Last Man Standing

Music by Ry Cooder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Akira Kurosawa never denied the influence of American westerns of John Ford and Budd Boeticher in Yojimbo (1960). This great samurai adventure would be the model for the classic spaghetti western The Fistfull of Dollars (1964) by Sergio Leone.

Finally in 1996, Walter Hill filmed his version in Last Man Standing turning it into a stylized gangster film set in an old west town. Curiously Yojimbo plot also has relations with the novel Red Harvest by Dashiel Hammet and so Walter Hill´s film came full circle to the tradition pulp/noir that originated it all. One of the highlights of Last Man Standing is the soundtrack by Ry Cooder that sums several elements, referencing the versions (and genres) that generate the production. Ry Cooder was thus able to work with diverse cultural and cinematographic information in a comprehensive work where can be heard Mexican music, dixieland, rural blues, oriental reference, and of course the typical sound oddities of Italian westerns. The excellent main theme, with a bass saxophone in underground emissions over a syncopated rhythm (like in Ennio Morricone westerns) is the main highlight. Along with this theme, are great moments as the Mexican ballad Church and Sanctuary, a curious ambient track that closes the album in relaxed mood. Often threatening and suspenseful, Last Man Standing is the dark side of Paris Texas (also by Cooder). The proximity "on the road" between the soundtracks is noticeable in Wanda or Mexican Hijack, the perfect sound to no man's land territory. In Last Man Standing, Ry Cooder simply created one of the most interesting soundtracks of contemporary cinema. 

 

Last Man Standing   1996

Ry Cooder

71 min.

Verve Records