Everybody loves Jack! The Shining. Chinatown. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. As Good As It Gets. Up there with Pacino, De Niro and Hoffman as one of the actors of his generation, with more charisma than the other three put together. The most nominated male actor in Oscar history, with three wins to his name. Hes worked with some of the best directors in cinema, including Huston, Scorsese, Polanski, Kazan and Kubrick. Not a bad CV. In amongst those critically acclaimed performances in celebrated movies, theres a lesser-known film which features my favourite Nicholson role the underrated and seldom seen The Last Detail. Directed by Hal Ashby (Shampoo, Harold and Maude), the film tells the simple story of two Navy officers who are assigned to escort a young kleptomaniac sailor to the naval brig in Boston. Seaman Meadows (Randy Quaid) has been sentenced to eight years in prison for attempting to steal the paltry sum of $40 from a polio charity box, which just happens to be the favourite do-good project of the commanding officers wife. Meadows fucked over charity, and for that he gets fucked over by the Navy. Nicholson plays Billy Bad Ass Buddusky, who, along with fellow officer Mule Mulhall (Otis Young), has been charged with escorting the prisoner across country for the five-day trip to Boston. While Mulhall bemoans his luck at landing this chicken-shit detail, Buddusky the hustler sees the trip as an opportunity for some leave time, planning to complete the escort in two days, using the remaining three days to party at the Navys expense. Like all good road movies, those plans quickly fall by the wayside, as the two officers begin to sympathise with their charge, deciding instead to give him a good send-off before his prison term begins. Meadows is naïve, virginal and unworldly, and Buddusky sees it as his personal duty to give the young seaman some life lessons before his impending incarceration. What follows is the re-education of Meadows, as he is schooled in standing up for himself, drinking beer, fist fights and whorehouses. Some critics have described Nicholsons performance in The Last Detail as a practise run for the role of Randle P McMurphy in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Theres the same riling against the establishment in both roles, as Buddusky is constantly spoiling for a fight with anyone who stands in his way or tells him no. Buddusky, like McMurphy, is always on edge and dangerously unpredictable, instigating a brawl with a group of marines, and pulling a gun on a barman who refuses to serve Navy personnel. But theres more to this role than Nicholsons trademark borderline insanity.
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Theres a complexity to Buddusky that suggests a lifetime full of frustrations and disappointments, and its this sense of lifes injustice that forces him to stand up and fight Meadows corner. If he doesnt, no-one else will. In one scene where Buddusky voices his fears over what brutality awaits Meadows in the Marine run prison, you wonder whether he himself was once a victim of the same treatment from establishment bullies. Its a heartbreaking moment of softness from a man torn between his sympathy for Meadows plight, and his duty to deliver him to the prison gates. Nicholson went on to win best actor awards at Cannes and Bafta, but has since spoken of his disappointment at losing the Academy Award, stating
"I like the idea of winning at Cannes with The Last Detail, but not getting our own Academy Award hurt real bad. I did it in that movie, that was my best role".
Despite Nicholsons brilliance, this is a very much an ensemble cast, with Otis Young and Randy Quaid both turning in career best performances. Young is brilliant as the low-key Mulhall, just a man trying to do a job whilst simultaneously fighting a losing battle to keep Buddusky under control. Randy Quaid plays Meadows with an endearing childlike tenderness, mischievously stealing anything thats not nailed down from candy bars to carrots, but too timid to complain to a waiter who gets his order wrong. Directed with unfussy naturalism by Hal Ashby, much of the pleasure derived from The Last Detail is in the small moments, such as Meadows joyously trying to ice skate for the first time, or Mulhall and Budduskys drunken attempts to unfold their camp beds a brilliant piece of visual comedy straight out of Chaplin or Keaton. The real star of this film, though, is the script written by Robert Towne (Chinatown, The Parallax View).
Full of all the sharp acerbic dialogue youd associate with Navy life (Mulhall: You gotta be shitting me? Master-at-Arms: I wouldnt shit you. Youre my favourite turd.), the script bristles with the anti-establishment, stick it to The Man tone youd expect from a movie made in 1970s America, under the shadow of the Vietnam conflict. With a blend of comedy, tragedy and social commentary reminiscent of Dog Day Afternoon, its about time The Last Detail went on to experience a similar renaissance amongst modern audiences.