Last Flag Flying is worth looking for

For my money Hal Ashby was, if not the greatest, then certainly the most consistent American director of the Seventies. From The Landlord (1970) to Being There (1979) he scarcely put s foot wrong. One of his earlier efforts was The Last Detail (1973), a fine and somewhat overlooked film, in which veteran sailors Jack Nicholson and Otis Young have the job of escorting a young offender (Randy Quaid) to the brig. Given his youth and naivete they decide to show him a good time along the way.

The Last Detail was based on a novel by Darryl Ponicsan, as is Last Flag Flying. It also concerns two older servicemen – in this case Marines – acting as surrogate mentors to a younger man. So in that sense this Richard Linklater film is a sequel of sorts to the original; Linklater has referred to it as a ‘spiritual sequel’.

Sal (Bryan Cranston), Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) and Doc (Steve Carrell) served in Vietnam in 1973; possibly a nod to The Last Detail which was made in that year. They have lost touch, but Doc turns up out of the blue at Sal’s bar. He takes Sal to see Mueller who has now found religion and become a pastor. As they reminisce at Mueller’s house Doc drops a bombshell; his son has been killed in Iraq and he wants his old comrades to help him bring him home for burial.

When he finds out how his son died Doc decides to forego burial at the National Cemetery in Arlington and instead decides to take him back to Massachusetts for burial. So, aided by Sal and Mueller, and with his son’s Army buddy (J.Quinton Johnston) representing the Marines, they travel cross country to lay the boy to rest.

Part of my issue with Last Flag Flying is how uneven the film is. At times it’s very Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) with a touch of Grumpy Old Men (1993) thrown in. There are some comic moments – they are mistaken for terrorists, and they treat mobile phones like witchcraft – which just don’t work and seem out of place.

On the other hand, there are moments when it would take a heart of stone not to be moved.

I’m not a huge Linklater fan but he is very good at eliciting genuine human emotion from his cast and with three fine actors it would be strange if he wasn’t able to do that here. There is one glorious scene where the four principals are sitting telling war stories in a railway freight car next to the dead soldier’s coffin. It could be treacly, but it is genuinely funny and melancholic which only serves to highlight the profound sense of loss and waste that characterises the story.

Likewise, a final scene which could have been pure schmaltz is saved and rendered highly moving by Linklater’s handling of thee very good actors.

As a film, it is a little less than the sum of its parts. Fishburne’s performance is outstanding while there’s a wee bit too much of the professional pain in the butt about Cranston for me. Carrell, with perhaps the hardest role, delivers a performance that is absolutely on the money.

Last Flag Flying is a film about the suddenness of loss and the strength of comradeship. It is also something of a meditation on the nature of sacrifice; these Vietnam veterans look on Iraq as the Greatest Generation must have looked on Vietnam. ‘Each generation has its own war’, says Cranston ruefully while the film acknowledges how very little is achieved by those conflicts.

While far from perfect Last Flag Flying is much better than a lot of films out there. It has been overlooked by the awards bodies which is fair enough – they’re not important – but what is more disappointing is the way the film has been overlooked by distributors. You’re going to have to work hard to find a cinema screening this film, but I hope you find it’s worth the effort.