In Good Standing

Last Man Standing (1996) was Walter Hill’s version of Yojimbo, which was also remade as A Fistful of Dollars. Since this version is a 1930s gangster movie, I was hoping it would be more of a remake of Dashiell Hammett’s original story, Red Harvest. But it’s really more of a Bruce Willis thing.

It starts with Willis driving his Model A into a small Texas town, on his way to Mexico. He sees some men hustling a beautiful woman, Karina Lombard, across the street. The men see him looking at her and take offense, trashing his car and warning him that she is Doyle’s property. So it looks like he’ll be staying in town a while.

Sheriff Bruce Dern refuses to do a thing, being afraid of Doyle’s gang - and of the other gang in town. So Willis goes to ask Doyle to pay for repairs. The guy who trashed his car takes offense and draws a gun, so Willis shoots him. So now we know Willis is a bad man.

The other gang, run by an Italian named Strozzi, hires Willis as a soldier in the coming war between the gangs. One of his first gigs is to help hijack a shipment of liquor from Doyle. At this point, Willis goes to Doyle and defects for more money. And you get the idea.

I had mixed feelings about this film. Willis’ opening monologue is so over-the-top hardboiled poetry that I thought it was going to be silly. And it kind of was - this is Walter Hill we’re talking about, with Bruce Willis doing the talking. But, maybe since it is Hill and Willis, it was also kind of fun, in a bloody, amoral kind of way. The women don’t get treated very well, but not as bad as all that. One of the big bad guys is played by Christopher Walken, and that’s fun. And Ry Cooder did the music, mostly as subtle, bluesy guitar.

Still, someday I’d like to see a version of Hammett’s story about a town they call Poisonville.