Movie Details
| Title: | Last Man Standing | |
| Director: | Walter Hill | |
| Year: | 1996 | |
| Genre: | Gangster | |
| Times Seen: | 2 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.30.22 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (6)
- Brewster's Millions
- The Driver
- Hard Times
- Southern Comfort
- Streets of Fire
- The Warriors
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.30.22 | Internet | The double features don't work so well when I consistently fall asleep during the second movie. Oh well, This is the back half of a 90s crime/noir pairing with Bruce Willis in a telling of Yojimbo transposed to 30s gangster era. The 90s blues guitar score has fully blossomed into a Ry Cooder jam, Willis is in peak machismo whispering every line of dialogue and voice over in his best noir tough guy voice, and Hill is trying his best to make each gunshot impact like a cannon with some early wire work. This was a QTfest movie way back in the day so it's been in the back of my mind to give it a watch since then. I missed it when it came out but remember it not really making much of a splash to the point where I was kind of surprised that Tarantino would include it in one of his festivals here in Austin. Now that I've finally seen it, I can maybe understand why. It certainly fits well in Walter Hill's oeuvre, most notably seeing William Sanderson as a sniveling hotel owner. You can clearly see that he's basically auditioning for his role in Deadwood almost 10 years later. There's also a bit of a rogue's gallery of 90s and Walter Hill faces populating the rival gangs in town including a reminder that Christopher Walken was at his height of wildcard intimidation at this time. Seeing him with a scar down his face and growling his dialogue definitely works for me. But it does share a similar vibe as One False Move in that it kinda... I think in going for a neo-noir vibe both movies have a certain... lethargy I guess you could call it, where they are not cut like action movies at all. The plot may have action elements, but we're a little removed from it. I may be forcing that connection a little here since there are plenty of shots of Willis shooting his guns and getting beat up, but always with that whispery voice-over to soften the blows. The net effect for me is that they feel like movies I'd catch on cable. Not a ton of impact or memorable stuff, but they still fill the time decently well. I'm sure it's also that this was when I was doing the bulk of my cable-watching so all the little cues that give it a 90s feel also give it a cable feel for me. |
| 06.06.06 | Netflix | Walter Hill's gritty desert take on Yojimbo/Fistfull of Dollars/whatever it was originally called. Pretty good... it felt like a precursor to Sin City actually, although the comics were probably written before this... or maybe not, I don't know. It had a bunch of tough guy supporters that I've liked in other movies (the big dude who was the gym teacher in Class of 1999, the "warriors, come out and play" guy who was also in Commando) as well as Christopher Walken and William Sanderson... It still feels like a pretty casual film to me... I don't want to say forgettable... forgettable in a good way... kind of like a lot of Hill's stuff to me... good stuff but nothing legendary. nothing wrong with that though... have to respect a solid yarn. |
