Kurosawa Rip-Off Night

In the western Last Man Standing, trigger-happy drifter John Smith (an ever-chilled Bruce Willis) moseys into Jericho, a lousy prohibition-era Texan town in the grip of a vicious vendetta between an Italian mafia organisation and a local Irish gang, both involved in the lucrative trade in illegal liquor. Smith sees a chance to turn this situation to his advantage, skilfully – and with a poker face – playing the gangsters off against one another.

Kurosawa's influence

Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing is a remake of Kurosawa's tense, entertaining Yojimbo, which transformed the western genre for good and is still one of the most influential films of all time. Sergio Leone was inspired by Yojimbo to make his spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars (with Clint Eastwood), and similar plot lines can be traced through Django (1966) and Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012). Screens on 35mm.

Preceded by an hour of clips and trailers from films such as The Magnificent Seven (inspired by Seven Samurai), A Fistful of Dollars (inspired by Yojimbo) and Star Wars (inspired by The Hidden Fortress). Director John Sturgess based The Magnificent Seven on the Japanese classic Seven Samurai, with which Akira Kurosawa had conquered the world six years previously. Kurosawa himself was a big fan of Sturgess' remake, gifting him a samurai sword after seeing the film. Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress was rescued from obscurity when it transpired that this film was a significant influence on George Lucas' Star Wars.