Excellent film with strong performances all around and a real criticism of modern America , hitting out at all too easy targets . Based on a Darryl Ponicsan novel about two Navy men (Jack Nicholson, Otis Young) are ordered to bring a young offender (Randy Quaid) to prison facing an eight-year sentence for petty theft and from a brig to another . Then they decide to show him one last 'good time' along the way . What's "The Last Detail"? 300 beers and a barrel of laughs!
Superior , nice dramedy (drama and comedy) about two career sailors ordered to transport a kleptomaniac prisoner to the brig. Robert Towne's often sharp storyline shows bleak cynicism, sentimentality and sometimes mysoginist events about what it means to be men together . Enjoyable and brilliant off-color dialogue contributes much to big hit movie. This is a quintaessential Jack Nicholson acting , along with other films at the time, such as : Chinatown , One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , The Fortune , Missouri , The Shining , The Postman Always Rings Twice or Prizzi's Honor. As Nicholson shines in both the complexity and completeness of his role . He's well accompanied by the veteran soldier detailed to escort him being finely performed by Otis Young and special mention for Randy Quaid as the naive sailor enjoying a sordidly 'good time' en route . Including a large number of familar faces in the support cast , such as : Clifton James , Carol Kane , Michael Moriarty , Luana Anders , Kathleen Miller , Nancy Allen and look quickly to director Hal Ashby himself , cameraman Michael Chapman and Gilda Radner.
The motion picture was competently made by Hal Ashby , though at times he directs in a muffled and vague manner . He was a notorious and successful editor/producer and filmmaker . A highlight of his film editing career was winning an Academy Award for the landmark In the Heat of the Night (1967). Itching to become a director, Jewison gave him a script he was too busy to work on called The landlord (1970). It became Ashby's first film as a filmmaker. From there he delivered a series of well-acted, intelligent human scaled dramas that included The last detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), The comeback (1978) and Welcome Mr. Chance (1979). Great reviews and Oscar nominations became common on Ashby films. This The Last Detail (1973) will appeal to Jack Nicholson fans.
Superior , nice dramedy (drama and comedy) about two career sailors ordered to transport a kleptomaniac prisoner to the brig. Robert Towne's often sharp storyline shows bleak cynicism, sentimentality and sometimes mysoginist events about what it means to be men together . Enjoyable and brilliant off-color dialogue contributes much to big hit movie. This is a quintaessential Jack Nicholson acting , along with other films at the time, such as : Chinatown , One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , The Fortune , Missouri , The Shining , The Postman Always Rings Twice or Prizzi's Honor. As Nicholson shines in both the complexity and completeness of his role . He's well accompanied by the veteran soldier detailed to escort him being finely performed by Otis Young and special mention for Randy Quaid as the naive sailor enjoying a sordidly 'good time' en route . Including a large number of familar faces in the support cast , such as : Clifton James , Carol Kane , Michael Moriarty , Luana Anders , Kathleen Miller , Nancy Allen and look quickly to director Hal Ashby himself , cameraman Michael Chapman and Gilda Radner.
The motion picture was competently made by Hal Ashby , though at times he directs in a muffled and vague manner . He was a notorious and successful editor/producer and filmmaker . A highlight of his film editing career was winning an Academy Award for the landmark In the Heat of the Night (1967). Itching to become a director, Jewison gave him a script he was too busy to work on called The landlord (1970). It became Ashby's first film as a filmmaker. From there he delivered a series of well-acted, intelligent human scaled dramas that included The last detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), The comeback (1978) and Welcome Mr. Chance (1979). Great reviews and Oscar nominations became common on Ashby films. This The Last Detail (1973) will appeal to Jack Nicholson fans.