Dernier recours

This film is a bit of an oddity. A remake of a remake, the story is so obvious you are never surprised by events, but the gunfights are pretty entertaining and Christopher Walken's turn as the husky baddie Hickey is suitably menacing. Also the fact that the attractive brunette has a completely pointless scene where she is topless in front of the mirror is a bonus. :) The camera work is stylish and the discordant guitar riffage of Mr.Ry Cooder is superb, the pace is slow but not sluggish and you can almost feel the heat and dust. This film is good but not great. Er... that's it.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - When the Last Man standing first came out, it was hard not to make the connection between that film and Yojimbo (since Yojimbo's script was credited -although not the original source for Yojimbo, an American crime novel, red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammet - Yojimbo's Kurosawa also forgot to credit in his film). But even a critic as astute as Roger Ebert only thought the film was only 'similar' to "Fistful of Dollars" even though the plots of the two films have more in common than that of this film and Yojimbo.

Since then, I have watched all the films several times. Now is as good a time as any to reflect on the matter again.

The Last Man Standing does not hold up as well as I had hoped; the saturated sepia tones of the film now appear to be a mannerist affectation. It was certainly a transitional film for Willis - the role is pretty heavy - but the Sixth Sense rewrote the book on Willis far better than any of his other off-cast roles could, since (unlike the others) it never made any pretense at being an action film. The voice over is a little pretentious. And its clear that Hill let the Gothic tone of the film overwhelm his efforts at black comedy. And oddly enough, despite its violence the film could use more action.

Yet the film remains historically important, if nothing else, because it now appears to have been the last of a cycle. Although even Jean-Claude Van Damme actually appeared in a "Yojumbo" clone - "Desert Heat" - and there have been other attempts to revive Hammett's essential narrative (e.g. the "Doom" robot film by Albert Pyun) the fact remains that the nameless outsider quick on the draw is fast slipping into the realm of pure 20th century myth. He doesn't really belong in the era of Computer graphics, invasions of Iraq, wars against non-existent terrorism. His blood is part whiskey, but it's human blood; and he may be a killer, but he won't be a party to genocide. He's too real, and yet too good, for the 21st century rushing in on us.

I take the darkly sepia-toned Last Man Standing as a final farewell to a hero of the previous century, just as Hitchcock's 39 Steps effectively said farewell to the romantic adventurer of the 19th century. Every era has its heroes; and it is sad that Sanjuro/John Smith/the Man with No Name can no longer be one of ours. It's probably too much to ask, but hopefully someone better - or at least as good - will come along.

-E. J. Winner.

This is simply what the above headline states: an ultra-violent movie done is stylish cinematography. Walter Hill, a nasty director who does this sort of thing (violent, profane films but usually with great visual appeal) did it in spades on this one. This is testosterone gone berserk.....and very entertaining.

Actually, I enjoy watching this film and don't apologize for it, although it has no "redeeming qualities." However, I love the old-fashioned narration, here done by Bruce Willis in great Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer-style, the period in which it's done (1930s) and the great colors in here. Love those orange colors!! This looks tremendous on DVD with a good flat-screen set.

If I'm feeling in the need of seeing a violent crime film, this usually fills the bill. It's a fun flick. I could do worse.

This movie is a Gangster remake of Clint East Wood's A Fistful of Dollars which is a Western remake of Yojimbo which is a samurai adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Red Harvest. When adapting the first time Akira Kurosawa changed the amount of gangs involved from 4 to 2. Every version since then has had only 2. The Continental Op, The Man With No Name, Mifune's Samurai, and Bruce Willis's John Smith. All Nameless. All working all sides to their own end.

As this is the only gangster version of this story, I like this movie very much, though I would like to see a more accurate version of the Red Harvest. When deciding who should play the Continental Op, none come to mind more than Bruce Willis, which of course brings me back to liking Last Man Standing. Not as pretty as those that came before, but pretty cool.

I've become a big fan of Walter Hill's movies and this one is as good as ever. It's not a particularly cheery film, but it's still enjoyable. Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken are both terrific in their roles. Walken plays as good a bad guy as ever, and Willis is good as the ambiguous lead character.

The gun battles are staged excellently and the music by Ry Cooder works very well with the picture. It's very much a guy film, though. There are only two women who play big parts in the film, but they don't appear very often.

I give LMS 7/10. It's a moody piece but enjoyable.