* * * * *
A couple of sailors make sure that a youthful recruit has a good time on his way to prison.
Starring Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid, Clifton James, Carol Kane
Written by Robert Towne
Produced by Gerald Ayres
Duration 104 minutes
You will read within the pages of this blog its author banging on about how much he loves the 1980s. But even someone blinkered with nostalgia for the era in which they grew up must accept that the best decade for film was probably the ’70s. (There are counter arguments, of course, but bear in mind that this opinion comes from a place of hating musicals and having a limited tolerance for westerns.)
I mean, let's take a look at the Oscar Best Picture nominees from the year THE LAST DETAIL came out, 1973, as well as some from those either side, 1972 and 1974. They include THE GODFATHER, DELIVERENCE, THE STING, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, THE EXORCIST, THE GODFATHER PART II, CHINATOWN, and THE CONVERSATION.
You can’t tell me the motion pictures of today match that lot, both in quality and the sheer consistency of that quality. THE LAST DETAIL didn't even get nominated for Best Picture, and it’s a Goddamn
masterpiece!
There are many elements that make LAST DETAIL great. Lead star Jack Nicholson comes as no surprise. Writer Robert Towne (CHINATOWN, sadly no longer with us as of this week) also isn't a shock. Director Hal Ashby (HAROLD AND MAUDE) is a given. But to me, the revelation in films like this and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW is Randy Randall Rudy Quaid. (Yes, that's his full given name.)
I was first introduced to Quaid as boorish Cousin Eddie in the NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION series, especially the annually televised Christmas instalment. Then later in the cinema, as INDEPENDENCE DAY's crazed alien abductee pilot, who gets his revenge on his former captors by going kamikaze ("Hello, boys! I'm baaaaaack!"), or as a goofy Amish bowler in the underrated comedy KINGPIN. And while younger brother Dennis became a conventionally handsome B-list leading man who married Meg Ryan, Randy squandered his talent and slid toward TV movies, eventually becoming more notorious for personal scandals than anything he did on screen.
But in THE LAST DETAIL, a fresh-faced and slim 22-year-old Quaid delivers an Oscar-nominated supporting performance (he lost the statue to someone called John Houseman for something called THE PAPER CHASE).
Sailors Nicholson and Otis Young are the leads: hard-drinking, self-serving veterans, wary of being given a "shit detail" and adamant that any authority figure should "go fuck themselves". Such a detail does indeed come their way in the shape of escorting Quaid from their Virginia base to Portsmouth Naval Prison for attempting to steal 40 dollars from a superior officer (and not even succeeding), which because of political bullshit is enough to earn him an inflated eight-year sentence.
The injustice of it all bothers even these most cynical of career sailors, and their brothers-in-arms compulsion to "do right by" the hapless and helpless greenhorn is comedic, full of righteous indignation and finally downright heart-warming.
The trio don't follow a straight line to the Naval prison, instead taking detours to the cities of Washington and Boston. They visit bars; seedy hotels; diners where
they'll melt the cheese on your burger if you ask them to; parks for some al fresco-roasted
hotdogs; meetings of chanting Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists; pornographic
bookstores; pawnshops; ice rinks; groovy after-hours coffee joints;
Nixon-bashing, joint-passing house parties (featuring a debuting Nancy Allen,
looking even younger than Quaid); and brothels (where the girls look younger still than Allen).
Across these evenings of misadventure, the loose, easy-going naturalistic vibe that typified Ashby’s best work (BEING THERE, the abovementioned HAROLD AND MAUD) sucks you in and never lets go. These are real people, authentic, simply men being men together – with all that entails, for good and for ill.
Cousin Eddie would be proud.
And I’ll resist the urge to close with some snarky speculation about what such a product of the ’70s would look like if done today – because director Richard Linklater (BEFORE SUNRISE, DAZED AND CONFUSED) actually tried such a thing in 2017. Helpfully for this blog, he even kept a ‘last’ in the title -- so watch this space for a review of LAST FLAG FLYING, coming your way real soon, sailor …
Five stars out of five.
Valid use of the
word ‘last’? With regards to their Naval careers, Nicholson
and Young describe themselves as "a couple of lifers", so further details are
definitely on their horizon.
What would a movie called THE
FIRST DETAIL be about? The one I usually notice is the eyes, although of course I can’t
speak for everyone.
Previously: THE LAST HARD MEN
Next time: THE LAST SEDUCTION
Check out my books: Jonathanlastauthor.com
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