Already in this century, more than three decades after Hil Ashby’s adaptation of the novel of the same name by Darryl Ponixen, TotalFilm magazine placed “The Last Dress” in the top 50 first-class films that you have not even heard of. And in his own way, sadly enough, he was right.
Today, few people remember this film, although in 1974 it was nominated for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which we know better by the name of its prize statuette - Oscar, in three nominations. Jack Nicholson, who played the role of one of the escorts, non-commissioned officer Billy Baddaskey in The Last Dress, for Best Actor. Randy Quaid - for Best Supporting Actor (demoted sailor Lawrence Andrew Meadows). And Robert Towne, who has already written scripts for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The New Centurions (1972) and Chinatown, which was released in the same year, for best adapted screenplay.
However, none of the statuettes “Last dress” never received. But not because the movie is bad. No, as far as I'm concerned, Hill Ashby made a really amazing picture. Another thing is that it does not have what attracts film critics so much - the plot scope, sophistication of feelings, pathosity or at least the heroic component in the characters of the main characters.
Everything in the film is simple and ordinary. Two non-commissioned officers, Billy Buddasky (Jack Nicholson) and Newell Mulhall (Otis Young), kill time in the dormitory of temporary personnel at the US Navy base in Norfolk, waiting for the commander fathers to finally decide on their new place of duty, are assigned to the outfit. The escort to the military prison of Portsmouth sentenced to eight years in prison of the demoted sailor Larry Andrew Meadows (Randy Quaid).
Of course, both non-commissioned people do not want to get out of such a familiar, habitual, and therefore, as for their taste, a cozy hostel is enough and, changing from buses to trains, making transit transfers in Washington and Boston, dragging across half the country to this damn Portsmouth. But what can you do, an order is an order. And it's non-negotiable. It has to be done. And the guys get a pistol with a clip of live ammunition, the keys to handcuffs for each handcuff, the handcuffs themselves (one for the demoted sailor), actually escorted, and go on a long journey.
And here, at the very beginning of this journey, a lot of interesting things come out.
Turns out, escorted Larry Meadows isn't that bad. At least he didn't kill anyone. I didn't even steal. I didn't have time to steal it. He was convicted of attempting to steal forty dollars from a donation box. And he doesn't need any dollars at all! He had money in his account at the time of the theft. That's when, by court order, everything Larry had in his account was confiscated. Here we go. Not only did he not steal, but he lost what he had.
Eight years in prison for forty dollars... And all because the wife of his commander is a well-known charity, which every year is awarded the corresponding certificate. And then a sailor in the person of Larry, his attempt to steal from a donation box calls into question the next, annual recognition of the merits of a lady respected in Norfolk society. He wasn't trying to steal four dozen coins. He deliberately wanted to dishonor one, or rather one of those who enter the caste of untouchables. Atu, Larry, atu! Eight years old!
And what purpose, if already in the first hours of the trip, both escorts perfectly see that both candy in the buffet at the bus station and a couple of carrots at the old woman they met at the train station, Larry steals against his will? He doesn't need them! Just as he didn’t need the car models he stole while still a citizen. Well, he never collected them. Just saw and... Stealed. Madows is not a criminal. He's a kleptomaniac. He should not be judged, he should be treated. That's how it turned out.
Eight years... Almost three thousand days behind bars. Away from everything we call life. But the worst part is that Larry doesn’t understand what he’s missing. Because of his age (he’s only 18!), he doesn’t know what life is. And what an amazingly interesting thing she is. Larry has never fought or drank a beer in his life. I've never been with a woman.
All this short emergency course of knowledge of life in practice and conduct for Meadows his convoy. They, all together, drink beer, beat the faces of the Marines in the toilet at one of the train stations, meet with girls, have a picnic with fried sausages ... They even end up in a Boston brothel. The road where, by the way, they are shown by a taxi driver who once served on a minesweeper. Long live the naval fraternity, with the help of which it is possible, if not to move mountains, then at least to turn a young man into a man!
A few days... Three sailors travel from Norfolk to Portsmouth. That's the whole movie. It would seem to be the most common road Movie. But no. This movie is about something else. How a person discovers the world around him. He grows up and understands what life is like. It can and should be appreciated.
Perhaps that is why I liked the Polish poster for the film, where from the back, which rests on the rods of the prison bars, a man in the form of a US military sailor is depicted. But the bars are from the back. And ahead, in the face of the main character of the film - a rainbow. The color of life. That, in my opinion, is the whole point of this amazingly heartfelt, a little sad, but at times quite funny picture. A movie with a human face, as they would say before.
Maybe that’s why, even before the final shots go on the screen, the viewer begins to realize that Larry, after he gets out of prison, will have a lot of different things. Because he has a whole life ahead of him.
And taught the guy to appreciate all these colors, smells and the very taste of life two non-commissioned officers. His escorts. Though I don't think I should have done that. They didn't have that order. But Billy and Newell did. They gave Larry something he never had. And it's not beer, it's not hot Boston hot dogs. And not even cheeseburgers with Larry's much-loved processed cheese. It's a taste for life. Which no one can take from him anymore. Even the Marines from Portsmouth Military Prison.
