Movie: Last Man Standing (1996)

Cross-posted from Worst Ninja Ever.

Say what you will about Bruce Willis, but I think he's a mighty fine actor with a fine selection of enjoyable movies that reside, or should reside, on my DVD shelf. One of these films which has recently made its way into my DVD collection is the classic re-telling of a classic film based on an even more classic novel. That's right, I'm talking about "Last Man Standing" (1996), the Walter Hill film which stars Willis among a stellar cast that includes Christopher Walken, David Patrick Kelly and Ned Eisenberg.

This dusty, sun-baked film follows one John Smith (Willis), a selfish, uncompromising man who drifts into a desert hamlet near the Mexican border and becomes embroiled in a gang war between an Italian gang and an Irish one. The two groups have entered an uneasy ceasefire while each is trying to out-think the other, only to have their carefully-laid truce broken by the newcomer, John Smith, who happily and adroitly plays one side against the other in exchange for a fat payoff.

In his machinations, Smith begins to make enemies on both sides: first, by embarrassing the Italian lieutenant, Girogio (Michael Imperioli), and then by refusing to work for Doyle, the Irish boss (Kelly). Not about to let anyone stop him from getting what he wants, Smith even goes so far as to seduce the Italian boss's moll and stand up to the Irish gang's unstoppable enforcer, Hickey (an unusually animated Walken).

But all is not remorseless killing and guns, guns, guns for Smith. He finds himself sympathizing with the women attached to the gangs, so much so that his unbreakable mask of ice starts to crack. He finds he cares less and less about the money and playing the gangs against each other, and more for the welfare and safety of these women. He is nearly too late to help the moll, who comes to him badly beaten and with one ear savagely cut off by the Italian boss and his cronies, but he spends the bulk of the second half of the film dealing with the Irish boss's reluctant girlfriend, who wants only to return to Mexico to be with her daughter.

While the amount of male posturing and gunplay in "Last Man Standing" is expected, the depth of the characters is a welcome relief from the cliches which might otherwise make this another forgettable western movie. To be honest, the John Smith character isn't much more than the stone cold killer with a heart under a hard shell borne of heartbreak and pain, but director Walter Hill surrounds him with such shining supporting characters like the bartender, Joe Monday (William Sanderson), and the ineffectual yet noble sheriff Ed Galt (Bruce Dern). The small cast only serves to emphasize Smith's almost hesitant interactions with others, almost unwilling to treat anyone as human until it is almost too late.

I'd seen the movie before and remember enjoying it, but it wasn't until I watched it again that I discovered why I like it so much. It's not an action-packed, explosion-a-minute kill-fest like the Die Hard franchise, and it doesn't have the colourful, surreal quirkiness of The Fifth Element. What it does have is atypical, sympathetic characters that surprise the viewer. And a delightful surprise it is, too.

Doyle is a typical gang boss, sure, but his weakness isn't just the girl he's all but forced to be his companion; it's the love and devotion he genuinely feels for her. When Smith releases the girl from her open prison, Doyle grieves for her loss and implores Smith more than once to help him look for her, even after Doyle discovers that Smith is the one to release her. The almost legendary Hickey is shown to be more than just a little human when it comes time for a final showdown, and Walken plays it up to almost comic effect.

This movie, like Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), is a re-telling of the 1961 Akira Kurosawa film, "Yojimbo," starring the immortal Toshiro Mifune. "Yojimbo" itself is based on the 1927 Dashiell Hammett first novel, "Red Harvest" (1929).