Last Man Standing (1996)

[titoli]

"When a man with a Colt automatic meets a man with a Thompson, the man with the Colt is dead."

This is just to point out to one of the things that do not work with this remake of Yojimbo (well, so they say, for copòyright reasons. But it was FOD they were aiming at). You have Willis talking too much and what he says is generally bs. You don't have the phrases that etch themselves in your brain ("HAve three coffin ready"). Yes, Walken say the thing about shooting a man in the back, but it is too long.   

You have the action on the mexican border but you have both gangs dressed like they would in Chicago. And without the gardenias. Willis he's no different from them, visually, and so are the two gangs between them. That makes the movie visually unappealing. And the faces? Where are the Leone's faces: the Esteban, the Sambrell, the Brega?
The only actor doing a great job is Walken, but he's relegated in a very secondary role.

The score: let it go at that. 

[cigar joe]

Agreed, I couldn't get into this film either, I was hoping they would have really gone back to the source material and done Red Harvest, and shot it around the moonscapes and similar sheetholes around Anaconda & Butte (Poisonville), Montana.

That is a movie still crying out to be made, another good primary source for a Western film would be the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5737/

Some great pictures here, titoli, we had some paisanos there:

http://www.du.edu/anthro/ludlow/cfphoto.html

Acid & lead poisoned landscapes around Siverbow County & Butte Montana.









This is a similar moonscape in Nevada, beautiful but deadly

[titoli]

 I always thought of Poisonville as a urban environment, you want solid brick buildings around you. In LMS they thought they were smarter than Leone ("he did it, we'll make it better") and just didn't realize they were off track: what are doing two (american, the both of them) gangs in the midddle of the desert, dressed up all the time like they were in chicago?  The problem so it becomes of dresses: Leone, cleverly, could differentiate between americans and mexican: how you do that in a '20's urban landscape or, if you want to insist , in the lunary one you propose? Probably there is a solution to this, but it doesn't come to my mind right now. But a differentiation there must be.

[cigar joe]

Yes Butte was somewhat urban, a mixture of brick & wood with a thick spiderweb of telegraph and untilty poles over the streets with the head frames of mines sticking up all over the place but it was sticking up out of that poisoned moonscape of desolation

what are doing two (american, the both of them) gangs in the midddle of the desert, dressed up all the time like they were in chicago?  The problem so it becomes of dresses: Leone, cleverly, could differentiate between americans and mexican: how you do that in a '20's urban landscape or, if you want to insist , in the lunary one you propose? Probably there is a solution to this, but it doesn't come to my mind right now. But a differentiation there must be.

I think you would have had to break it up into nativists and foreigners along those lines possibly, the dress would be basically rancher/cowboy verses urban immigrant/miner.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.buttetours.info/headframe170.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.buttetours.info/links.htm&h=150&w=112&sz=6&hl=en&start=201&um=1&tbnid=fKmxduiVlUWzDM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=72&prev=/images%3Fq%3DOld%2BPhotos%2Bof%2BButte%2BMontana%26start%3D200%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGWYA,GWYA:2006-42,GWYA:en%26sa%3DN


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.photoseek.com/04MT-0021-NevadaCity-ChineseTemple1890Butte.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.photoseek.com/MTusa-GhostTowns.html&h=315&w=420&sz=72&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=XSvDpoAR-vvnZM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3DButte%2BMontana%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGWYA,GWYA:2006-42,GWYA:en

[The Firecracker]

Great pics CJ

[Tucumcari Bound]

Great pics CJ

Same here. Love the pics!

[cigar joe]

Walter Hill directed with

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


Bruce Willis plays the "samurai NWNN" character "John Smith". You see him first in what looks like a model A driving across the Texas desert its a short sequence, too short. From his narrative he is a man on the run possibly an ex gangster, not the Continental Op. Not a whole lot of Western Landscape featured in this film (if it had and opening sequence like the Cohen Bros. "No Country For Old Men" it would have definitely given it a more Western feel).

There are a few shots of the desert but they are not stunningly beautiful. It comes off as a result more like a gangster flick which is truer to Hammett's "Red Harvest" than both previous film adaptations. So Willis arrives in a town 50 miles from the Mexican border where most of the action takes place. This time around the two rival bootlegging gangs are Italian headed by Fredo Strozzi & Irish led by Doyle. Willis has an opening confrontation with the Irish led gang then meets the owner of a bar Joe Monday (William Sanderson the actor from the "Bob Newhart Show" and recently "Deadwood" who has basically the Silvanito part.

Willis arms himself with two Colt Automatics and goes out & does what approximates a "apologize to my mule" riff that comes off flat, there is no "get three coffins ready" line, nada, its not cool in the least. In fact the only reference to a coffin maker is a shot of bodies in the window of a funeral home and a smiling undertaker. Afterwards he offers his services to the Italians one of whom is played by Michael Imperioli from "The Sopranos".

It has almost all the major elements of AFOD & Yojimbo with extras added from Red Harvest, but it doesn't have the picaresque use dead bodies in AFOD. It does have the "Baxter Massacre" a burning road house sequence whose victims are the Italian gang (this is from two sequences in Red Harvest the first is a road house massacre the second is a bootleggers wearhouse. It does have an over use of a lot of automatic weapons which becomes redundant in every shootout and  there impact which should have been empathised becomes wastered down. Another missing in action element is the buildup tension before each showdown, Hill homages Peckinpah rather than Leone.

This film does have the Marisol character here called Felina minus her family, and adds two more "floozies" for good measure one is a love interest for Willis. It also has Bruce Dern as a crooked sheriff Ed Gault (which is loosely based on police chief Noonan in Red Harvest) but his character becomes a fusion of the Piperio & Sivanito parts in AFOD rather than the crook he is in Red Harvest. So we have almost two Silvanitos in "Last Man Standing.  Christoffer Walken plays "Hickey" a bad ass gangster/hitman aligned with the Irish gang who speaks in a harsh whisper and this character is actually based on "Whisper" from Red Harvest.

There is a scene where Smith (Willis) is beaten by the gang and left in a wearhouse with a ramp (just like in AFOD) but for some strange reason the ramp goes down from the doorway and its not used by Willis who simply just grabs one of the gangmen and uses his gun to shoot the other before making his escape.

There are some scenes shot through distorted glass that I noticed that created a impressionistic look to some shots but that was the extent of the creativity.

You'd think they would have at least tried to make something as good as either Yojimbo Or AFOD but they don't even come close.

Walter Hill was great on the Long Riders but since then hasn't really done anything outstanding in film save for Geronimo and one episode of Deadwood.

[Jill]

I found it very weak. No humor, no athmosphere...

I like Willis and Walken, but they weren't so well in this. Walken is awesome in The Deer Hunter, True Romance or Pulp Fiction, but this role wasn't deep enough. And they left out the best bonmot:

"When a man with a pistol meets a man with a Thompson..."

[cigar joe]

 

[O'Cangaceiro]

An ultra-violent remake of Yojimbo/AFOD. I might have enjoyed it more if I had not seen before the Kurosawa and the Leone versions, but in any case I don't think this movie is even close to the level of the other two. Besides, I found the brownish colour of the picture quite annoying.