Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison but decide to show him one last good time along the way.
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Title: The Last Detail (1973)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jack Nicholson | ... | ||
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Otis Young | ... |
Mulhall
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| Randy Quaid | ... |
Meadows
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| Clifton James | ... |
M.A.A.
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| Carol Kane | ... |
Young Whore
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| Michael Moriarty | ... |
Marine O.D.
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| Luana Anders | ... |
Donna
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Kathleen Miller | ... |
Annette
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| Nancy Allen | ... |
Nancy
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Gerry Salsberg | ... |
Henry
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Don McGovern | ... |
Bartender
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Pat Hamilton | ... |
Madame
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Michael Chapman | ... |
Taxi Driver
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Jim Henshaw | ... |
Sweek
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| Derek McGrath | ... |
Nichiren Shoshu Member
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Plot Summary
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Add Synopsis
Storyline
Two bawdy, tough looking navy lifers - "Bad-Ass" Buddusky, and "Mule" Mulhall - are commissioned to escort a young pilferer named Meadows to the brig in Portsmouth. Meadows is not much of a thief. Indeed, in his late teens, he is not much of a man at all. His great crime was to try to steal forty dollars from the admiral's wife's pet charity. For this, he's been sentenced to eight years behind bars. At first, Buddusky and Mulhall view the journey as a paid vacation, but their holiday spirits are quickly depressed by the prisoner, who looks prepared to break into tears at any moment. And he has the lowest self-image imaginable. Buddusky gets it into his head to give Meadows a good time and teach him a bit about getting on in the world. Lesson one: Don't take every card life deals you. Next, he teaches Meadows to drink, and, as a coup de grace, finds a nice young whore to instruct him in lovemaking. Mule, who worries aloud about his own position with military authority, seems pleased ... Written by alfiehitchie
Taglines:
No *#@!!* Navy's going to give some poor **!!@* kid eight years in the #@!* brig without me taking him out for the time of his *#@!!* life. See more »Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
15 February 1974 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Das letzte Kommando See more »Company Credits
Production Co:
Columbia Pictures Corporation, Bright-Persky Associates, Acrobat Productions See more »
Show detailed
company contact information
on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
Color (Metrocolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
Edit
Buddusky: We still got time for a beer.
Mulhall: Now wait a minute, man...
Meadows: I ain't old enough.
Buddusky: Ain't old enough for what?
Meadows: For a beer.
Buddusky: Everybody's old enough for a beer. Ain't that right, Mule?
Mulhall: Yeah.
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
Towards the end of the movie when the 3 sailors are in the snowy New Hampshire park cooking hotdogs over the fire, the music being played is The Bells, Suite #6 by William Byrd See more »Goofs
Many of the actors playing Marines wear their hair too long. Additionaly, many sport sideburns. According to Marine Corps grooming regulations, sideburns will not extend below the top of the orifice of the ear. See more »Quotes
Mulhall: We'd better catch that train.Buddusky: We still got time for a beer.
Mulhall: Now wait a minute, man...
Meadows: I ain't old enough.
Buddusky: Ain't old enough for what?
Meadows: For a beer.
Buddusky: Everybody's old enough for a beer. Ain't that right, Mule?
Mulhall: Yeah.
See more »
While the question is a bit rhetorical, I do mean it- you don't see that many movies made anymore like this, The Last Detail by Hal Ashby (Being There) and Robert Towne (later to write another Nicholson gem, Chinatown), where the story is just a baseline to the characters studied in subtle and not so subtle ways. It even grows on the viewer if seen multiple times, where what seems to be dragging on is loaded with nuance. There's a level of existentialism to it: how free are Buddusky and Mulhall, or their choices? Probably not much at all, at least not any more or less than the doomed Meadows. But this is not the only method of Ashby on the material, there are also superlative performances from Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, and a newcomer at the time, Randy Quaid.
Nicholson and Young play Buddusky (Bad-ass), and Mulhouse (Mule), who are assigned "chicken-s*** detail", to transport petty thief Quaid, sent up for eight years in a naval brig. On the way up the Eastern seaboard, the three stop in Washington, New York, and Boston, and the two try to show the youngster a good time before imprisonment. Probably one of the most under-looked pictures of the 1970's, though one of the more note-worthy, especially for it's attitude delivered ten-fold by Nicholson's Cannes winning Buddusky, and Towne script. A scene in a bar in Washington and a scene at a Nichiren Shosu meeting steal the lot, though there's plenty to look for. It's one of my favorite tragic-comic sleepers, and one of Ashby's best.