Screened as part of NZIFF 2007

The Last Detail 1973

Directed by Hal Ashby

Jack Nicholson is one of two Navy men who decide to show a young offender a good time before he gets locked up. Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude) directs a script by Robert Towne (Chinatown).

USA In English
103 minutes 35mm

Director

Screenplay

Robert Towne. Based on the novel by Darryl Ponicsan

Photography

Michael Chapman

Editor

Robert C. Jones

Music

Johnny Mandel

With

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

Elsewhere

Jack Nicholson and screenwriter Robert Towne's first collaboration (the second being Roman Polanski's neo-film noir classic Chinatown), The Last Detail is helmed by the marvellously irreverent and counter-cultural director Hal Ashby, who was responsible for 1971's hilarious and touching cult classic Harold and Maude. While escorting a prisoner to serve a long sentence in a naval prison for a petty and foolish cookie-jar crime, sailors Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) decide to give him a memorable time before he goes inside. A moral dilemma soon rears its head when the duo wonder whether it really is such a kind gesture to give the prisoner a taste of the spice of life that he will soon be locked away from. Typically, Towne has crafted a swag of strong, complex and multi-faceted characters who propel the story along. With a delightfully zesty performance by Nicholson, The Last Detail is downbeat but spirited, with a memorable and classic ending.