''An invitation to Venice says a great deal about the acting, directing and overall quality of Last Man Standing,' says Rolf Mittweg, president of New Line International. He believes an international platform is an appropriate launch for Walter Hill's new feature, since the overseas performance of Bruce Willis films traditionally surpass their domestic US box office results. 'This is Willis as audiences and critics have never seen him before. There is a noirish style to Walter's filmmaking that puts a new spin on the everyman character that Willis has made so popular.'
Inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (The Bodyguard), Hill used the fundamentals from the 1961 Samurai epic and springboarded them into a new era where social chaos breeds crime and violence. Hill swaps the Japan of the 1860s for a fictional Texas border town, Jericho, at the height of America's prohibition era.
Willis plays a mysterious gun-for-hire who is caught in the middle of a violent war between rival Chicago bootlegging mobs. A soldier of fortune with his own agenda, he betrays both sides to the other in a bold attempt to rescue what remains of Jericho's shell-shocked residents.
'Last Man Standing is a passionate adaptation of a classic story,' says Hill, 'and we are flattered that Venice recognises the rich tradition behind this project. I would not have made this film had I not been satisfied that Mr Kurosawa was in favour of somebody doing an adaptation. Once that condition was met, my challenge was to make the basic story work in an American context. One of my journalist friends said that I hijacked techniques from dime novels, comic books, film noir, Samurai movies, even the Bible in order to make this film, a film which is a hymn to the tradition of fictional American tough guys.' Christopher Pickard
Prod co: Lone Wolf
Prod: Walter Hill, Arthur Sarkissian
Dir/Scr: Walter Hill
Ph: Lloyd Ahern
Art Dir: Gary Wissner
Music: Ry Cooder
Ed: Freeman Davies
Cast: Bruce Willis, Bruce Dern, Christopher Walken
Running time: 103 mins
Int sales: New Line
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