Two Navy officers, Billy Buddasky and Mulhall “The Mule,” are assigned to deliver petty thief Larry Meadows to a Boston jail. Along the way, they learn that Larry, 18, received eight years in prison for trying to steal $40 from a donation box. Deeply sympathetic to their “ward,” who has not had time to enjoy all the joys of life, Baddasky and Mulhall decide to cheer the boy up and give him an unforgettable holiday…
4k movies reviews
Such films, unfortunately, are forgotten. They don’t make the National Register of the Library of Congress, they don’t become cult films. ‘The Last Outfit’ is lucky in that sense. The great Nicholson acted in a lot of films, of varying quality, but, goodness, now all of them will remain because, in one way or another, he had something to do with them. And goodness, this particular film will remain somewhere in a corner, but will not be lost.
Why are such films forgotten? They don’t satisfy anyone. For critics, it is too crude, simple and vulgar. For the audience, it is a bit complicated and sad. For connoisseurs of auteur cinema there’s no concrete message (like ‘Hippie bikers – symbols of freedom’ or ‘There’s a God, because Vincent Vega was murdered’). All in all, quite ambiguous.
This film is utterly simple, and in that simplicity hides utter complexity. It’s a film about real, live people, unscripted and unscripted, whose roles aren’t written. These people are not politically correct, they let themselves be disrespected by silly religious sects, they don’t care about politics, they are indifferent to both Vietnam and Nixon and world peace. They don’t have to shout slogans from the screen, and they are far from being ‘symbols of freedom,’ like Fonda and Hopper in ‘Easy Rider. No romantic delusions. They’re just forced sailors, part of the system, a cog in the war machine. But they are also human beings who have little joys besides wanting all the politicians to leave their quarrels and embrace each other. They like to eat, drink, tell nonsense to girls, have sex. But most importantly, they can be free in the little things that many people just stumble into, continuing to diligently advocate for freedom of the spirit.
A fantastic performance by Nicholson, one of his best roles. He’s much more McMurphy in it than he was in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest,’ and more importantly, much deeper. Here, he is what he needed – a simple sailor, with soul, with cunning, not stupid, spitting on flaccid authority, and with a huge, deeply hidden desire for justice. For it was not from the cold that he huddled in the collar of his jacket, but from his impotence in the face of an influx of circumstances. He cannot solve the problem, he can only delay it. And because of this he becomes enraged, but angry not so much at the circumstances as at himself.
It is a rare film for its time, though even more so today. They don’t make films like this now, and I don’t think they will.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (82.7 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH.
