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Last Man Standing (film)
Encyclopedia
Last Man Standing is a 1996
action film
written and directed by Walter Hill, starring Bruce Willis
, Christopher Walken
, and Bruce Dern
. It is a credited remake
of the Akira Kurosawa
film Yojimbo.
-era Texas
, a mysterious character (later identifying himself as "John Smith") (Bruce Willis
) drives into Jericho, near the Mexican border. The town is virtually deserted except for two feuding bootleg
gangs – the Italians under Strozzi, and the Irish under Doyle – that have driven the other residents away, aside from the bartender Joe Monday (William Sanderson
), an undertaker, and a corrupt sheriff (Bruce Dern
), all of whom make their living by catering to Jericho's criminal elements.
Smith immediately establishes a reputation by outdrawing and killing Doyle's top shooter, a brazen act that gets the attention of both gangs. Smith promptly hires himself out to Strozzi's gang for what Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg
) predicts is an upcoming gang war. Seeing an opportunity to make some easy money while he is on the way to Mexico, he begins playing the two gangs against each other. This includes seducing Strozzi's mistress, Lucy (Alexandra Powers
) and slipping information to Doyle's gang through the Sheriff.
The gang war re-starts when Strozzi suborns a corrupt Mexican police captain escorting a convoy of Doyle's trucks through Mexico to Doyle (David Patrick Kelly
). The Mexican police murder Doyle's men and turn the trucks over to Strozzi.
Smith then quits Strozzi's gang and hires himself to Doyle's, bringing valuable information with him. Doyle's right-hand man, Hickey (Christopher Walken
), interrupts a meeting between the Mexican police captain and Strozzi's cousin Giorgio (Michael Imperioli
). After killing the captain (along with a corrupt Border Patrol officer), Hickey takes Giorgio hostage and Doyle demands that Strozzi give up his entire operation in exchange for him. Strozzi forces a stalemate by kidnapping Felina (Karina Lombard
), Doyle's captive mistress. Doyle agrees to exchange the two prisoners and the two gangs scatter.
Smith is summoned by the Sheriff to meet with Captain Tom Pickett (Ken Jenkins
) of the Texas Rangers, who is upset over the death of the Border Patrol officer. He warns that he can tolerate one gang in Jericho, but not two and if more than one remains in Jericho in ten days time, he will bring a squad of Rangers into Jericho and wipe out both gangs.
Lucy comes to Smith and reveals that Strozzi, angered after the exchange, beat her and had Giorgio cut her ear off when she revealed her affair with Smith. Smith gives her some money and puts her on a bus out of Jericho. The next day Smith relays a false rumor that Strozzi is bringing in more soldiers. Playing on Doyle's obsession with Felina, he makes Doyle afraid that Strozzi will try to kidnap her again, and Doyle orders Smith to the safehouse where Felina is. Smith kills the men guarding Felina and sends her away with a car and a roll of money.
The next day, Smith is waiting at the safehouse when Doyle arrives, and claims that he arrived too late, Strozzi's men had already killed the guards and abducted Felina. Doyle goes berserk and declares all-out war on Strozzi's gang.
Smith's plan goes awry when Hickey puts together the truth. Doyle imprisons Smith and has him tortured, demanding to know where Felina is. Smith refuses to talk. Later that night, he escapes by killing two of Doyle's men, and escapes town with the aid of Joe Monday and the Sheriff. As they are driving out of town, they see Doyle's gang slaughtering Strozzi's at a roadhouse. Strozzi and Giorgio are the last two to die.
Smith takes refuge at a remote church where Felina went to pray. Two days later, Sheriff Galt arrives and informs Smith that Joe was caught smuggling food and water to Smith and that Doyle will probably torture him to death. He then hands Smith his twin Colt .45s and informs him that that is all the help Smith can expect from him.
Smith returns to town and storms Doyle's headquarters, gunning down the remainder of his men and rescuing Joe. Doyle and Hickey are absent, having gone down to Mexico in a desperate search for Felina.
In the final scene, Doyle, Hickey and Sheriff Galt's corrupt deputy Bob, confront Smith at the burned-out remains of Strozzi's hideout. Doyle, still despondent over the loss of Felina, tells Smith they can be partners and begs him to reveal where to find her. Before he can get further, Joe shoots Doyle with an antique pistol, and Smith shoots Bob before he can retaliate.
Hickey drops his submachine gun and says he doesn't want to die in Texas ("Chicago maybe") and starts to walk away (as seen in the earlier scene with the Border Patrol officer, this is just a ploy to invite the other man to shoot him in the back, allowing Hickey to turn and gun him down). With lightning speed he turns and quickdraws a pistol from his holster, but Smith is faster, and kills Hickey.
Smith gets into his car and drives on to Mexico, his original destination. He reflects that he is as broke as he was when he first arrived, having given all the money he made off the two gangs to various women in order to get them out of town, including Felina and Lucy. However, he consoles himself that everyone in the two gangs is better off dead.
, grossing only a total $18,127,448 domestically by December 22, 1996, brought in only $47,267,001 worldwide, and received poor critical reviews. Common recurring complaints found in the negative reviews address the oppressive and depressing atmosphere of the film; the flat, almost monotonous personality of Willis' character between gunfights; and the film's Pyrrhic victory
finale. Roger Ebert
wrote:
film Yojimbo (1961), which was also remade by Sergio Leone
in A Fistful of Dollars
(1964) and John C. Broderick in The Warrior and the Sorceress
(1984).
1996 in film
Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
action film
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
written and directed by Walter Hill, starring Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
, Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
, and Bruce Dern
Bruce Dern
Bruce MacLeish Dern is an American film actor. He also appeared as a guest star in numerous television shows. He frequently takes roles as a character actor, often playing unstable and villainous characters...
. It is a credited remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
film Yojimbo.
Plot
In ProhibitionProhibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
-era Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, a mysterious character (later identifying himself as "John Smith") (Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
) drives into Jericho, near the Mexican border. The town is virtually deserted except for two feuding bootleg
Rum-running
Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...
gangs – the Italians under Strozzi, and the Irish under Doyle – that have driven the other residents away, aside from the bartender Joe Monday (William Sanderson
William Sanderson
William Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
), an undertaker, and a corrupt sheriff (Bruce Dern
Bruce Dern
Bruce MacLeish Dern is an American film actor. He also appeared as a guest star in numerous television shows. He frequently takes roles as a character actor, often playing unstable and villainous characters...
), all of whom make their living by catering to Jericho's criminal elements.
Smith immediately establishes a reputation by outdrawing and killing Doyle's top shooter, a brazen act that gets the attention of both gangs. Smith promptly hires himself out to Strozzi's gang for what Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg
Ned Eisenberg
Ned Eisenberg is an American actor known for his recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Roger Kressler....
) predicts is an upcoming gang war. Seeing an opportunity to make some easy money while he is on the way to Mexico, he begins playing the two gangs against each other. This includes seducing Strozzi's mistress, Lucy (Alexandra Powers
Alexandra Powers
-Early life:Powers was born in New York City. She grew up in an artsy, liberal environment on both coasts with her divorced parents. Her father teaches acting. She said in an interview that her parents, "encouraged me to find my own truth". Commenting on her faith, she stated, "I pray whenever I...
) and slipping information to Doyle's gang through the Sheriff.
The gang war re-starts when Strozzi suborns a corrupt Mexican police captain escorting a convoy of Doyle's trucks through Mexico to Doyle (David Patrick Kelly
David Patrick Kelly
David Patrick Kelly is an American actor and musician who has appeared in numerous films, including some major roles.-Career:...
). The Mexican police murder Doyle's men and turn the trucks over to Strozzi.
Smith then quits Strozzi's gang and hires himself to Doyle's, bringing valuable information with him. Doyle's right-hand man, Hickey (Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
), interrupts a meeting between the Mexican police captain and Strozzi's cousin Giorgio (Michael Imperioli
Michael Imperioli
James Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...
). After killing the captain (along with a corrupt Border Patrol officer), Hickey takes Giorgio hostage and Doyle demands that Strozzi give up his entire operation in exchange for him. Strozzi forces a stalemate by kidnapping Felina (Karina Lombard
Karina Lombard
Karina Lombard is an actress and singer.- Early life :Lombard was born in Tahiti. Her mother, Nupuree Lightfoot, is a medicine woman of the Lakota Nation and was an immigrant living in Tahiti. Her father, Henry Lombard, a banker, is a European aristocrat of Russian, Italian and Swiss descent....
), Doyle's captive mistress. Doyle agrees to exchange the two prisoners and the two gangs scatter.
Smith is summoned by the Sheriff to meet with Captain Tom Pickett (Ken Jenkins
Ken Jenkins
Ken Jenkins is an American actor, best known for his role as Dr. Bob Kelso, the Chief of Medicine on the American comedy Scrubs....
) of the Texas Rangers, who is upset over the death of the Border Patrol officer. He warns that he can tolerate one gang in Jericho, but not two and if more than one remains in Jericho in ten days time, he will bring a squad of Rangers into Jericho and wipe out both gangs.
Lucy comes to Smith and reveals that Strozzi, angered after the exchange, beat her and had Giorgio cut her ear off when she revealed her affair with Smith. Smith gives her some money and puts her on a bus out of Jericho. The next day Smith relays a false rumor that Strozzi is bringing in more soldiers. Playing on Doyle's obsession with Felina, he makes Doyle afraid that Strozzi will try to kidnap her again, and Doyle orders Smith to the safehouse where Felina is. Smith kills the men guarding Felina and sends her away with a car and a roll of money.
The next day, Smith is waiting at the safehouse when Doyle arrives, and claims that he arrived too late, Strozzi's men had already killed the guards and abducted Felina. Doyle goes berserk and declares all-out war on Strozzi's gang.
Smith's plan goes awry when Hickey puts together the truth. Doyle imprisons Smith and has him tortured, demanding to know where Felina is. Smith refuses to talk. Later that night, he escapes by killing two of Doyle's men, and escapes town with the aid of Joe Monday and the Sheriff. As they are driving out of town, they see Doyle's gang slaughtering Strozzi's at a roadhouse. Strozzi and Giorgio are the last two to die.
Smith takes refuge at a remote church where Felina went to pray. Two days later, Sheriff Galt arrives and informs Smith that Joe was caught smuggling food and water to Smith and that Doyle will probably torture him to death. He then hands Smith his twin Colt .45s and informs him that that is all the help Smith can expect from him.
Smith returns to town and storms Doyle's headquarters, gunning down the remainder of his men and rescuing Joe. Doyle and Hickey are absent, having gone down to Mexico in a desperate search for Felina.
In the final scene, Doyle, Hickey and Sheriff Galt's corrupt deputy Bob, confront Smith at the burned-out remains of Strozzi's hideout. Doyle, still despondent over the loss of Felina, tells Smith they can be partners and begs him to reveal where to find her. Before he can get further, Joe shoots Doyle with an antique pistol, and Smith shoots Bob before he can retaliate.
Hickey drops his submachine gun and says he doesn't want to die in Texas ("Chicago maybe") and starts to walk away (as seen in the earlier scene with the Border Patrol officer, this is just a ploy to invite the other man to shoot him in the back, allowing Hickey to turn and gun him down). With lightning speed he turns and quickdraws a pistol from his holster, but Smith is faster, and kills Hickey.
Smith gets into his car and drives on to Mexico, his original destination. He reflects that he is as broke as he was when he first arrived, having given all the money he made off the two gangs to various women in order to get them out of town, including Felina and Lucy. However, he consoles himself that everyone in the two gangs is better off dead.
Cast
- Bruce WillisBruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
as John Smith - William SandersonWilliam SandersonWilliam Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
as Joe Monday - Ned EisenbergNed EisenbergNed Eisenberg is an American actor known for his recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Roger Kressler....
as Fredo Strozzi - Michael ImperioliMichael ImperioliJames Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...
as Giorgio Carmonte - Bruce DernBruce DernBruce MacLeish Dern is an American film actor. He also appeared as a guest star in numerous television shows. He frequently takes roles as a character actor, often playing unstable and villainous characters...
as Sheriff Ed Galt - David Patrick KellyDavid Patrick KellyDavid Patrick Kelly is an American actor and musician who has appeared in numerous films, including some major roles.-Career:...
as Doyle - Christopher WalkenChristopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
as Hickey - Karina LombardKarina LombardKarina Lombard is an actress and singer.- Early life :Lombard was born in Tahiti. Her mother, Nupuree Lightfoot, is a medicine woman of the Lakota Nation and was an immigrant living in Tahiti. Her father, Henry Lombard, a banker, is a European aristocrat of Russian, Italian and Swiss descent....
as Felina - Ken JenkinsKen JenkinsKen Jenkins is an American actor, best known for his role as Dr. Bob Kelso, the Chief of Medicine on the American comedy Scrubs....
as Capt. Tom Pickett
Reception
The film did poorly at the box officeBox office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
, grossing only a total $18,127,448 domestically by December 22, 1996, brought in only $47,267,001 worldwide, and received poor critical reviews. Common recurring complaints found in the negative reviews address the oppressive and depressing atmosphere of the film; the flat, almost monotonous personality of Willis' character between gunfights; and the film's Pyrrhic victory
Pyrrhic victory
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with such a devastating cost to the victor that it carries the implication that another such victory will ultimately cause defeat.-Origin:...
finale. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
wrote:
Last Man Standing is such a desperately cheerless film, so dry and laconic and wrung out, that you wonder if the filmmakers ever thought that in any way it could be ... fun. It contains elements that are often found in entertainments — things like guns, gangs and spectacular displays of death — but here they crouch on the screen and growl at the audience. Even the movie's hero is bad company. ... The victory at the end is downbeat, and there is an indifference to it. This is such a sad, lonely movie.
Production
Last Man Standing was a remake of the Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
film Yojimbo (1961), which was also remade by Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
in A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in...
(1964) and John C. Broderick in The Warrior and the Sorceress
The Warrior And The Sorceress
The Warrior and the Sorceress is an 81-minute motion picture directed by John C. Broderick and starring David Carradine, released in 1984 by New Horizons...
(1984).