Jack Nicholson · 1973 · Signature Roles
Billy “Badass” Buddusky is a Navy petty officer given a simple job: escort a young sailor, Larry Meadows, to prison for a petty theft.
Billy “Badass” Buddusky is a Navy petty officer given a simple job: escort a young sailor, Larry Meadows, to prison for a petty theft. Nicholson plays Buddusky as a profane, funny, basically decent man who decides the kid deserves one last good time before eight years behind bars.
What follows is a road movie of small kindnesses and bad decisions: beers, a visit to a brothel, a night in a hotel, a beating from Marines that reminds everyone the system is still waiting. Nicholson’s gift here is warmth — Buddusky’s affection for Meadows feels real, which makes the ending, when duty finally wins, genuinely painful.
It earned Nicholson another Oscar nomination, and it remains one of the great buddy films: a comedy about compassion that refuses to pretend compassion changes the outcome.