October 21, 2007 - October 27, 2007

WTF and then some

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 25, 2007 5:38 PM

The Monday Movie Quiz #146

A good, old-fashioned horror movie for Halloween, with three frightening picture clues:

As Count Floyd would say, Scary stuff, eh, kids? Well, anyway, if you know the name of the film, send me an email by late Sunday. If you're right, you'll see your name in next week's homicidal, macabre winner's circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 22, 2007 2:09 AM

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Almost everyone who checked in with a winning answer this past week included at least one filthy line of dialogue from the movie in question, The Last Detail. That's because the movie contains almost nothing but profane conversation-- when it was released in 1973, this picaresque tale of two Navy police taking a sailor to prison was the foulest-mouthed movie yet made, and 34 years later, it still holds its own. Robert Towne's script was even held back (it was finished in 1970) because the language was too extreme for the times, but by the time he was free to rewrite it, the standards had relaxed enough to allow it uncut.

Even so, the intensity of Jack Nicholson's performance as shore policeman Bad Ass Buddusky makes his dialogue sound even more profane than it is. It's one of Jack's absolute best roles and he made the most of it-- besides delivering Towne's hilarious dialogue with deadpan perfection, he's also surprisingly physical in many of his scenes, and his unexpected explosions are great fun to watch. And while it seems ridiculous to describe a character who pulls a gun on a bartender while screaming "I am the motherfucking shore patrol!" as lovable, Nicholson does an amazing job of giving Bad Ass a kind-hearted center that makes him as appealing as any character he's ever played.

(And rather than fill the rest of this entry with a bunch of motherfucking cursing, here's a long page of quotes from the movie-- now, somebody needs to come up with a good Bad Ass soundboard page!)

The Last Detail is also one of Hal Ashby's finest moments, proving that a director who knows how to work with actors and tell a story doesn't need cinematic pyrotechnics of any kind. And it's also not a one-actor film: Randy Quaid, as the poor 18-year-old schnook sentenced to eight years for stealing $40, deserved that year's Oscar more than the monolithic and monotoned John "Paper Chase" Houseman, and Otis Young's performance as the other SP, "Mule" Mulhall, was just as good. (It also has a few early appearances of people who would break out later, like Michael Moriarty, Carol Kane, and Gilda Radner.)

Lots of answers this week, and I was glad to see so many people remembered this film. So congratulations and a hot dog with no fuckin' bun to the following winners: Vince Tuss, Wayne Palmer, Joe Rosenberg, Song-Un Lee, John Seffl, Ron Frigstad, Jack Sparks, Sharon Nordskog, mick, Bill Kelly, Gus Mastrapa, Bill Hearne, Justin Cullen-Benson, Mark Gisleson, Michael Mattson, Donald Greene, Bob Redwing, Stephen Jessup, Thomas Miller, Bill McLaughlin, The Curmudgeon, Nick Bortell, Tim McDonough, E. Yarber, Bob Aulert, Stacy Sarette, Gene Miller, Kevin Musolino, and ap.

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 22, 2007 12:23 AM

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