The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973): USA

Reviewed by Kevin Tran.  Viewed on DVD

Like it’s predecessor, M*A*S*H, one year earlier The Last Detail is an incredibly funny tale about the armed services. Directed by the talented Hal Ashby and written by Robert Towne, The Last Detail is rich in humor about outcasts who don’t belong in a society where the only real thing they have is one another.

Two tough, older Navy officers are commissioned to escort a young thief from their commanding station on the southern east coast to Boston. Along their journey they decide to stop in various big cities as a break from working in the armed services. They eventually befriend their timid prisoner: releasing him from his handcuffs, getting drunk with him, and introducing him to the strange and beautiful world of women.

Jack Nicholson as one of the older officer gives an incredibly wild and hilarious performance, as no one but Nicholson can fulfill. The film deals with some subject matter that were pretty serious in the late sixties and seventies (civil rights, protesting the Vietnam War, etc.). Yet the film is able to navigate around these issues, only lightly touching on them, and in doing so, Ashby creates an awesomely funny buddy film.