The Last Detail  (1973)    69/100

Rating :   69/100                                                                     104 Min        18

Starring a young Randy Quaid, a youngish Jack Nicholson, and Otis Young, ‘The Last Detail’ follows the exploits of three US marines as two of them are put in charge of escorting the third across the country to Portland, where he is due to begin serving an eight year prison sentence for the grand crime of attempting to steal forty dollars from a collection fund for Polio victims. The harsh sentence forms the primer for the relationships that evolve and, despite the unrestored film quality looking decidedly dated, the story and the three leads have enough strength to make this an interesting and noteworthy film. Unfazed at being almost comically dwarfed by the physical stature of his two companions, this is a quintessential performance of Jack Nicholson being, well, Jack Nicholson, whose impish impiety finds itself more than at home in the body of a sailor on a road trip to an earthly hell.

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