Last man standing

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Last man standing
Original title Last man standing
Country of production United States
original language English , Spanish
Publishing year 1996
length 101 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Walter Hill
script Walter Hill
Akira Kurosawa
Ryuzo Kikushima
production Arthur M. Sarkissian
Walter Hill
music Ry Cooder
camera Lloyd Ahern II
cut Freeman Davies
occupation

Last Man Standing (in the original also: Welcome to Jericho or Gundown ) is an American film by director Walter Hill with elements of thriller , action film , western , gangster film and drama . It is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo - The Bodyguard or Sergio Leones For A Fistful Of Dollars and was released on September 20, 1996 in US cinemas.

action

In 1931, at the time of American prohibition , the gunslinger John Smith arrived in the almost deserted town of Jericho on the border between Texas and Mexico . There, gangsters of Irish descent demolish his car because he had a look at the involuntary lover of their leader Doyle, the beautiful Mexican Felina. Doyle, one of the town's two gang bosses, won Felina at poker . The sheriff is completely incompetent, corrupt and powerless, which he tells Smith directly. Smith takes revenge on the evildoers, shoots one of them and quickly realizes that he is only dealing with small town thugs. He tries to play the two liquor-smuggling gangs of Doyle and his Italian-American rival Strozzi against each other. Smith changes sides several times and tries to earn as much money as possible in this way.

The violent death of a corrupt border official calls the responsible commander of the dreaded Texas Rangers to the scene. Captain Tom Pickett explains to Smith unequivocally that in the interests of public order he will tolerate a maximum of one gang in the small town and announces that he will return with a larger unit in ten days and, if there are still two gangs, mercilessly exterminate both. Otherwise he gives Smith a free hand, but in his own interest he should also disappear from Jericho until then.

Smith frees Felina and sends her back to her family in Mexico. He kills eight of Doyle's men and blames Strozzi's gang for the act. When Doyle finds out who actually freed Felina, he has Smith captured and tortured. Smith escapes and is taken out of town by the local sheriff. Along the way, they witness how Doyle's men kill Strozzi and his entire gang who are in a house outside of town. The sheriff is hiding Smith in an old church. There he is fed up again by the saloon owner Joe with the daily supplied water and food rations.

But soon Joe is intercepted and locked up by Doyle's men during one of his deliveries. Smith frees him and there is a big shootout, with Smith taking down Doyle's gang. In the finale, Smith, Doyle and his right-hand man Hickey meet. Joe ambushed Doyle and Smith knocked Hickey down. The sheriff and Joe, the last two survivors, leave their city, and Smith also continues on his way from the ghost town of Jericho towards Mexico .

background

The gangs of the original turned into rival Mafia families and the sword duels into spectacular pistol fights. Bruce Willis plays the role of the taciturn and boiled pistoleros , while Christopher Walken slips into the role of his opponent, who is superior in terms of weapons.

The film was a co-production by Lone Wolf and New Line Cinema on a budget of $ 67 million. Bruce Willis received a $ 16.5 million salary for his participation in the film. The film celebrated its film premiere in the USA on September 20, 1996. In Germany it was shown from October 31, 1996. The film was not a big hit in the United States, and grossed only $ 18 million at the box office. Even with the worldwide marketing of the film only 33 million US dollars were turned over, so it could not achieve the expected success and became a financial flop. It was not until it was published on video that it became an insider tip and its high costs were recovered. A good 285,000 visitors were counted at the German box office.

The shooting lasted from September 11, 1995 to December 1995. All locations are in the USA , including Galisteo in the state of New Mexico , El Paso in Texas and the two Californian towns of Santa Clarita and Saugus .

Reviews

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of September 20, 1996 that this "hopelessly joyless" film looked so "dry", "laconic" and "wrung out" that one wonders if the filmmakers really believed it somehow Can be fun. Even the hero of the film is "bad company".

James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that the two previous films were much better. The "bizarre" mixture of western and gangster films does not work properly. Bruce Willis is the right cast for the role of John Smith . Berardinelli also praised Bruce Dern, but said the film was overall one of the weaker works of Walter Hill.

The lexicon of international films judged: "Based on Akira Kurosawa's classic" Yojimbo - The Bodyguard "(1960), the action film celebrates outbreaks of brutal violence in a pseudo-historical setting without ever reaching the depth of its role model. Inadequate in the emphatically aesthetic implementation that makes the hero's cynical attitude so involuntarily the character of the film itself. "

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating "valuable".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Last Man Standing . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2005 (PDF; test number: 76 261 DVD).
  2. ↑ a b Background information according to the Internet Movie Database
  3. ↑ a b c Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ a b c d budget and box office results according to the Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
  6. ^ Review by Roger Ebert
  7. ^ Review by James Berardinelli
  8. ↑ Last Man Standing. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ↑ Last Man Standing on fbw-filmbassy.com