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Dom Robinson reviews

Last Man Standing

There are two sides to every law
and John Smith is on both of them.

Distributed by

Entertainment In Video

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.

Director:

Walter Hill

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

Producers:

Walter Hill and Arthur Sarkissian

Screenplay:

Walter Hill

based on the story by Ryuzo Kikushima and Akira Kurosawa

Music:

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

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?

movie pic

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.

movie pic

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.

movie pic

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 (!)

N.B.: If you are playing this title on a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player, it will lock up the player when fast-forwarding the trailer, the 'making of' featurette and the final chapter, so you have to close the player down and start it up again. This problem also affects Tombstone and Long Kiss Goodnight, the latter only winning over the fact that it doesn't lock up the player when fast-forwarding the final chapter.

FILM	 		: ***½
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: ****
EXTRAS			: *½
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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