Don't let the fact that the DVD cover makes this movie look like gay porn keep you from seeing it.

Director Hal Ashby made a string of unfussy but very, very good films throughout the 1970s, and "The Last Detail" is one them. The story doesn't sound like much: two Navy officers are assigned to escort a third to the prison where he will be serving time. Along the way, the requisite male bonding ensues, and the older, jaded officer (Jack Nicholson) has a chance to reflect upon his own fortune and misfortune and be a sort of father figure, for better or worse, to his young and troubled charge (played extremely well by Randy Quaid).

Like all of Ashby's films, "The Last Detail" challenges things like duty and institutional authority, which made Ashby one of the most vocal of the anti-establishment directors from a volatile period of American history. But also like all of his films, it poses challenges in a low-key, non-confrontational way, without sacrificing its bite.

Well done.

Grade: A

I noticed that "The Last Detail" has a very respectable overall IMDb score of 7.5. However, despite this, the film left me very, very cold.

The film is about two knuckle-headed shore patrolmen (Jack Nicholson and Otis Young) who are ordered to escort a prisoner (Randy Quaid) cross country to prison. As for the prisoner, he's a real enigma and never is particularly easy to understand. However, instead of taking him directly to prison in Portsmouth, they take him on a little holiday--taking him on a sightseeing tour of D.C., getting him drunk as well as to a prostitute. It seems that these two guys kind of like the prisoner and feel sorry for him--though none of this would really explain their actions throughout the movie.

If you like films with very little in the way of a traditional plot, then you might like this film a bit more than I did. It's really a modified buddy film--but with some nontraditional elements. Of course, a buddy film with lots of profanity (even by the looser early 1970s standards) and boobs. As for all this cursing, I can understand it--navy guys talk that way I am sure. However, this also makes it a film NOT to watch with your mother, children or minister! Overall, a rather direction-less film with somewhat unlikeable characters. For me, it's among Jack Nicholson's weaker films--though as I said above, apparently I am in the minority on this one.

By the way, catch the irony when the Buddhist lady exhorts Randy Quaid to run from the law in Canada. Talk about art imitating life!

Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) are weary sailors assigned to escort young Meadows (Randy Quaid) from Norfolk to Portsmouth. Meadows tried to steal $40 from the Polio contribution box which is the favorite charity of the admiral's wife. They plan to take the slow route and save the per diem to spend on the way back. However they take pity on the poor sap Meadows who is about to spend 8 years in the brig. They take him to find some good times at the big city stops along the way.

It's a bit meandering as a story but Nicholson gives a good performance. He's the undisputed star every time he's on the screen. Randy Quaid is playing a timid character. Sometimes he gets off a good laugh. In general, the movie is a slow moving comedy from director Hal Ashby with a few very good laughs.