The Last Detail (1973)Director: Hal Ashby
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid
In this month's Empire magazine there is a short interview with comedy writer/director/producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin). He was asked what his favourite film of all time was and his response was a toss up between Network (which is indeed an amazing film) and The Last Detail. This surprised me a bit as, despite being quite a critically acclaimed film, it tends to get left behind by some of the real classics that came out around the same Hollywood boom period of the early 1970s. Apatow's mention reminded me that I actually had a copy of the movie on my shelf which I'd picked up for five or six dollars sometime last year as Hal Ashby was one of the key figures in that Hollywood Renaissance whose work I had not seen any of. So I pulled it out and gave it a look.
Two navy lifers, Buddusky (Nicholson) and Mulhall (Young) are commissioned to escort a young seaman named Meadows (Quaid) across the country to a military prison in Boston, where he is to serve eight years behind bars, for the measly offence of attempting to steal $40 from a polio charity, which just happened to be the General's wife's pet project. While Buddusky and Mulhall initially view this assignment at a paid holiday (they are given five days to make the trip), upon seeing how young and timid Meadows is Buddusky's sense of outrage at the injustice of the sentence causes him to reassess the purpose of his mission. Rather than try and get Meadows to prison as soon as possible and take the few extra days for themselves, Buddusky decides that they should show him a good time before he gets locked up. However, as they show the young man all that the sixties has to offer, they start to think that maybe showing him everything that he will be missing out on might not be the act of kindness they intended it to be.
The Last Detail is a fine example of what was going on in Hollywood in the early seventies. Much like Easy Rider, The Last Detail is very anti-authoritarian in tone. Buddusky and Mulhall's frustration at the injustice facing Meadows, and more generally at the way in which those in power were abusing their authority, was intended to speak to the anti-authoritarian youth of the nation, disenfranchised with their government in the light of the Vietnam conflict and the Watergate scandal. The screenplay, by Robert Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo) is also brimming with profanity, taking advantage of the recent changes in censorship laws allowing for a more authentic style of dialogue. Stylistically the film is quite rough, in particular the audio quality is not great, and lacks the polish of classic Hollywood films and instead going for the realism favoured by the French New Wave directors.
When you talk about great directors from the seventies you invariably get names like Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman, Lucas, De Palma. If you are with someone who knows their stuff they might also throw in a Mike Nichols or an Arthur Penn, but not often do people remember Hal Ashby. Initially he established himself in the industry as an editor, working on films including The Cincinnati Kid, The Thomas Crown Affair and In the Heat of the Night, for which he won an Oscar. He then made the transition into directing and earned a reputation for making small-scale, character driven dramas including Harold and Maude, Being There and Shampoo. He played a key role in transforming Hollywood in the late sixties and early seventies and was one of the prominent directors in Hollywood until the arrival of the 'Film School Generation' (Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma). Unfortunately he developed a crippling drug addiction which led to him being considered unemployable by the 1980s. When it finally looked like he was getting his life back on track he developed cancer which eventually killed him in 1988.
Nicholson's performance as Buddusky is considered to be one of the finest, if not one of the better known, in his career, which is a big call because careers don't come much finer than Nicholson's. He's been nominated for twelve acting Oscars, of which he has one three, both statistics being records for male actors. That being said his performance in this film does deservedly sit towards the top of the pile. Nicholson could hardly put a foot wrong in the early seventies and through his compatibility with subversive, anti-authoritarian characters he became the on-screen face of the Hollywood Renaissance. Much like I said with Brando in relation to On the Waterfront, if you only know Nicholson as an old, fat, kind of sleazy guy, do yourself a favour and check out some of his earlier stuff, starting with The Last Detail.
Like I said, there's a lot of swearing, so it's not one for those with sensitive ears. But if you can handle it, The Last Detail is a really compelling, character driven film which gives a great insight into where Hollywood was at in the early seventies.
In this month's Empire magazine there is a short interview with comedy writer/director/producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin). He was asked what his favourite film of all time was and his response was a toss up between Network (which is indeed an amazing film) and The Last Detail. This surprised me a bit as, despite being quite a critically acclaimed film, it tends to get left behind by some of the real classics that came out around the same Hollywood boom period of the early 1970s. Apatow's mention reminded me that I actually had a copy of the movie on my shelf which I'd picked up for five or six dollars sometime last year as Hal Ashby was one of the key figures in that Hollywood Renaissance whose work I had not seen any of. So I pulled it out and gave it a look.
Two navy lifers, Buddusky (Nicholson) and Mulhall (Young) are commissioned to escort a young seaman named Meadows (Quaid) across the country to a military prison in Boston, where he is to serve eight years behind bars, for the measly offence of attempting to steal $40 from a polio charity, which just happened to be the General's wife's pet project. While Buddusky and Mulhall initially view this assignment at a paid holiday (they are given five days to make the trip), upon seeing how young and timid Meadows is Buddusky's sense of outrage at the injustice of the sentence causes him to reassess the purpose of his mission. Rather than try and get Meadows to prison as soon as possible and take the few extra days for themselves, Buddusky decides that they should show him a good time before he gets locked up. However, as they show the young man all that the sixties has to offer, they start to think that maybe showing him everything that he will be missing out on might not be the act of kindness they intended it to be.
The Last Detail is a fine example of what was going on in Hollywood in the early seventies. Much like Easy Rider, The Last Detail is very anti-authoritarian in tone. Buddusky and Mulhall's frustration at the injustice facing Meadows, and more generally at the way in which those in power were abusing their authority, was intended to speak to the anti-authoritarian youth of the nation, disenfranchised with their government in the light of the Vietnam conflict and the Watergate scandal. The screenplay, by Robert Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo) is also brimming with profanity, taking advantage of the recent changes in censorship laws allowing for a more authentic style of dialogue. Stylistically the film is quite rough, in particular the audio quality is not great, and lacks the polish of classic Hollywood films and instead going for the realism favoured by the French New Wave directors.
When you talk about great directors from the seventies you invariably get names like Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman, Lucas, De Palma. If you are with someone who knows their stuff they might also throw in a Mike Nichols or an Arthur Penn, but not often do people remember Hal Ashby. Initially he established himself in the industry as an editor, working on films including The Cincinnati Kid, The Thomas Crown Affair and In the Heat of the Night, for which he won an Oscar. He then made the transition into directing and earned a reputation for making small-scale, character driven dramas including Harold and Maude, Being There and Shampoo. He played a key role in transforming Hollywood in the late sixties and early seventies and was one of the prominent directors in Hollywood until the arrival of the 'Film School Generation' (Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma). Unfortunately he developed a crippling drug addiction which led to him being considered unemployable by the 1980s. When it finally looked like he was getting his life back on track he developed cancer which eventually killed him in 1988.
Nicholson's performance as Buddusky is considered to be one of the finest, if not one of the better known, in his career, which is a big call because careers don't come much finer than Nicholson's. He's been nominated for twelve acting Oscars, of which he has one three, both statistics being records for male actors. That being said his performance in this film does deservedly sit towards the top of the pile. Nicholson could hardly put a foot wrong in the early seventies and through his compatibility with subversive, anti-authoritarian characters he became the on-screen face of the Hollywood Renaissance. Much like I said with Brando in relation to On the Waterfront, if you only know Nicholson as an old, fat, kind of sleazy guy, do yourself a favour and check out some of his earlier stuff, starting with The Last Detail.
Like I said, there's a lot of swearing, so it's not one for those with sensitive ears. But if you can handle it, The Last Detail is a really compelling, character driven film which gives a great insight into where Hollywood was at in the early seventies.
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