A 1996 Bruce Willis Western Was A Failed Remake Of An Akira Kurosawa Classic

In Stuart Galbraith IV’s invaluable film biography “The Emperor and the Wolf” — a detailed rundown of the collaborations between director Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune — Kurosawa was asked about Sergio Leone’s Western “A Fistful of Dollars.” Kurosawa reportedly said that Leone’s film was “a fine movie, but it’s my movie.” Leone, as cineastes all know, will be able to tell you, ripped off Kurosawa’s 1961 film “Yojimbo,” pretty much beat-for-beat, to make “A Fistful of Dollars.” Toho, the production company that distributed “Yojimbo,” sued Leone and the case was settled out of court.

“Yojimbo,” for those unlucky enough not to have seen it, is about a nameless ronin (Mifune) who wanders into a remote 1860s village to discover a vicious gang battle raging. It seems two groups of yakuza are fighting over the gambling rights in this town, although no one appears to live there other than the gangsters. The nameless ronin bitterly and bemusedly begins manipulating both sides in an attempt to get them to destroy each other. “Yojimbo” is uncharacteristically cynical for Kurosawa.

Apart from “Fistful,” “Yojimbo” has been remade or at least reimagined multiple times throughout film history. In 1970, the Franco Nero film “Django” also retreaded the “Yojimbo” concept in an Old West context. Also in 1970, director Hiroshi Inagaki made “Incident at Blood Pass,” and even cast Mifune as a very similar character, sometimes even called Yojimbo. Then, in 1984, director John C. Broderick made “The Warrior and the Sorceress,” which transposed the story into a Dark Ages fantasy.

Finally, in 1996, Walter Hill took a run at “Yojimbo” with “Last Man Standing,” a part Western, part gangster picture that cast Bruce Willis in the Mifune role and moved the action to Prohibition-era Texas. It was, however, all flop.

While “Last Man Standing” boasts a similar premise and a largely identical plot to “Yojimbo” (with Kurosawa actually being credited this time), Willis plays a very different kind of “lone wolf” character in the film. In “Yojimbo,” Mifune’s nameless ronin is a cynic, aloof and amused, happy to force warring gangs into battle, not caring for their lives. Indeed, in one notable scene, Mifune runs from one gang to the next as they are about to clash in the middle of the town’s thoroughfare. He essentially gives them direction before retreating to a tower to witness the ensuing mayhem, just like a film director might.

Willis, in comparison, is more silent and steely, taking his cues from Clint Eastwood’s “Fistful” take on the character at least as much as from Mifune’s. He comes across as distant and taciturn, less indifferent as unaware. Willis can be a fine actor, but he was given bad direction here. Also, “Last Man Standing” embellished “Yojimbo” with more action, but in the extra-brutal, post “Pulp Fiction” mold, where characters never stop to assess the damage. Everything feels low-energy and dour. Hill, an ordinarily energetic director, made something so stone-faced as to be detached and boring.

The gang bosses are transposed directly from “Yojimbo,” with Ned Eisenberg and David Patrick Kelley playing Italian and Irish versions of the yakuza lords, respectively. Hill, however, also adds a femme fatale character played by Alexandra Powers, with Christopher Walken portraying an ultra-dangerous Italian gunman.

The setting of “Last Man Standing” is stylized and surreal, but not in a fun way. It would make sense to set “Yojimbo” in the middle of a 1920s gang war, complete with fedoras and tommy guns, but Hill also wanted to retain the story’s Western-friendly setting, forcing his Prohibition mob guys into the same dusty Old West village that Clint Eastwood wandered into. The visual juxtaposition of men in dapper pinstriped suits wandering through a dusty one-horse burg was a visual mistake; it’s not so much dynamic as mismatched.

Although derived from a classic, audiences didn’t care a whole lot about Hill’s remake. “Last Man Standing” cost a sizable $67 million to produce, but only topped out at $18 million at the domestic box office, making it a legitimate bomb. Critics were also unkind, with many citing the above-mentioned tone of detachment. Roger Ebert wrote that it was “a cheerless film, so dry and laconic and wrung out, that you wonder if the filmmakers ever thought that in any way it could be… fun.” That’s pretty spot-on. Mitchell Beaupre, writing of Paste, was a little more positive, citing how impressed they were with Hill’s skill at staging action set pieces.

In the years since the film’s release, few people have thought to bring it up, except maybe in Walter Hill retrospectives. “Last Man Standing” is simply not a very good movie, having slipped comfortably into the cracks of obscurity. It’s drab and forgettable.

More re-workings of “Yojimbo” are doubtlessly ahead of us. This one, however, can safely be skipped.