Starring: Nancy Allen, Luana Anders, Henry Calvert, John Castellano, Michael Chapman Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Sony Pictures Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 14, 1999 Running Time: 104 minutes Theatrical Release Date: December 12, 1973
Product Description: No Description Available. Genre: Feature Film-Drama Rating: R Release Date: 14-DEC-1999 Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com essential video: Overshadowed by his high-profile leads in such '70s landmarks as Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jack Nicholson's remarkably complex turn in this raucous yet ultimately somber road movie also remains his most underrated. As the snarling, hedonistic, but emotionally lost Navy lifer Billy Budduskey, Nicholson teams with fellow sailor "Mule" (Otis Young) on a seemingly simple duty of escorting a naive thief (Randy Quaid) from the Norfolk naval base to the brig in Massachusetts. Though polar opposites--Mule is hard-nosed Navy, while the first image of Budduskey shows him asleep in a chair, tattered and tattooed, gripping a near-empty bottle of cheap wine--both sailors learn that the 18-year-old will lose eight years of his life for a petty theft, and agree to cram his lost years into one booze-, sex-, and drug-infested (lost) weekend. From bizarre religious ceremonies to drunken nights in New York brothels, the two sailors provide all the sins they can think of, while their charge, Meadows, appears to go along just to please his escorts. The older sailors are definitely having more fun, essentially projecting all of their own lost freedom onto Meadows. The young sailor's ultimate doom mirrors the daily prison lived by both Budduskey and Mule, and director Hal Ashby hangs a decisive air of bleakness and claustrophobia over screenwriter Robert Towne's profane humor. When the question of whether to let the poor teenager escape ultimately arrives for the two sailors, the final decision is relatively pointless: in or out of prison, all three men are trapped by the Establishment and their own lost free will. --Dave McCoy
On The Road Directed by Hal Ashby ("Shampoo") and released in 1973, "The Last Detail" is a near perfect little movie-- in spite of a thin plot-- that holds up well thirty-five years later. It is essentially a three person film. Two sailors, Jack Nicholson (Budduskey) and Otis Young (Mule) are assigned the task of escorting Randy Quaid (Meadows) from Norfolk to Massachusetts where he will begin his eight-year-prison term for stealing a mere forty dollars albeit from his commander's favorite charity.
The two older servicemen decide that they should introduce the younger man, who is only 18, to a little bit of life before he begins his sentence: sex, drugs and liquor, with with a stop also to see his mother. The movie is a fine vehicle for all three actors who give outstanding performances. This is Nicholson at his best, long before he got paunchy and kept on playing himself.
Nicholson and Young ultimately realize that they are as much a prisoner as Quaid as the goodtimes road trip with a lot of laughs along the way ends in a very sober place.
Good movie!
Bittersweet Classic Jack Nicholson has made a lot of good movies, but everything he did between 1970 and 1975 was a classic (besides the forgotten "The Fortune" with Warren Beatty). This is a sad movie, like "One Flew..." but Jack invests such joy, humor & rage into his role that it is oddly inspiring even amidst the downward trajectory Randy Quaid is on. I've seen this 4 or 5 times over the years and I never fail to laugh and tear up with joy during Jack's drunken soliloquy on the Human Torch (I'm betting he was actually buzzed, as the slurring is too perfect), during his confrontation with a racist bartender: "I am the mother-f#ckin' shore patrol!", and his "yo-de-lay-dee-oh" whistling-in-the-canyon sequence. His character may be filled with anger & confusion, but you definitely want him on your side. This movie is so packed with profanity that when they showed it on TV, so much had to be snipped that they showed an alternate version with extra scenes of the three sailors seeing the monuments late at night in Washington DC while drunk. I hope someday they add those scenes to the beautiful symphony of swear words in the original cut. Hal Ashby was a 70's genius director. Seek out all of his films & Jack Nicholson's work (in the 70's especially).
Jack at his best! If you're a fan of Jack you'll love this earlier film. And Randy Quaid is just awesome......maybe his first big film (?). I buy movies for my son every year for Christmas, try to find those great films from the past and never grow old. This one proved one of the best. He loved it!
Buddhist Ideology in a unlikely film The film, which on it's surface is rife with foul language, sex, and all sorts of treachery is actually about being selfless and caring for someone else just a bit more than for yourself. Jack Nicholson and Otis Young are to take Randy Quaid to prison for stealing 40 dollars. Quaid has been sentenced to 8 years for the crime, a disparity that makes the film even more poignant. Along the way the two navy-men, (Nicholson especially) decide to show the naive Quaid a good time. Rather than deliver him quickly they take the full week they were given and show him as good a time as they can. Quaid's character is very young and naive and gets a simple yet effective education as they go. Along the way they happen upon a Buddhist ceremony and Quaid takes the chant he over heard to heart and chants it throughout the remainder of the film. Fate, selflessness, self sacrifice, and Nicholson and Youngs characters exhibit their better sides while attending to every last detail before delivering Quaid to prison. Quaid almost escapes at one point but is apprehended and delivered at the last possible moment. The ending is quite abrupt and they do not even get to say good byes as Quaid is escorted away roughly. The last event in the film is when the marine they deliver Quaid to at the prison gives Nicholson and Young a hard time for Quaid being a bit beat up and some papers not being signed correctly. Rather than bend over for the private they ask for the XO, (his commanding officer) but then the private thinks better than to unnecessarily drag his superior officer down. He sign the papers and release Nicholson and Young on their way. The two men are upset at the way they were treated and bad mouth the marine as the film ends. A truly thankless job and effort on both mens part. I feel that even their characters do not see the good in what they have done for Quaid. The film is a testament to the simple good nature humans can exhibit every day without even being aware of it. A great film that only gets better each time I watch it.
My Retired NAVY Brother-in-Law Loved This! My Brother-in-law said this movie is exactly how it was when he was in the Navy. He laughed alot and really enjoyed this - I will have to buy him a copy this Christmas!
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
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