5 out of 5

Director: Walter Hill

Color me horrible, but not only is this one of my favorite Bruce Willis movies, I also happen to think it’s better than the film on which it’s based… Yojimbo. So crucify me for placing Walter Hill above Kurosawa, but whatever. They’re directors of distinctly different styles, creating two distinct films.

Here Bruce Willis plays John Smith, a gun-for-hire drifter who wanders into a run-down town thats been overtaken by two warring booze-smugglin’ 20s gangsters. Sensing money to be made, he aligns himself with the barkeep and plays against the crooked sheriff (Bruce Dern), hopping between both sides of the war when he deems fit. But when his conscience causes him to try to save some innocents, Smith’s loyalties are questioned and he gets in a bit above his head.

What is this movie? Badass. Yes, his guns apparently only carry 14 shots and he shoots sometimes 25, sometimes 6 shots before reloading. Yes, guys go flying in slo-mo for approximate miles across the screen when shot. And yes, it’s downbeat, quiet, and slow. But it is one of the most intense, awesome action shooters I have ever seen, highlighted by some great character bits (Bruce has never been this cold, and Christopher Walken, playing another gunman, is a weird balance of crazy but smart nervous energy – two tweaks on their regular performance styles) and a perfectly bleak, acerbic mood. Yojimbo, in comparison, is slightly uneven owing to being more of a comedy with a dark premise, so you want action but it never quite arrives in full. Here that’s been corrected, with Yojimbo’s two main influences – noir and Westerns – shining brightly through. I eventually watched this back to back with Kurosawa’s film and the respect is there, because Hill adds in tons of references – not just plotting and lines, but also little touches like the excellent Ry Cooder soundtrack echoing Yojimbo’s main theme and using Kurosawa’s wipe technique in several shots.

The movie stays mainly on one emotional note and those looking for tons of explosions will be bored. But if you like hard-boiled, guys-with-eternal-sneers, stone-cold movies, you’ll be at home.