The Last Detail (1973, Hal Ashby) depicts a side of the US Navy that the Navy didn't want the public to focus on. The country at the time was in an uproar over the Vietnam Conflict. These were the days of The Weatherman (The Weather Underground Organization) and the SDS. The country was divided severely over the US involvement in Vietnam and the military was falling out of the public favor. The movie carefully skirts talking about the conflict by setting the action on the Eastern Seaboard (from Norfolk, VA to Portsmouth, NH) and having the main characters be Navy Shore Patrol. As the odd pair, played by Jack Nicholson and Otis Young, get their unusual assignment and venture north with their captive, an odd side of Navy life emerges: the career "lifer." The plot of The Last Detail is a little far-fetched. Billy Buddusky (Nicholson) and Mulhall (Young) are ordered to escort Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid) from Norfolk, VA to the Naval prison in Portsmouth, NH (which closed the year after the film was released). Meadows is sentenced for 8 years in the brig for attempting to steal $40 from a polio donations box. "The Old Man's Wife" was big into the polio cause and had her husband put the screws on Meadows, thus the harshness of his sentencing. Yet, this is really commentary on the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Nowhere else in the US would someone be sentenced for 8 years for attempting to steal (not actually even stealing) $40. They might be morally shunned and given some jail time, but certainly not time in prison. This sentencing shows the "corruption," if you will, of the justice system in the military. Moral judgment was wrought upon Meadows because he had deeply offended "The Old Man's Wife." Along the journey from VA to NH, Buddusky and Mulhall try to show Meadows, who is presumably under 18, a good time by fulfilling all of the "masculine" desires, such as drinking, smoking marijuana, sexual involvement (with a prostitute), fighting (with Marines), etc.
During this adventurous trip, the characters of all the sailors emerge and we see what being a lifer in the Navy is like. The only thing these two guys can do is their job in the Navy: they've nowhere else to go. We discover that Buddusky's nickname is "Bad Ass" and he tries to live up to that image in a very conscious way. "I am a bad-ass!" he exclaims more than once. He provokes a bartender after Meadows is refused a beer, pulling and aiming his (unloaded) gun at the barkeep. He suggests getting drunk, getting laid, getting high, and getting into a fight with some Marines for no reason whatsoever. "I have a flair for this sort of thing." There has always been "brotherly" tension between the Marines and the Navy, but Buddusky provokes a fight for no reason other than to show how manly he is and get Meadows into a brawl. "Bad Ass" Buddusky clearly depicts one type of naval lifer. He is hyper-masculine and feels the need to assert this at every opportunity, whether that means starting a fight in a train station bathroom or saying he doesn't give a damn about a kid going to prison for an unjust amount of time. Mulhall, or "Mule," depicts another type of lifer. He is into doing his job, thus the name "Mule." He isn't bright, but he can carry a task to its completion. He helps to balance Buddusky, who'd probably not made it to NH in the allotted 5 days without him. He still likes to do masculine pastimes, but he's more conscious of the task at hand.
The Navy doesn't like to discuss lifers, really. They're in the Navy because they had nowhere else to turn to. They need the fraternity, the protection from social norms and conventions, the steady check, and the structure of military life (and consequently the liberties that this also allows for). While the military was struggling to gather new recruits to fight in Vietnam, there were these other guys goofing off on the Eastern Seaboard, having the time of their life. This is not an image that helps to reinforce the sense of duty and commitment that the military tried to instill on new recruits.
During this adventurous trip, the characters of all the sailors emerge and we see what being a lifer in the Navy is like. The only thing these two guys can do is their job in the Navy: they've nowhere else to go. We discover that Buddusky's nickname is "Bad Ass" and he tries to live up to that image in a very conscious way. "I am a bad-ass!" he exclaims more than once. He provokes a bartender after Meadows is refused a beer, pulling and aiming his (unloaded) gun at the barkeep. He suggests getting drunk, getting laid, getting high, and getting into a fight with some Marines for no reason whatsoever. "I have a flair for this sort of thing." There has always been "brotherly" tension between the Marines and the Navy, but Buddusky provokes a fight for no reason other than to show how manly he is and get Meadows into a brawl. "Bad Ass" Buddusky clearly depicts one type of naval lifer. He is hyper-masculine and feels the need to assert this at every opportunity, whether that means starting a fight in a train station bathroom or saying he doesn't give a damn about a kid going to prison for an unjust amount of time. Mulhall, or "Mule," depicts another type of lifer. He is into doing his job, thus the name "Mule." He isn't bright, but he can carry a task to its completion. He helps to balance Buddusky, who'd probably not made it to NH in the allotted 5 days without him. He still likes to do masculine pastimes, but he's more conscious of the task at hand.
The Navy doesn't like to discuss lifers, really. They're in the Navy because they had nowhere else to turn to. They need the fraternity, the protection from social norms and conventions, the steady check, and the structure of military life (and consequently the liberties that this also allows for). While the military was struggling to gather new recruits to fight in Vietnam, there were these other guys goofing off on the Eastern Seaboard, having the time of their life. This is not an image that helps to reinforce the sense of duty and commitment that the military tried to instill on new recruits.