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Reviews:
In
the tradition of…: Last Man Standing
by
Christian De Matteo
Solid
What we have here is a fine action film, borrowing
reverently from all its predecessors.
Writer/director Walter Hill combined the
spaghetti western with the gangster flick and
thrown in a film noir element in order to remake
the classic Akira Kurasawa film Yojimbo;
that’s right, the Samurai flick on which For
a Few Dollars More was based.
The samurai film is the undeniable father
of the spaghetti western and of honestly any
“Stranger With No Name enters a town and kicks
butt from one end of the street to the other”
movie that ever has come out.
Hill knows this and acknowledges it brilliantly
making a great film that is a tribute not
weighed down by gratuitously tributary moments.
All of this and starring Bruce Willis…
who could ask for anything more?
Most people consider 12 Monkeys to be the first time Willis showcased his ability to be
completely serious and totally dramatic, but
this is actually where he first does it.
Wanting to make a film in the tradition
of all the above types of films, but wishing to
avoid cliché, Hill wrote his screenplay mostly
devoid of wisecrack lines and snappy dialogue.
The conversation in sparse, curt and only
used when necessary and Willis’s overdubbed
narration never falls to cliched metaphor.
Bruce is a tough guy not like he might be
in The
Last Boy Scout, but in the way Clint was in A
Fistful of Dollars.
His character has not come to down to
deliver clever lines and act cool.
He’s come to town to make some money
and kill when he has to.
That’s it and Willis pulls it off
perfectly.
I can’t think of anyone but Bruce I’d
want in the part of “John Smith.”
And of course, there’s Christopher Walken.
You really can’t go wrong with Walken.
There is no other actor who can pull off
Walken-cool.
What’s Walken-cool?
Rent The
Prophecy.
In fact, don’t rent it, buy it.
Here he also plays it closer to the belt,
silently deadly, made huge by the camera, and
full of non-cliché likable personality.
When he smiles at Bruce you think What
a good guy, then he opens up on seven people
with a tommygun and smiles as he walks away from
the bloodbath.
Added to all this are some very human characters,
especially David Patrick Kelly as the head of
the Irish gangsters—a man with one obvious and
sad weakness—and the greedy bottom-feeding
Sheriff played perfectly by Bruce Dern (The
‘Burbs), and, of course, the
woman, since Eve, ever the herald of
trouble whether intentionally or not.
Last
Man Standing
lives up to its name and also has enough
character and story content to make it a totally
worthwhile film and one that lends itself easily
to repeat viewing.
So, what
do you think about that?
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