The Last Detail

Sporting some of the best facial hair and performance we have seen from Jack Nicholson is in the film “The Last Detail” (1973), An On the Road type travel story (including a revelatory brothel scene), we are introduce to Buddusky and Mulhall. Two navy lifers who have to escort Meadows a recently convicted man to his prison.  Although Meadows is only eighteen, so  they decide to give him a life changing experience while learning new things about their selves.

The film while dealing with the militaristic aspects of society  has an interesting underlying dissemination of post Racial Civil Rights era America.  Mulhall lost as a military man in civilian society has to find his way within a post racial society. In one particular instance he is treated to racism from a cantankerous bartender. Later a woman is trying to prior information about his racial struggles however he is unable to do so. He does extract false stories just for the sole reason of bedding the gullible woman.  Although to Robert Towne and Ashby they are not saying that the racial struggle is over but perhaps there are new issues that will arise and hopefully they will not be stagnated. Not only racism comes from the obvious bartender but rather pigeon holing an individual (Mulhall) and thus relating to him only by a stereotypical event.Hoping that one action or one event can help define him and finally Mulhall will find his calling.

Jack Nicholson on the other hand plays his character as the wild card to Mullhall’s straight man act. He is unhinged. The lack of parental units and a longing for discipline is etched all over his maddening actions and grins.  While Nicholson is known for this type of character, he delivers a rousing and moving performance. Buddusky is the glue that holds the relationship between the three together, ironically the most unhinged of the lot allows for the greatest unity. Although he comes from a lost place, unaware of his role in life.

Technically the film is beautiful. The cinematography and directing from Michael Chapman and Hal Ashby comes together as a symbiotic success. Robert Towne’s screenplay is surprisingly funny when you consider the next film he and Jack Nicholson worked on (Chinatown). There is this melancholic sequence where Mulhall and Buddusky are sitting within a brothel finally realizing that they will be lifers in the military. They are trapped and that is what will define the two. They come to this epiphany within the midst of many prostitutes. Robert Towne is stipulating that both individuals the prostitutes and these militaristic members are being whored out for cash. This takes even more weight when you consider the war in Vietnam and the growing resentment against it. A belief that this was a war waged by the rich with the bodies of the poor.

“The Last Detail” while not a film as good as “Harold and Maude” or has a screenplay as lauded as “Chinatown” it  manages to have its own quiet success. Both from the direction and writing but also from the performances that the three leads manage to muster. They are all a lost generation seeking a common identity, in a post-war and post racial society.  This question of identity however is never resolved, the characters part ways, and the fragmentation continues.