The Last Detail (1973)

Director:

Hal Ashby

Writers:

Robert Towne (screenplay)
Darryl Ponicsan (novel)

Release Date:

February 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

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.

Plot:

Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison but decide to show him one last good time along the way.

Plot Keywords:

Navy | Teen | Military | Bar | Pilferer

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Jack Nicholson	...	Buddusky
Otis Young	...	Mulhall
Randy Quaid	...	Meadows
Clifton James	...	M.A.A.
Carol Kane	...	Young Whore
Michael Moriarty	...	Marine O.D.
Luana Anders	...	Donna
Kathleen Miller	...	Annette
Nancy Allen	...	Nancy
Gerry Salsberg	...	Henry
Don McGovern	...	Bartender
Pat Hamilton	...	Madame
Michael Chapman	...	Taxi Driver
Jim Henshaw	...	Sweek
Derek McGrath	...	Nichiren Shoshu Member
Gilda Radner	...	Nichiren Shoshu Member
Jim Horn	...	Nichiren Shoshu Member
John Castellano	...	Nichiren Shoshu Member
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hal Ashby	...	Bearded Man at Bar in Darts Scene (uncredited)
Gerald Ayres	...	Skater at Ice Rink (uncredited)
Henry Calvert	...	Pawnbroker (uncredited)
Peter Foldy	...	Hippie at Train Station (uncredited)
Donald Warnock	...	Combat Zone Patron (uncredited)

Directed by
Hal Ashby

Writing credits
Robert Towne		(screenplay)
Darryl Ponicsan		(novel "The Last Detail")

Produced by
Gerald Ayres	....	producer
Charles Mulvehill	....	associate producer
Joel Chernoff	....	co-producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Johnny Mandel

Cinematography by
Michael Chapman		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Robert C. Jones
Ken Zemke		(uncredited)

Casting by
Lynn Stalmaster
Sylvia Fay		(uncredited)

Production Design by
Michael D. Haller		(as Michael Haller)

Costume Design by
Theodore R. Parvin		(costumes) (as Ted Parvin)

Makeup Department
Maureen Sweeney	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Daniel McCauley	....	unit production manager (as Dan McCauley)
Marvin Miller	....	unit production manager
Phillip M. Goldfarb	....	unit manager: New York (uncredited)
Larry Kostroff	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alan Hopkins	....	second assistant director (as Al Hopkins)
Wesley J. McAfee	....	assistant director (as Wes McAfee)
Gordon Robinson	....	second assistant director
Samuel C. Jephcott	....	third assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
George Dunkel	....	scenic
Sidney H. Greenwood	....	properties (as Sid Greenwood)
Benjamin Duffy	....	laborer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Tom Overton	....	sound
Richard Portman	....	re-recordist
Joe Kenworthy	....	sound (uncredited)
Sharron Miller	....	sound editor (uncredited)
Karl Scherer	....	sound mixer standby (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Beer	....	generator operator (uncredited)
Anthony Bliss	....	camera assistant (uncredited)
Michel Bénard	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Richard Falk	....	electrician (uncredited)
Glen Goodchild	....	second grip (uncredited)
David Kelly	....	camera assistant (uncredited)
Charles Moore	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Bill Reinhart	....	grip (uncredited)
Tibor Sands	....	camera assistant (uncredited)
Robert M. Volpe	....	grip (uncredited)

Casting Department
Karen Hazzard	....	casting: Canada (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Joyce Liggett	....	costumes (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Robert Barrere	....	assistant film editor
Pieter Bergema	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
George Brand	....	music editor
Dan Wallin	....	score mixer (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Gary Flanagan	....	driver (uncredited)
Bob Holburn	....	driver (uncredited)
Jim Kennedy	....	driver (uncredited)
Wayne Thurston	....	driver (uncredited)
Rick Young	....	driver captain (uncredited)

Other crew
Bob Forrest	....	script supervisor
Nicholas Kudla III	....	assistant to the producer (as Nicholas Kudla II)
Velda Reimer	....	production secretary
Sheila Woodland	....	production secretary
Bruce Bahrenburg	....	publicist (uncredited)
Elinor Bolton	....	script supervisor standby (uncredited)
Lillian Borden	....	production secretary (uncredited)
Samuel C. Jephcott	....	production assistant: Toronto (uncredited)
Fiona Mitchell	....	publicist (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation (presents) (as Columbia Pictures)
• Bright-Persky Associates (as A Bright-Persky Associates Feature)
• Acrobat Productions (as An Acrobat/ Hal Ashby Film)

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1973) (USA) (theatrical)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• LK-TEL (2000) (Argentina) (DVD)
• LK-TEL (2000) (Argentina) (VHS) (re-edited)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2002) (UK) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Encore Avenue (2010) (Canada) (TV)
• Warner-Columbia (1975) (Austria) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1976) (USA) (TV)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2003) (Germany) (DVD)
• Mill Creek Entertainment (2012) (USA) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2012) (Australia) (DVD)
• Videosonic Arts (1987) (Greece) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Edit-International Inc.  sound effects editing by (as Edit International Ltd.)
• Sylvia Fay/Lee Genick & Associates Casting  background casting (uncredited)
• William F. White International  grip and lighting equipment

Also Known As:

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Canada:R | Singapore:M18 (cut) | Netherlands:16 | Australia:R | Netherlands:12 (re-rating) (2002) | Argentina:16 (re-rating) | Argentina:18 (original rating) | Canada:14A (TV rating) | Italy:VM14

Filming Locations:

Boston Common, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

A tamer version with less profanity was filmed at the same time for TV showings. Because of the amount of swearing, the entire movie was pretty much shot twice.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The P-coats being worn by the sailors aren't Navy regulation for that period, since they use black plastic buttons instead of silver ones.

Quotes:

Nichiren Shoshu Member:But now I, well, I really love the clarinet and I can't even remember why I wanted the flute in the first place.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Search for Pink October (1990) (V)

Soundtrack:

Bad Ass Blues

"I asked for my eggs over easy."

The Last Detail by Hal Ashby is much like John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy in that they are both road trip movies as well as buddy movies. They are about friendships that forged in extreme circumstances and the effect that these experiences have on each character's lives.

In the last detail, an unfortunate seaman by the name of Meadows (Randy Quaid) is condemned to jail for eight years for a misdemeanor crime he was unable to even complete. Being caught with his hand in the cookie jar after a mere forty dollars, he is consequently transported from a naval base in the south to the naval prison in Portsmouth, Maine. The last detail of a few veteran naval officers, namely Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) is to transport this eighteen year old, soon to be prisoner up the east coast.

The three gentlemen have never met before and all seem to have different interests. Billy and Mule are after some welcomed time off from the suffocating life on the naval base, while Meadows is drowning in his own depression. Billy is more of a lenient presence, while Mule seems to want to do his duty first and then relax. Soon the men form a bond. This bond and their relationship is what carry the movie. Meadows is an innocent and modest teenager who found his way into the navy because of a shop lifting problem. However, after hearing his story and spending time with the boy, the two officers realize the ludicrous charges that have been brought against such an undeserving soldier.

They take pity on him and decide to make his last days of freedom ones in which he will cross every right of passage yet to be undiscovered and make them days that he will never forget. As they gradually open up to each other, they grant the prisoner a certain degree of freedom beginning with the removal of the cuffs in the beginning of the movie. They get him drunk in Washington, D.C., involve him in his first fist fight in New York City and help him lose his virginity in Boston. Beyond these rights of passage, the officers also relate to the emotional side of Meadows. They allow him to visit his mother. What the two officers did not realize is that the journey they would take would be reciprocal. They all end up taking their guard down.

One of the more poignant lines in the film is when Meadows refers to the officers as his beast friends. Although he has only known them for less than a week, the sad fact is that these men are probably the closest friends that he has ever had. Mule and Billy have had much more life experience and are well versed in the details and idiosyncrasies that life involves. They connect with meadows because before this trip, he had been yet untouched by the worse side of life. His general doe eyed demeanor drives home the fact that he really does not deserve the treatment that he's receiving. Upon leaving the prison, I don't believe that Mule and Billy are so much angry with the way the ascending officer treated them as they are with the situation that Meadows is now faced with. "We could have prevented this.