“The Last Detail,” Hal Ashby’s 1973 masterpiece about the road trip and toxic friendship which developed between three Navy sailors has aged like fine wine over the years, turning into an elegy for the country’s loss of innocence post-Vietnam. Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid‘s incredible performances drove the narrative home with unexpectedly touching vitality, and the picture has cemented a place as one of the greats of 1970s American cinema.
“Last Flag Flying,” which premiered at the New York Film Festival, is set some 30 years after “The Last Detail” in 2003, when the war in Iraq was on everybody’s mind. Based on Darryl Ponicsan’s novel, who also collaborated with Linklater on the screenplay, it has Richard “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carell) reuniting with Former Marines Sal (Bryan Cranston) and Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne), but the mission this time is very different — they have to bury Doc’s son, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War. Arlington Cemetery is the destination and, with the assistance of his old buddies, they travel through the eastern part of the country to bring the casket “home.”
Director Richard Linklater’s “sequel” isn’t really a direct follow-up, so much as its meant to drive Ashby’s timeless themes, and its core soul, forward to a new era. Despite being set three decades later, the country’s imperilled moral battles haven’t changed a bit and, if anything, have considerably worsened.We spoke to the writer-director about the film, its relevance and his career.
How did this project begin?
Well, I read the book. Loved it, mostly because it was about how these two wars echo other. I also wanted to make a road trip movie. I first took a stab at making the film in 2006, but the Iraq War was still fresh in everybody’s minds. The timing wasn’t right. I felt the book had that conversational aspect which I have been doing in my own movies my entire career. It’s also what I consider to be my “war” movie, my kind of take on the genre, you know, guys talking, no battles [laughs]. It’s about reflection, they don’t usually make war movies about guys hanging out 30 years later. It’s always mission based and not about how it affected them years later. It also does maintain my obsessions with seeing life as a dark comedy where it’s kind of sad, but with humor on top of it.
Many of your movies, from “Dazed and Confused” to “Everybody Wants Some!!,” are about young people and the future that is ahead of them. This one’s about older people and how they’re haunted by their past. Did you notice this sudden shift as well?
Well, I am getting older [laughs]. I’m at the age where I am somewhat — although at times still looking forward — looking back more and more to the way things were. Although, I do find that kind of thinking has seeped into my work of late, especially in “Before Midnight” where you do have characters thinking about their future, but also looking back on the good times and what exactly happened. So, it’s slowly creeping into my work. I’m noticing that and I noticed that with this film as well, for sure.
That whole question of “Can you support the troops, but oppose the mission?” is really at the core of this film and it does feel relevant in this climate.
We have a President that decides to make it into such a black and white issue, but it’s not. He’s trying to make it into either you sit or you stand, there’s no complexity to this issue in his world. You have to really think harder and wiser here. These are questions that have been asked for years. Who owns the flag? Who really gets to say what it means? Who exactly is disrespecting it? Trump is simplistic and taken at face value, but with Obama, I’m sure you could have had him tackling the topic for half an hour or more in more nuanced and intelligent ways. Trump is just saying what comes in his head. It’s a half-assed way of describing the dilemma at hand. There’s an emptiness to it that strip the complexities of the issue. It’s such a complex relationship, society’s relationship to the military.
I want to address the connection this film has to “The Last Detail.” People have been touting it as a sequel, but I honestly didn’t think about that movie at all when watching “Last Flag Flying.”
I think it being billed as a “sequel” just happened when the film was announced and there was limited info about the movie and it just went from there. To tell you the truth, when we were filming, I don’t think “The Last Detail” was mentioned a single time on-set. That happened as well with “Everybody Wants Some!!” and it went from there. It was being marketed as a spiritual successor to “Dazed and Confused” by Paramount who really botched the release of that movie.
Although you do seem to love to revisit worlds and characters you created over the years, is there any other film of yours you’d love to revisit?
All of them. There are just so many I’d love to re-tackle. The ‘Dazed’ guys I’d love to revisit, you know, what happened to them when they reached adulthood. Obviously, we did it with Celine and Jesse. The only problem is that you have to ask yourself how can I pull it off and make sure it doesn’t feel like some kind of stunt. We more or less did it with “Everybody Wants Some!!,” as well, although in a very different way, and that’s probably the closest I’ll come to revisiting a world I had created. If it does happen I would hope it’s something that comes organically and unforced. Actually, have you seen the new Paul Schrader film with Ethan Hawke?
I have.
I haven’t yet, but I love what he did there, making his own kind of “spiritual successor” to “Taxi Driver.” At least from what I’ve read, [there’s] people saying that Ethan was a Travis Bickle-like character and that Schrader was revisiting those themes and that world he created 40 years ago.