The Last Detail
1973 film by Hal Ashby
The Last Detail is a 1973 comedy drama film in which two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison but they decide to show him one last good time along the way.
- Directed by Hal Ashby. Written by Robert Towne, based on the novel by Darryl Ponicsan.
No *#@!!* Navy's going to give some poor **!!@* kid eight years in the #@!* brig without me taking him out for the time of his *#@!!* life.
- [to Meadows] Boy, they really stuck it to ya, didn't they, kid! Stick it in and break it off. Up your giggy with a wah-wah brush, stick it in an' break it off.
- [to Meadows] Welcome to the wonderful world of pussy, kid.
Gunner's Mate First Class Richard "Mule" Mulhall
edit- I hate this detail. I hate this fucking chickenshit detail!
- [to Buddusky] I consider myself in jeopardy with you man, understand? In jeopardy. This ain't no farewell party n' he ain't retirin'. Understand? He's a prisoner n' we're takin' 'im to the jailhouse. N' you have a tendency to forget that. You're a menace, man. You ain't no simple shit Bad-Ass, you're a motherfuckin' menace. But from now on, MAA can go piss up a rope! You ain't no honcho! N' I wanna hear no more of this horseshit psychology jive! No more turnin' that boy's head around to prove what a fuckin' big man you are! You're a lifer like me! Navy's the best thing ever happened to me, n' I don't want'cha to fuck me up, y'understand?
Dialogue
edit- Mulhall: We'd better catch that train.
- Buddusky: We still got time for a beer.
- Mulhall: Now wait a minute, man...
- Meadows: I ain't old enough.
- Buddusky: Ain't old enough for what?
- Meadows: For a beer.
- Buddusky: Everybody's old enough for a beer. Ain't that right, Mule?
- Mulhall: Yeah.
- Buddusky: I am the motherfucking shore patrol, motherfucker! I am the motherfucking shore patrol! Give this man a beer.
- Meadows: I don't want a beer.
- Buddusky: You're gonna have a fuckin' beer!
- Meadows: Hey, you guys mind if I say somethin'? That guy at the bar, why did you get so mad at him? I don't blame him not givin' me a beer.
- Buddusky: Hey, don't you never get mad at nobody?
- Meadows: Well, sure I do, yeah.
- Mulhall: Who do you get mad at?
- Meadows: Not at somebody who's doing their job.
- Buddusky: Who, then?
- Meadows: Injustice.
- Buddusky: Bullshit! You never get mad at nobody. You're just a pussy!
- Meadows: I do too get mad.
- Mulhall: Did you ever get mad at the old man for what he done to you?
- Meadows: Well, he was just...
- Buddusky: ...doin' his job. Hey, they're gonna take eight years outta your life, man.
- Meadows: Six years. You said six!
- Buddusky: Hey, what the fuck difference does it make? You don't even care about it.
- Mulhall: Come on, Badass, that don't help him.
- Buddusky: Fuck help, fuck fair! Fuck injustice! Don't you ever just wanna fuckin' whomp and stomp on someone, bite off their ear, just to do it...? I mean just to do it, just to get it out of your system?
- Buddusky: Now don't worry about a thing. I'm hustling this guy, you understand? I got him right where I want him.
- Mulhall: Maybe he's hustling you.
- Buddusky: Yeah. Maybe he is, but, uh, this is not the time to argue about because if I don't win, we don't leave New York, huh?
- Meadows: [looking at porn] Are they really doing that when they take that picture?
- Buddusky: [pause] Well kid, there's more things in this life than you can possibly imagine. I knew a whore once in Wilmington. She had a glass eye... used to take it out and wink people off for a dollar.
- [A woman hears Meadows chanting and invites him to a party.]
- Meadows: Drop your socks and grab your cocks, we're going to a party.
- Buddusky: If this kid gets pussy out of this, I'll eat my fucking flat hat, man.
- Meadows: If you're Catholic, do you think it's, uh, sacrilegious to chant?
- Buddusky: Did it get you laid?
- Meadows: No.
- Buddusky: Then Meadows, what the fuck do you want to go on chanting for?
- Mulhall: Chant your ass off, kid. But any pussy you get in this world, you gonna have to pay for, one way or another.
- Buddusky: Hallelujah!
- Young Whore: Jesus Christ! That's what I call quick.
- [Meadows has just prematurely ejaculated.]
- Buddusky: You wanna try it again, kid?
- Meadows: Yeah.
- Buddusky: [to prostitute] Okay, honey.
- Mulhall: Don't worry about it, kid... plenty more where that came from.
- Buddusky: We got all night, kid.
- Mulhall: You ever been married?
- Buddusky: Not so you'd notice.
- Meadows: After... after... well maybe it was an act for her. I mean I know she was a whore. But I think she liked me.
- Buddusky: They got feelings just like everybody else, kid; she probably did.
- Meadows: Well, it was real for me. That's what counts.
- Buddusky: He don't stand a chance in Portsmouth, you know. You know that, don't you? Goddamn grunts, kickin' the shit outta him for eight years... he don't stand a chance.
- Mulhall: I don't want to hear about it.
- Buddusky: "Maggot" this, "maggot" that... Marines are really assholes, you know that? It takes a certain kind of a sadistic temperament to be a Marine.
Cast
edit- Jack Nicholson - Signalman First Class Billy L. "Bad Ass" Buddusky
- Otis Young - Gunner's Mate First Class Richard "Mule" Mulhall
- Randy Quaid - Seaman Laurence M. "Larry" Meadows
- Clifton James - M. A. A.
- Carol Kane - Young Whore
- Michael Moriarty - First Lieutenant Marine Duty Officer
- Nancy Allen - Nancy
- Gilda Radner - Nichiren Shoshu Member
- Jim Hohn - Nichiren Shoshu Member
- Luana Anders - Donna
External links
edit- The Last Detail quotes at the Internet Movie Database
- The Last Detail at Rotten Tomatoes