Author Topic: "Last Man Standing"...  (Read 4503 times)

AZRedhawk44

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,991
"Last Man Standing"...
« on: June 27, 2011, 02:52:10 AM »
... is a total homage to "A Fistful of Dollars."

Amazing how closely the plot parallels.  More than just the plot.  The whole freakin' story.  I think the key differences are cars for horses, and mobster clothes instead of western stuff.

Even the gunfight between the "rifleman" and the "pistolero."

Wikipedia tells me both owe a lot to Kurosawa's Yojimbo.  Never seen it.  APS' impressions?
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
--Lysander Spooner

I reject your authoritah!

Perd Hapley

  • Superstar of the Internet
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 61,539
  • My prepositions are on/in
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2011, 04:30:33 AM »
... is a total homage to "A Fistful of Dollars."

Both are unabashed homages to Yojimbo, which you should definitely see. Actually, they're more like shot-for-shot remakes. LMS borrows at least one entire line, unaltered, from Yojimbo. In his initial face-off with one of the gangs, a gang member says, "You'll have to kill me." Willis/Mifune answers, "It'll hurt if I do." The line was changed a bit in FOD.

Kurosawa and Mifune are an excellent combination.
"Doggies are angel babies!" -- my wife

Lanius

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 224
  • Excubitor
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2011, 05:31:59 AM »
@Fistful
+2 on Kurosawa

We bought a whole box of his films.. and 90% of them are good to great.

Jamisjockey

  • Booze-fueled paragon of pointless cruelty and wanton sadism
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 26,580
  • Your mom sends me care packages
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2011, 10:04:54 AM »
The Bruce Willis flick? One of my favorite BW flicks, for sure.
JD

 The price of a lottery ticket seems to be the maximum most folks are willing to risk toward the dream of becoming a one-percenter. “Robert Hollis”

freakazoid

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 6,243
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2011, 01:22:31 AM »
Seen all three. Great movies.
"so I ended up getting the above because I didn't want to make a whole production of sticking something between my knees and cranking. To me, the cranking on mine is pretty effortless, at least on the coarse setting. Maybe if someone has arthritis or something, it would be more difficult for them." - Ben

"I see a rager at least once a week." - brimic

SADShooter

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,242
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2011, 12:33:36 PM »
The Janus DVDs of Kurosawa are expensive, but well worth seeking out. Sanjuro is also great, in addition to The Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, et al. I'm also a great fan of the Zatoichi series.
"Ah, is there any wine so sweet and intoxicating as the tears of a hippie?"-Tamara, View From the Porch

Matthew Carberry

  • Formerly carebear
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,281
  • Fiat justitia, pereat mundus
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2011, 04:23:30 PM »
Yojimbo was taken from Dashiel Hammet's novel "Red Harvest".

So it's originally an American gangster story Kurosawa adapted.

Been done a dozen times over under various names.
"Not all unwise laws are unconstitutional laws, even where constitutional rights are potentially involved." - Eugene Volokh

"As for affecting your movement, your Rascal should be able to achieve the the same speeds no matter what holster rig you are wearing."

AZRedhawk44

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,991
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2011, 04:48:29 PM »
Yojimbo was taken from Dashiel Hammet's novel "Red Harvest".

So it's originally an American gangster story Kurosawa adapted.

Been done a dozen times over under various names.

Does the longevity and promiscuity of this particular plot have any relation to Star Wars, to anyone?  And that's why Family Guy called their first Star Wars spoof "Blue Harvest?"
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
--Lysander Spooner

I reject your authoritah!

Matthew Carberry

  • Formerly carebear
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,281
  • Fiat justitia, pereat mundus
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2011, 04:50:31 PM »
Blue harvest was the working title for star wars.  I'm unaware of a connection.
"Not all unwise laws are unconstitutional laws, even where constitutional rights are potentially involved." - Eugene Volokh

"As for affecting your movement, your Rascal should be able to achieve the the same speeds no matter what holster rig you are wearing."

Devonai

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 3,647
  • Panic Mode Activated
    • Kyrie Devonai Publishing
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2011, 08:33:00 AM »
I have read Red Harvest a number of times.  Here's my review:

The great grand-daddy of all crime novels, Red Harvest was Dashiell Hammett's first commercial success, and laid the ground work for his later novels such as The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon.  It created a new genre of protagonist, the hard-boiled, quick-tongued, and street-smart man who got by on a combination of wits and near-prescience.

Red Harvest was by legend the inspiration for Akira Kurasawa's Yojimbo.  While this has never been confirmed, it seems obvious by the themes explored.  That film was later made into Last Man Standing starring Bruce Willis, although by then the story bore little resemblance to the original.  The idea of playing both sides of a political struggle to one's own ends was retained throughout the generations of film.

The original story follows the efforts of an un-named protagonist working for the Continental Detective Agency of San Francisco, told in first person.  He has been summoned to the small western industrial town of Personville to assist in the dealings of a local banker, discovering upon arrival that his employer has been murdered.  Discovering the motivation behind the murder also uncovers the criminal dealings of "Poisonville," a situation that both demands results and offers the protagonist a chance to accomplish more than anyone expected.

Naturally, the murder is only the tip of the iceberg, and involves two gangs as well as a corrupt police department.  Allying himself with whomever is convenient at the time, the "Continental Op" works to uncover the truth while avoiding constant threats on his life.

Thoroughly enjoyable and addicting, Red Harvest is a great read for anyone who wonders where the detective genre came from and the resultant glut of films and jargon.  The protagonist may seem unrealistic, but one must keep in mind that Hammett based this story on his time spent as a union-buster for the Pinkerton Detective Agency after World War 1.
My writing blog: Kyrie Devonai Publishing

When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!

Perd Hapley

  • Superstar of the Internet
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 61,539
  • My prepositions are on/in
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2011, 03:20:31 PM »
I guess I didn't enjoy Red Harvest that much, considering that I read it a few years ago, and only vaguely remember it. I think I only kept slogging through it because, as a MWNM trilogy fan, it seemed like something I should know about.

Also be careful about saying that it's where "the detective genre" came from. Detective stories go back to at least Edgar Allen Poe.
"Doggies are angel babies!" -- my wife

makattak

  • Dark Lord of the Cis
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,022
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2011, 03:27:08 PM »
I guess I didn't enjoy Red Harvest that much, considering that I read it a few years ago, and only vaguely remember it. I think I only kept slogging through it because, as a MWNM trilogy fan, it seemed like something I should know about.

Also be careful about saying that it's where "the detective genre" came from. Detective stories go back to at least Edgar Allen Poe.

Murders at the Rue Morgue.
I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought

Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas

  • Webley Juggler
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,415
  • All I got is a fistful of shekels
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #12 on: July 06, 2011, 04:38:40 PM »
Quote
MWNM
The Man With No Moccasins?

Perd Hapley

  • Superstar of the Internet
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 61,539
  • My prepositions are on/in
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2011, 11:38:16 PM »
Murders at the Rue Morgue.

The Purloined Letter.  :P
"Doggies are angel babies!" -- my wife

gunsmith

  • I forgot to get vaccinated!
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 8,187
  • I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #14 on: July 07, 2011, 01:11:24 AM »
I really like the movie, saw it when it came out & like that they use a .45acp/1911

Saw lots of the Japanese sword flicks in  NYC movie houses in the 80's as well as Hard Boiled and the Woo classics. great stuff on the big screen.
Politicians and bureaucrats are considered productive if they swarm the populace like a plague of locust, devouring all substance in their path and leaving a swath of destruction like a firestorm. The technical term is "bipartisanship".
Rocket Man: "The need for booster shots for the immunized has always been based on the science.  Political science, not medical science."

kgbsquirrel

  • APS Photoshop God
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,466
  • Bill, slayer of threads.
Re: "Last Man Standing"...
« Reply #15 on: July 07, 2011, 03:08:34 AM »
Just watched it again. Last time I had seen it I was much younger. In the first gun fight Bruce Willis' character fired 30 rounds from a past of 1911's without reloading sending guys flying through doors/windows. I like the setting of 1930's edge of civilization, but the film just got worse from there.  :P