International filmmakers have exerted great influence on
American movies. When Hollywood runs out
of fresh ideas, the major studios often turn to foreign films for
inspiration. Sometimes, a moviemaker
appears who can adapt a foreign film in such a revolutionary way that audiences
sits up and pay attention. Writer &
director Walter Hill manages this ambitious feat in his cinematic version of
the 1961 Japanese samurai epic “Yojimbo” by the brilliant director Akira
Kurosawa. Incidentally, “Yojimbo” translated
means “bodyguard.” In the 1950s and 1960s, Kurosawa emerges as one of the few
Asian filmmakers who commanded the respect of American audiences. His film grew popular in the West. Moreover, Kurosawa translated profitably in
western s. His films have served as the
basis for John Sturges’ 1960 classic “The Magnificent Seven,” Sergio Leone’s landmark
Spaghetti western “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), and now Walter Hill’s “Last
Man Standing.” Hill recycles the
venerable Kurosawa tale as a Prohibition Era gangster saga, casting Bruce
Willis as a tight-lipped soldier of fortune with two guns and an attitude. The story contains all the subtlety of a hail
of lead, and “Last Man Standing” erupts with the fury of an artillery barrage.
The remote setting of Jericho, Texas, exists in a moral
vacuum. The gangsters have scared away all
the good people and paid for the law as they have bought most of the
women. Women decorate the periphery of “Last
Man Standing’ in minor roles as hostages, whores, and mistresses. These unhappy
females are trapped in Jericho as male playthings and the consequences of
defiance carry a high price as one girl learns.
When John Smith (Bruce Willis of “Die Hard”) wheels his Ford into the
dusty, rundown town of Jericho, he is searching for a quiet place to lay low before
he vanishes into Mexico. What he encounters
are two greedy Chicago bootlegging clans competing for supremacy over the
illegal whiskey trade. Like Clint Eastwood in “A Fistful of Dollars,” Smith
smells money galore in “Last Man Standing” so he hires out his guns to the
highest bidders.
Smith plays the Italians and the Irish skillfully against
each other in a suspenseful game of cat and mouse. When he helps a young woman held hostage by
the Irish, Smith finally pays for his interference. The Irish gang, headed by Doyle (Daniel
Patrick Kelly), captures and stomps our protagonist until he resembles a
bruised tomato. Somehow, Smith endures this horrible beating and gets
away. Furiously, Doyle massacres the
Italian leader, Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg), and his gang at a roadhouse where the
Irish believe Smith has filed for protection.
Instead, Smith holes up out of town in a church to recover his strength. Jericho’s corrupt sheriff (Bruce Dern of “The
Cowboys”), decides to help Smith out by loaning him two guns. Smith takes the
hardware and challenges the Irish to a Wild West showdown.
As his own scenarist, director Walter Hill has kept most of
the original story intact. If you’re
looking for comparisons, you might find it easier to correlate “Last Man
Standing” with “A Fistful of Dollars” rather than “Yojimbo.” As the writer, Hill fumbles in making the
evil, Tommy-gun toting Hickey (Christopher Walken of “The Anderson Tapes”) a
henchman rather than the boss, as the corresponding character was in “A Fistful
of Dollars.” He is the only match
bullet-for-bullet with Smith. As Hickey, Christopher Walken adds another despicable
villain to his cinematic gallery of rogues, playing second fiddle to
Doyle. Hill generates minor suspense
when lesser characters refer to Hickey’s character and the hellishness that
always follows in his wake.
“Last Man Standing” is a raw, hard-bitten, little, B-move
shoot’em-up with A-class pretentions that pays homage to not only Kurosawa but
also stylishly imitates the excessive violence from recent Hong Kong crime
thrillers. If you want to compare it to
one of Bruce’s American thrillers, the Tony Scott directed bullet ballet “The
Last Boy Scout” (1991) is the best example.
Hill the writer doesn’t waste time contriving an elaborate plot that
hinges on small but crucial details.
When characters are not performing tasks on-screen, they are deployed
off-screen in plot related activities.
This is one who where what the characters do off-screen is of integral
importance to what others do on-screen.
cCompared with Clint Eastwood who played the Man with No
Name in “A Fistful of Dollars,” Bruce Willis here is the Man With Anybody’s
Name. As he reveals to the Italians, he
is simply John Smith from back East.
John Smith is a taciturn fellow.
He doesn’t make a big deal out of most things unless he finds his
expertise challenged. If you’re a Willis
fan, “Last Man Standing” isn’t Bruce as usual.
He is neither “Die Hard” Detective John McClane nor is he David Addison
from “Moonlighting.” He is a man of few words
and fewer wisecracks. Smith is an
unrepentant hardcase who admits as much without remorse during his opening
narration. Here Willis delineates the character
of Smith more out of what is left unsaid.
The film amounts to a genre mash-up: a period crime drama
crossed with a western. In it, the Old
West is a dying dream. The New West,
suggests Hill, is being taken over by business suits from back East with
hardware. Nevertheless, that Wild West
justice might be out of sight but it’s not entirely out of mind. Altogether, “Last Man Standing” qualifies as
a loud, bloody shoot’em-up that shouldn’t disappoint action fans.
