitude that brought him stardom in CHINATOWN is well controlled by Ashby's direction. He never lets Nicholson steal the show. The balance with Quaid's and Young's strong performances makes for a very moving character-based dramatic comedy.
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Related
Critics Reviews
Radio Times
Back in the early 1970s, star Jack Nicholson, writer Robert Towne and director Hal Ashby were the hippest team in Hollywood. Nicholson and Towne went on to Chinatown and Ashby and Towne to Shampoo; they could do no wrong. This collaboration has a combustible power as it follows the fortunes of two naval petty officers (Nicholson and Otis Young) and the pathetic young criminal (Randy Quaid) they have to escort to jail. Towne's script consists almost entirely of profanities and justifiably so, considering the characters aren't exactly choirboys.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Foul-mouthed weekend odyssey, with a few well-observed moments for non-prudes. Technically the epitome of Hollywood's most irritating seventies fashion, with fuzzy sound recording, dim against-the-light photography, and a general determination to show up
Time Out
Despite Robert Towne's often sharp script - about two veteran sailors detailed to escort a young and naïve rating to...
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