Last Man Standing (1996), Walter Hill’s remake of Yojimbo (already remade as A Fistful Of Dollars), is almost mythical yet reductively basic. Set in a ghost town named Jericho that nobody else lives in except for two gangs fighting over the same turf, a state of purgatory only destabilised by the arrival of a gun-for-hire played by Bruce Willis, ready to play one side against the other. It’s like Miller’s Crossing but blood simple; the only moves that are complicated in this plot are the bungee cords that yank the stuntmen through the air after they’ve been obliterated by Willis’ two handgun salute. I’ve always had a soft spot for this one ever since I saw it in the cinemas, marrying a 1930s gangster setting with old western cliches that Hill is in love with and the shoot-outs seemed styled after Hong Kong action cinema in the dual handguns and over-the-top stunt-work. Everything is shot in amber, dusty hues, like you’re looking at everything through stained beer glass. The visual style is also driven by Ry Cooder’s underrated, abrasive, swampy-guitar score. Classic character actors like Bruce Dern and William Sanderson play perfect western archetypes – the cranky sheriff and the trusty barkeep respectively. Christopher Walken turns in another great screen psycho – a scar and a tommy gun in tow – and then competes with Bruce Willis to see who can say their dialogue the quietest. Last Man Standing is obvious but effective, an old tale handsomely and satisfyingly presented in Hill’s sweaty, baroque style. Rented on iTunes. Recommended.
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