Last Man Standing (1996)

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.

Director:

Walter Hill

Writers:

Ryûzô Kikushima (story), Akira Kurosawa (story),

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Bruce Dern, William Sanderson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

John Smith is an amoral gunslinger in the days of Prohibition. On the lam from his latest (unspecified) exploits, he happens upon the town of Jericho, Texas. Actually, calling Jericho a town would be too generous--it has become more like a ghost town, since two warring gangs have 'driven off all the decent folk.' Smith sees this as an opportunity to play both sides off against each other, earning himself a nice piece of change as a hired gun. Despite his strictly avowed mercenary intentions, he finds himself risking his life for his, albeit skewed, sense of honor....

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Plot Keywords:

prohibition | warring gangs | mafia | irish | hired gun | 

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Taglines:

If you lived in this town, you'd be dead by now.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive strong violence and some sexuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

20 September 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gundown

Filming Locations:

Cook Ranch, Galisteo, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$67,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

ITL 462,620,000 (Italy) (15 November 1996)

Gross:

$18,127,448 (USA) (20 December 1996)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eclipse Catering, Lone Wolf, New Line Cinema

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

James Remar was Walter Hill's original choice for the role of Hickey, but the studio chose Christopher Walken for the part.

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Goofs

When John Smith is talking to Strozzi's girlfriend in the car in front of Slim's he asks her a question. His lips are obviously not moving when he asks the question.

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Quotes

[first lines]
John Smith: It's a funny thing. No matter how low you sink there's still a right and wrong. You always end up choosing. You go one way so you can try to live with yourself. You go the other, you'd still be walkin' around, but you're dead and you don't even know it.

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Connections

Referenced in Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

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Soundtracks

"How Long, How Long Blues"
Written by Leroy Carr
Performed by Ry Cooder

User Reviews

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.