Last Man Standing on DVD

• Cat.no: EDV 9011
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 96 minutes
• Year: 1997
• Pressing: 1999
• Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 6
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £15.99
• Extras : Scene index, trailer, ‘making of’ featurette.

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Director:

Walter Hill

(Another 48 Hrs, Driver, 48 Hrs, The Long Riders, Red Heat, Southern Comfort, The Warriors, Wild Bill)

Producers:

Screenplay:

Walter Hill (based on the story by Ryuzo Kikushima and Akira Kurosawa)

Music:

(Paris, Texas)

Cast:

John Smith: Bruce Willis (Armageddon, Blind Date, Color Of Night, Death Becomes Her, Die Hard 1-3, The Fifth Element, The Jackal, Last Boy Scout, Mercury Rising, Pulp Fiction, Striking Distance, Twelve Monkeys)
Hickey: Christopher Walken (The Addiction, Annie Hall, Brainstorm, A Business Affair, The Comfort of Strangers, Communion, The Deer Hunter, The Dogs of War, Excess Baggage, The Funeral, Heaven’s Gate, King of New York, The Milagro Beanfield War, Mouse Hunt, Nick of Time, Pennies From Heaven, Pulp Fiction, Suicide Kings, Things to Do In Denver…, Touch, True Romance, Wayne’s World 2)
Sheriff Ed Golt: Bruce Dern (The Burbs, Down Periscope, Driver, Hang Em High, Midnight Sting, Silent Running, Wild Bill)
Joe Monday: William Sanderson (Andersonville, The Client, The Onion Field, Sometimes They Come Back)
Doyle: David Patrick Kelly (Wheels of Terror)
Felina: Karina Lombard (Wide Sargasso Sea)
Fredo Strozzi: Ned Eisenberg (A Murderous Affair, Path To Paradise)
Lucy Kolinski: Alexandra Powers (Storm)

Last Man Standing is Walter Hill‘s remake of the classic 1961 film from Akira Kurosawa, Yojimbo.

Bruce Willis, a man of many different films, plays John Smith, a lone stranger who just drove into Jericho after being directed by the spin of a whisky bottle. Self-narrated, the film has Bruce attracting attention from the local gangsters as soon as he enters as some men smash up his car. Taking a room in the local tavern, he sets off to write the wrong killing one man from Doyle’s gang.

One death later, as he walks past the undertaker’s, which now has a new ‘customer’, the owner tips him the wink. Smith contemplates whether the man is doing that for giving him the business, or if he’s preparing the next box for him…

The film then sees Smith coming between the two local rival gangs, led by Doyle and Strazzi, making sure he’s the winner by switching allegiances when it suits him, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, he takes the law into his own hands which will end with only one last man standing…but who will that be?

Early 20th Century smoke alarms weren’t all they could be.

Bruce Willis is on his usual top form being as moody as ever, but far more agressive as he stops at nothing to get his way and his money. His character doesn’t even discount violence against women in an impromptu shoot-out as two men burst into his room while he spends some time with Lucy Kolinski. After shooting the men, just two of the gang that burst in to the tavern, Smith grabs Lucy’s head from the and smacks her into the door in a bid to quieten the screaming…

Christopher Walken turns in another top-notch performance as the bad guy, although in terms of the characters he’s not the main one as he plays right-hand man to Doyle (David Patrick Kelly).

Elsewhere in the cast William Sanderson has one of those recognisable faces, but never seems to get the lead role in many things. Of his extensive work given in the cast list he has also provided the voice of J.F. Sebastian in the new PC computer game of the film, Blade Runner, and also had a role in a 1988 film also called Last Man Standing. Alexandra Powers and Karina Lombard provide some window dressing, although the latter has about two lines to say in the whole film.

Finally, the part of the sheriff is played well by Bruce Dern who gets the ..and Bruce Dern in the credits as if it’s a guest appearance in a sitcom.

Bruce needed more than just a shave.

The film is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 but is non-anamorphic, like most of the EiV titles at this ratio. The widescreen framing is well-used by Walter Hill – and could have transferred well to fullscreen video as it was shot in Super-35 – but as it turned out the latter was a disaster completely ruining the framing, hence another good reason to choose widescreen. Artifacts are few and far between.

The average bitrate is a fine 5.19Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 7Mb/s.

The sound quality is very good, in both creating an atmosphere during the quiet and/or naration scenes, while packing a punch when it needs to, especially when Bruce does the talking with his pistols. Again, however, we are denied a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

Extras :

Chapters & Trailer : Whoever did the chaptering should be fired. There were 28 on the PAL Laserdisc, but SIX here ! There’s also a curious attempt to list the time at which each chapter kicks in, but every single one is exactly an hour fast, aside from the first which is 63 minutes fast !?! The original theatrical trailer is also included.

Languages & Subtitles : Just one language for this disc – English in Dolby Surround – and only English subtitles.

‘Making of’ featurette : A four-minute ‘making of’, or rather an extended trailer with brief moments of chat from Bruce, Walken and director Walter Hill. If it makes your DVD-ROM player lock up, then the output will also appear to stutter.

Menu :

The menu is static and silent with a picture of Bruce ready to shoot.

There can be only one…

Last Man Standing is an entertaining gangster flick, but has a number of slow patches to flesh out the shoot-outs. The Region 1 DVD doesn’t come with more than a trailer, but does win over this release as it has a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

The Region 2 version does come complete with a game – a guessing game: What exactly does “Trailer 34 mins” on the back cover stand for? That’s one hell of a long trailer (!)