The Last Detail

Director: Hal Ashby

1973 / 104min / DCP

Assigned to escort a 18-year-old seaman (Randy Quaid) from Norfolk, Virginia, to an eight-year stint in the brig at Portsmouth Naval Prison incurred for a petty theft, Navy lifers “Badass” Buddusky and “Mule” Mulhall (Jack Nicholson, at his most uproarious, and Otis Young) resolve to show the kid a good time, which involves boozing, brawling, barbecuing, and a trip to a brothel, to spend the night with a sex worker played with a slightly dopey sweetness by Kane, in one of her earliest roles. A downbeat, bitterly funny peak of New Hollywood cinema from Ashby, with cinematographer Michael Chapman capturing the palpable chill of northeastern winter.