United States of America

DramaComedy

Washington dcUsaBased on novel or bookU.s. navyRoad tripMaineConvictPrison sentenceSailorTrain travelShore patrolBuddy moviePrisoner escort

Hal Ashby

Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid, Clifton James, Carol Kane, Michael Moriarty

Robert Towne

Columbia Pictures, Acrobat Productions, Bright-Persky Associates

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.

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

Reviews:

Author: Wuchak
**_Slice-of-life drama about post-Vietnam military guys on the eastern home front_** Two Petty Officers in Norfolk, Virginia (Jack Nicholson and Otis Young), are assigned a shore patrol detail to escort a naïve 18-year-old Seaman (Randy Quaid) to Portsmouth Naval Prison just across the coastal border of Maine. They decide to give the ‘kid’ a good time in several misadventures along the way. “The Last Detail” (1973) is a road movie in the Northeast during the transition from late Fall to early Winter (shot in November-January). While a realistic drama, it’s also a dark comedy with interesting and amusing commentaries on life, the American military, corruption, injustice, friendship, recreation, folly, sexual relations and so on. To be expected with young characters in the military, the talk and shenanigans are often R-rated. Nicholson’s friend, Dennis Hopper, took the template of this film to make the similar "Chasers" two decades later (1994). While it’s way more obscure, “Chasers” is the more entertaining film. This one is too mundane on occasion, like when the guys drink & blather in their underwear in the hotel room. Another similar flick is "The Lucky Ones" (2007). While I feel “The Last Detail” is the least of the three, it’s definitely worth checking out. The movie runs 1 hour, 44 minutes, and was shot on location, taking the same journey as the trio, except for Toronto doubling as Norfolk in the first act, as well as a later scene involving the fictitious Calvin Coolidge Junior High. The rest of the film was shot in coastal Virginia, DC, New York City, Massachusetts and New Hampshire/Maine. GRADE: B