‘I consider myself in jeopardy with you man…’
In 1973 Jack Nicholson was riding high from Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, but he was still a year away from wowing audiences in Chinatown, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining were even further away in the distance. The Last Detail is one of the forgotten films from this era of Nicholson’s career, but I’m here to tell you that it is vastly underrated and underseen…
Buddusky (Nicholson) and Mulhall (Otis Young) are charged with transporting Meadows, (Randy Quaid) a young offender, to prison, and so they take it upon themselves to show the kid a good time. This mainly involves eating, drinking and whoring their way across America.
Nicholson had yet to fully develop his onscreen persona at this point, but Buddusky is only a few strands of DNA away from McMurphy or Jack Torrance. His Buddusky is a hard drinking, cigar chomping renegade, a man just as likely to sock you in the face than give you a kiss. Nicholson excels at playing these types of characters and he has a lot of fun here. This is far from a one man show, however. Quaid matches him every step of the way, and both of them were nominated for Oscars for their performances. Otis Young also does a great job as the only sane voice of the operation, and the three of them together create some real magic, culminating in a film that is funny, poignant and extremely watchable.
I haven’t always loved Nicholson’s early work, but for those who like to see the iconic actor at his most deranged, The Last Detail has a lot to recommend it. An underrated gem.