The Last Detail (1973)

Hal Ashby’s wonderful comedy drama, based on the novel of the same name by Darryl Ponicson, stars Jack Nicholson and Otis Young as career sailors escorting a young recruit (Randy Quaid) from their Virginia base to Portsmouth Navel Base in Maine. Quaid’s Larry has been court martialed, dishonorably discharged and sentenced to eight years in the brig for stealing $40 from a charity fund run by the wife of a senior officer. The film is a three-hander, and all three leads are superb, the chemistry between them making you fully believe the strange bond they form over the days of transporting Larry to his uninspiring destination.

The Last Detail’s script shines throughout, delivered with gusto by Nicholson, Quaid and Young and is frequently laugh out loud funny along with being melancholic as the film nears its ending and Larry’s impending incarceration, just at a time when you very much want to spend more time with the characters.

The film portrays the lonely life of military men accurately in that you can feel the divide between the three officers and the characters they meet ‘on shore’ as it were; Nicholson’s Billy is especially brash in his behaviour but it’s an understandable case of letting their hair down as they spend a few days away from the strict rigmarole of every day Navy work. As well as being a road movie of sorts, The Last Detail is in a certain way a coming of age film as Billy and Young’s Mule show the shy (and seeming kleptomaniac) Larry the ways of the world before he loses the chance to experience any sort of life. Recently released on Blu-ray, The Last Detail is an excellent piece of work, and would be more than deserving of some fiftieth anniversary showings on the big screen. 8.1/10