The Last Detail is the first of three Jack Nicholson movies from the 70’s to make this list.  There were a couple more that probably just missed.  He was on a role that decade and I guess has been ever since.  The movie was directed by Hal Ashby who while not having a particularly long resume as a director; has a very distinguished one.  He directed such classics as Harold and Maude, Shampoo, Being There and this movie The Last Detail.

The movie is about two veteran Navy sailors (one of which being Jack), escorting a young sailor played by Randy Quaid to military prison because of a botched robbery attempt on a small amount of charity money.  They are given a lot of time to get him to jail, so Nicholson’s character Billy “Bad Ass” Budduscky decides they may as well take their time and make a little vacation out of it.  It’s fun at the beginning, but the two Navy lifers soon realize that Quaid’s character, Meadows who isn’t even 20 does not deserve the eight years he was sentenced for stealing a mere 40 dollars.  They then try to teach him life lessons as they get him drunk and laid.  The fun does eventually end though.  The two men form somewhat of a bond with the teenage sailor and have a hard time sending him to prison for such a minimal crime.

This sometimes hilarious and sometimes thought provoking movie takes its shots at the bureaucracy of the system, so there is more to it than just being a road movie.  The film is owned though by the dialogue written for screen by the great Robert Towne and the energetic performance of Jack.  He is vulgar, filled with rage and a loose cannon while at the same time sensitive and understanding.  No one could have played this role better.