The Story Archive

The Last Detail

Hal Ashby · 1973 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

Two career navy men draw the job of escorting an eighteen-year-old sailor from Norfolk to a New Hampshire brig, where eight years wait for him over forty dollars taken from a charity box. They have a week of travel allowance and decide to spend it showing him what he is about to lose. Its profanity was unprecedented for a studio release, and Columbia spent months trying to have the dialogue cut.

Open The Last Detail in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Attributes

Genre
TragicomedyComing-of-Age
Theme
Duty & HonorFellowshipFreedom vs FateIndividual vs Society
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanAlly / CompanionInnocent
Plot structure
EpisodicIronic Reversal
Symbol / motif
The JourneyThe PrisonThe Train
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
ComicElegiac
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues