Jack Nicholson wears an unidentified watch

Jack Nicholson plays SM1 Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky in The Last Detail, a career Navy man assigned to escort a young sailor to military prison for a petty theft that got him eight years. Nicholson and Otis Young play the two petty officers who decide their prisoner deserves better than a quiet trip to the brig, so they take him drinking, get him in a bar fight, and find him a prostitute before delivering him to his cell. Hal Ashby directed the 1973 film, which earned Nicholson an Oscar nomination and helped build his reputation for playing characters who push back against authority. Robert Towne's script captures the rhythm of working-class male friendship without romanticizing what these men actually do for a living. Nicholson plays Buddusky as someone who knows the system is unfair but lacks the courage to do anything more than rage against it. His watch has not been identified.