I think its a great film one of Bruces best - so why did it flop?
shareSimple, cause this is a film for a very limited audience. Most people just want to see things blow up, and a pair of breasts. There were neither of those things in Last Man Standing. The film is basically a rehash of Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars but that's not to say it's a bad thing. Most films are remakes or ripoffs of something else. It's just a question of which one grips you the most.
I like Last Man Standing, it was a surreal art driven film, almost comic book like. But basically the film doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Willis's mumbling narration gives the impression that he's rather bored when he tells the story, cause to him, being a Big city gangster, being in a ghost town with a couple of wannabe gangs was both boring and child's play for him. Only Hickey matched his skill and his presence. This feels like a nod to the old radio shows or serials of the time period depicting the prohibition era.
Then there's the brief but intense action sequences, they are few and far between but when they do arrive it's quite a ride. And last but not least, no happy ending. It's actually a depressing movie and most people feels that this equates to a bad film.
I liked the simplicity of it with the unique and surreal style, using abit of your imagination to fill in some of the scenery.
It's a Western that tries to present itself as something else. If you like Westerns, then you like this movie. But Westerns have been passe for 30 years unless you totally re-think the genre like 'Unforgiven' or 'Tombstone' where you heavily invest the story with character development. But, 'stranger rides into town and takes on the gangs that run the town' was not seen as something new in Hollywood. For instance, we don't get the back-story of any of the characters except the woman, and then only slightly. That's a hallmark of classic Westerns, but not really something accepted today in movies.
Added to that, I think Warren Hill had a reputation of only presenting stylized violence, and this film was no exception to that. Hollywood, and the Hollywood Press didn't want to be seen endorsing that.
Having said all that, I personally loved the movie since I saw it in the theater when it came out. I still love the DVD. But I like violent, stylized Westerns.
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And one other thing occurs to me. Hill took a lot of heat for having re-done, yet again, what was considered a classic, 'Yojimbo'. Which was redone as a first derivative in, 'Fistful of Dollars' by Sergio Leone.
So, I think a lot of people felt that 'Last Man Standing' was in a sense, a movie that shouldn't have been done. Because there was no need to do it. Two classics, by two Hall of Fame Directors, had already told the story.
But...what I've always loved about it, in considering it as an adaptation of 'Yojimbo', is the way it parallels what was going on in the Prohibition era in the US with the Samurai period in Japan.
And therein lies a story:
On further analysis, you see that Yojimbo was really almost certainly an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's 'Red Harvest', that Kurosawa never acknowleged. The Coen Bros on the other hand, fully acknowleged that 'Miller's Crossing' was a take on 'Red Harvest' melded to 'Glass key' also by Hammett. And 'Miller's Crossing' bears a very striking similarity to 'Last Man Standing'.
So, in an important sense, Hill's movie really brought the genre sense of the story back to it's true origins. Ironically, I think if he had called it an adaptation of 'Red Harvest', rather than crediting Kurosawa and Yojimbo, he would have gotten a lot less Bad Press. And it was the savaging by the critics that hurt 'Last Man Standing' a lot in my opinion. It made the studio less willing to promote the movie. And as a result, it had to find its following beginning with VHS rentals and continuing through DVD sales.
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I think it bombed because Bruce Willis didn't shoot enough bullets.
shareI think its a great film one of Bruces best
i love this damn movie...every time i see it i wanna buy 20 mags, grab my 1911s n go shoot up the range...
-I'm The Police Chief, I Know Everything-
The Kid. Dead Suits Her. The new robot men movie. All really good movies. But Twelve Monkeys is the best.
shareMaybe it bombed cause of the unrealsitc details like a colt 1911 have a 20 bullets clip and no need to be reloaded? this could be the lamest "gun movie" ever made...but still its a decent action flick.
~If the realistic details fails, the movie fails~