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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
I recently watched Fist Full Of Dollars (one of those Clint Eastwood, Italian westerns), for about the third time. Good movie, interesting story.
Then, a few days later, I checked out Last Man Standing, a recent Bruce Willis movie. Good movie, interesting story. Hey, it is the same story. I suppose other people have commented on this fact. But, those two movies are almost identical. It is amazing to see them one right after the other.
Addendum #1:
I received email, from a person who is apparently the scum of the earth (his other email to me was abusive), informing me that both movies are based on Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. I have not seen that one.
Apparently The Magnificent Seven was based on Kurosawa's The Seven Samarai. I heard that the original Star Wars was based on Kurosawa movies, to some extent. And, Kurosawa's Ran was based on Shakespeare's King Lear.
Addendum #2:
I received this email:
First was the movie "The Glass Key" (1942) starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and Brian Donlevy. There are several other great actors in it, including William Bendix who is terrific as a very frightening thug. Wonderful movie from a very good Dashiell Hammett book. The story line has Ladd as a loyal retainer of political boss Donlevy who helps Donlevy by pretending to cross Donlevy and defect to a rival politician. Of course, the rival is corrupt and the loyal Ladd sabotages the rival from within. Akira Kurosawa saw "The Glass Key" and was attracted to the story line of a man playing two groups against each other. But, where in "The Glass Key" it turned out that the lone man was actually loyal to one group, Kurosawa changed the story so that the lone man is not a member of either group. Both groups are corrupt and the lone man encourages them against each other until he can defeat them both. This became "Yojimbo" (1961), which means bodyguard in Japanese. Toshiro Mifune plays the yojimbo and is superb. Great movie.