Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Glass Key/Miller's Crossing

From: Rene Ribic ( rribic@optusnet.com.au)
Date: 24 Jan 2002


> Adrian=20Breeman < adrian@perplexed.net> writ:
>
> > > Aren't Yojimbo and Eastwood's Fistful of Dollars
> > > also modeled on Red Harvest?
> >
> > As was Bruce Willis' "Last Man Standing," right?
>
> That's how the stories usually go.
>
> However, if I remember correctly (it's been a long time since I saw this
> film, and I only saw it the once) the end credits of LMS cite Kurosawa
> as a source rather than Hammett.
>
> ED
Although the case remains open on Yojimbo & Leone states (IIRC) that "Fistful" is a remake of "Yojimbo" IMHO "Last Man Standing" by being set during the 1920's in Butte, Montana (or somewhere very similar), the model for "Poisonville" has made it obvious that Hill (or somebody involved in the project) has read "Red Harvest" but preferred not to credit Hammett.The only reason I can see is to avoid paying royalties to Hammett's estate.Ditto the Coen Bros & "Miller's Crossing" & "The Glass Key". Somebody on the list wrote that plot similarities of "Red Harvest" to "Yojimbo", etc boiled down to the hero arriving in town & kicking everybody's butt, which sounds like a description of untold no. of western & action thrillers. Actually, the similarity lies not in the hero kicking everybody-in- town's butt but rather in the hero manipulating the 2 factions of bad guys into doing the job for him (or her). I believe this narrows the field down considerably & in the case of "Last Man Standing" setting it in Butte in the 1920's would be an amazing coincidence if the producer/director/writer were all unaware of Hammett.Has anyone else ever set a story or movie in Butte?

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