Last Man Standing (1996/I)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Walter Hill

Writers (WGA):

Ryuzo Kikushima (story) and
Akira Kurosawa (story) ...

Release Date:

20 September 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

There are two sides to every war. And John Smith is on both of them.

Plot:

A drifting gunslinger-for-hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town.

Plot Keywords:

Prohibition | Hired Gun | Mafia | Gun | Honor

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	John Smith
Bruce Dern	...	Sheriff Ed Galt
William Sanderson	...	Joe Monday
Christopher Walken	...	Hickey
David Patrick Kelly	...	Doyle
Karina Lombard	...	Felina
Ned Eisenberg	...	Fredo Strozzi
Alexandra Powers	...	Lucy Kolinski
Michael Imperioli	...	Giorgio Carmonte
Ken Jenkins	...	Capt. Tom Pickett
R.D. Call	...	Jack McCool
Ted Markland	...	Deputy Bob
Leslie Mann	...	Wanda
Patrick Kilpatrick	...	Finn
Luis Contreras	...	Comandante Ramirez

Also Known As:

Gundown (USA) (working title)
Welcome to Jericho (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong violence and some sexuality.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Iceland:16 | Germany:16 (w) (re-rating) | Germany:18 (cinema rating) | USA:R (certificate #34190) | Singapore:M18 | Philippines:PG-13 | UK:15 (re-rating) (2008) | Netherlands:16 | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Cook Ranch, Galisteo, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Eclipse Catering

Trivia:

This movie, like Per un pugno di dollari (1964), is a retelling of the story in Yojimbo (1961), which is itself based on Dashiell Hammett's 1927 novel "Red Harvest".

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: (From 1:13:30 to 1:13:40) In the opening scenes of "Ira, You Are The Man", the sprinkler system used to make it rain has two of the sprinkler heads and piping clearly visible at the top of the screen where the lightning is flashing.

Quotes:

John Smith: I'm surprised you aren't mad at me... I thought you might hold it against me for killing 3 of your guys.
Doyle: It's the only cure I know for being stupid.

Movie Connections:

References Wild Bill (1995)

Soundtrack:

Denver Blues

Bruce Willis doing The Red Harvest

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.