The Last Detail

1973
X
1h 44m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

30K

YOUR RATING

Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973)

Home Video Trailer from Columbia Pictures

Play trailer2:52

2 Videos

99+ Photos

Buddy Comedy Road Trip Comedy Drama

Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but decide to show him one last good time along the way.Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but decide to show him one last good time along the way.Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but decide to show him one last good time along the way.

Director
- Hal Ashby
Writers
- Robert Towne
- Darryl Ponicsan
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

30K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Hal Ashby
Writers
- Robert Towne
- Darryl Ponicsan
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 6 wins & 9 nominations total

Videos2

Trailer 2:52

The Last Detail

Clip 2:00

The Last Detail: Ice Skating

Clip 2:00

The Last Detail: Ice Skating

Photos124

+ 117

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The script was completed in 1970 but contained too much profanity to be shot as written. Columbia Pictures waited for two years trying to get writer Robert Towne to tone down the language. Instead, by 1972, the standards for foul language relaxed so much that all the profanity was left in.

Goofs
The MAA Master Chief is not wearing a Master-at-Arms rating badge; he is wearing a Boatswain mate rating badge.

The Master At Arms rating was disestablished in 1921, but was officially re-established on 1 August 1973. Therefore, as the story takes place, a Master Chief Boatswain's Mate being assigned the collateral duty of MAA is entirely accurate.

Quotes
Buddusky: If this guy gets pussy out of this, I'm gonna eat my fucking flat hat, man.
Mulhall: Yeah, and I'm going to start chanting too.
Meadows: [returns to table with Mulhall and Buddusky] Hey, you guys? Drop your socks and grab your cocks. We're going to a party.

Connections
Featured in At the Movies: Body Rock/Irreconcilable Differences/A Soldier's Story/Love Streams (1984)

Soundtracks
Never Let The Left Hand Know
by Jack Goga

User reviews149

Featured review

8/10

Touching, very well acted film

Two older, grizzled sailors, transport a baby faced, vulnerable young sailor to 8 years in prison for stealing $40.

The acting is very good, especially Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid, and the film has lots of wonderful moments and details.

That said, I've never loved it quite as much as many others do. It feels a bit sappy at times, 'cute' at others, and the story feels a bit too predicable.

We know the two old salts will soften and come to care for their charge, and they will all bond before the journey ends.

Without the high level of talents involved, that predictability could have sunk the film, but the brio of Nicholson, the sure hand of director Hal Ashby, and Robert Towne's salty, idiosyncratic script keep it afloat and always worth watching, if not quite rising to 'great film' level for me