A Comparison of 'Yojimbo', 'A Fistful of Dollars' and 'Last

Man Standing'
Created Sep 30, 2003 | Updated Nov 1, 2006

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If you ask film buffs which is Akira Kurosawa's greatest film, most would say Seven
Samurai. However, if you ask them which is Kurosawa's most popular film, they would
point to Yojimbo, a 1961 film that gave a new definition to the samurai film genre. This
entry discusses the Kurosawa film and its two remakes, one of which became a
classic in its own right.

Precursors - Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest

Many film critics point to Red Harvest, a pulp novel written by Dashiell Hammett, as one of Yojimbo's
major influences. In the novel, Hammett's series character, the unnamed Continental Op, is called
into the town of Personville (nicknamed 'Poisonville') to investigate corruption problems. When the
man who called him in is murdered, the Op takes action by meeting all the criminal elements of the
town and turning them against each other.

Although Red Harvest is certainly an influence on the film script written by Kurosawa along with his
writing partner Ryuzo Kikushima, Yojimbo is not an adaptation of the novel. There are enough
differences in plot elements and execution to mark Kurosawa's work as an original.

Comparison of Elements in the Three Films

The story script is written by Ryuzo Kikushima and Akira Kurosawa.

Plot Element Yojimbo (1961) A Fistful of Dollars Last Man Standing

(1964) (1996)

Our hero is ... A scruffy ronin in 1860s A scruffy gunslinger A scruffy hitman on the
Japan (Toshiro Mifune) known as the Man run, in Prohibition-era
With No Name, in late Texas (Bruce Willis)
19th Century Mexico
(Clint Eastwood)

Who decides his Throwing a dead tree Letting his mule Spinning an empty
path by ... branch in the air and follow the road whisky bottle on the
following its direction road and following its
when it lands direction when it stops
He arrives at ... An unnamed dry, dusty The dry, dusty The dry, dusty village of
Japanese village Mexican village of Jericho, Texas
San Miguel

And is startled by A dog with a severed The dead body of a The fly-infested remains
the sight of ... human hand in its mouth Mexican peasant of a draft horse, lying in
sitting on a mule the middle of the street
trotting out of town

He gets some Hansuke (Ikio Juan de Dios, the Ed Galt (Bruce Dern),
information about Sawamura), the corrupt town's lunatic the corrupt sheriff
the place from ... constable and village bell-ringer
time-keeper

And is almost Tough guys working for Tough guys working Tough guys working for
immediately the ganglord Ushi-Tora for gun-runner John liquor smuggler Doyle
confronted by ... (Kyu Sazanka), who jeer Baxter (Wolfgang (David Patrick Kelly),
him as he goes to the Lukschy), who fire who vandalize his car
local bar shots at his mule, before he decides to
causing it to refresh himself at the
stampede towards local bar
the local bar

He gets more Gonji (Eijiro Tono), the Silvanito (José Joe Monday (William
information about local tavern keeper Calvo), the local Sanderson), the local
the situation from tavern keeper tavern keeper
...

The town is The gang of Seibei The Baxters, who The Strozzis, led by
infested by two (Seizaburu Kawazu), smuggle guns across Fredo (Ned Eisenberg),
rival gangs ... who backs the silk the border, and the and the Doyle gang,
merchant Tazaemon Rojos, led by Benito who both smuggle
(Kamatari Fujiwara), and (Antonio Prieto), who liquor from Mexico
the gang of Ushi-Tora, smuggle liquor
who backs the sake
merchant Tokuemon
(Takashi Shimura)

Deciding to hire Confronting and killing Confronting and Confronting and killing
himself out, he three of Ushi-Tora's killing four of John Finn, who was one of
makes an henchmen Baxter's henchmen Doyle's henchmen
impression by ...
Upon being hired Kuwabatake Sanjuro
by the rival gang, (after looking at a field of
he introduces mulberries)1
himself as ...
And quits the He overhears Seibei and
gang after ... his family plotting to kill
him
He eventually Unosuke (Tatsuya
meets the man Nakadai), Ushi-Tora's
who will become youngest brother who is
his main rival ... an expert shot with a
revolver
One of the gangs Ushi-Tora arranges to
commits a major have a government
crime when ... official assassinated
Our Hero turns Capturing the two
this event to his assassins, selling them
advantage by ... to Seibei's gang, and
informing Ushi-Tora of
their whereabouts
As a result of Our Seibei's idiot son
Hero's Yoichiro (Hiroshi
machinations ... Tachikawa) is captured
by the Ushi-Tora gang
Actually he doesn't, John Smith, from back
but the local East
undertaker calls him
'Joe'
He overhears The He finds out the
Rojos brothers Strozzis have been
plotting to kill him asking questions about
his past, ostensibly in a
plot to kill him
Ramon Rojo (Gian Hickey (Christopher
Maria Volonté), the Walken), a member of
Rojos' youngest the Doyle gang who is
brother who is an an expert shot with both
expert shot with a rifle machine gun and pistol
The Rojos ambush The Strozzis convince a
and massacre a corrupt Mexican
Mexican Army commandant to
expedition, capturing ambush and massacre
a shipment of gold Doyle's booze-carrying
convoy
Setting up two Tricking the Strozzis
corpses as possible into renegotiating their
witnesses, and deal with the
tricking the Baxters commandant, and
into a gun battle with informing the Doyles of
the Rojos over them their whereabouts
The Baxters' idiot son Strozzi's idiot cousin
Antonio (Bruno Georgio Carmonte
Carotenuto) is (Michael Imperioli) is
captured by the Rojos captured by the Doyle
gang
The hostage is Nui (Yoko Tsukasa), Marisol (Marianne Felina (Karina
eventually Tokuemon's mistress, Koch), Ramon Rojo's Lombard), Doyle's
exchanged for ... who was taken away mistress, who was mistress, who was
from her husband and taken away from her taken away from her
son to settle her husband and son to husband and daughter
husband's gambling debt settle her husband's to settle her husband's
gambling debt gambling debt

Learning of her Joins Ushi-Tora's gang, Joins the Rojos, then Joins the Doyle gang,
history and plight, then massacres her massacres her then massacres her
Our Hero ... guards, reunites her with guards, reunites her guards, puts her in a
her family and sends with her family and car and has her drive to
them out of town sends them out of Mexico to be reunited
town with her family

But he's caught A giant hulking A giant fat henchman A fairly big henchman
by his rival, then henchman (Namigoro (Mario Brega) (Tiny Ron)
beaten and Rashomon)
tortured by ...

Eventually A coffin barrel A wooden coffin The back seat of Sheriff

escaping his Galt's cruiser
captors, he is
hidden in ...

From there, he Seibei's gang, as each is The Baxters, as each The Strozzis, as each
witnesses the either cut down or shot member is gunned member either burns to
extinction of ... by Unosuke when they down while their death or is gunned
are driven out of their house burns to the down while the
house by smoke ground roadhouse they're holed
up in burns to the
ground

When the A dead man's sword, A pistol and a stack of An pair of pistols, given
bartender is given to him by the coffin dynamite, given to to him by Sheriff Galt
captured for maker him by the undertaker
aiding Our Hero,
he comes to the
rescue armed with
...
In the end, Our Throwing a kitchen knife Using an iron plate to Beating him to the draw
Hero wipes out into his gun arm deflect his rifle shots, of a hidden pistol with a
the other gang then outdrawing him single shot
and defeats his in a pistol vs rifle duel
rival by ...

Further Notes on Yojimbo

● For the first time in the jidai-geki genre, blood is seen onscreen and realistic sound effects of
steel striking flesh and bone are used. This proved to be a huge influence on future samurai
films.
● In an early scene, our hero slices an arm off one of his assailants. This scene is echoed by
director George Lucas in Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope (1977), when Obi-Wan Kenobi
slices off the arm of one of Luke Skywalker's assailants.
● Although Kurosawa included many funny elements in his earlier films, this is his first
out-and-out comedy. The make-up of his villain characters is heavily distorted, and their
actions while fighting are choreographed for humour.
● The film may also be an answer to charges by Japanese film critics that Kurosawa was too
heavily influenced by the films of the West. Much of the film's settings are clichés taken
straight out of B-Western films.
● Yojimbo was successful enough to spawn one official sequel. In Kurosawa's next film,
Sanjuro (1962), Mifune's Sanjuro character aids a group of inept young samurai as they
attempt to rescue an honest magistrate from the clutches of a corrupt police official. There
are other films which claim to feature Mifune's Yojimbo character - notably Zatoichi vs
Yojimbo (1970) - but due to inferior script work and Mifune's declining physical abilities (he
was now in his mid-40s), such films lack the snap of Kurosawa's originals.

Further Notes on A Fistful of Dollars

● Director Sergio Leone never actually got permission to remake Yojimbo, nor did the
producers. Shortly after the film was released in Europe, Kurosawa launched a plagiarism
suit. The suit was settled a year later, with Kurosawa receiving 15 percent of the movie's
worldwide receipts and a minimum of $100,000. To this day, the connection to Kurosawa's
film has never been mentioned in film publicity by MGM/United Artists, the film's American
distributor.
● The film was so low-budget that actor Clint Eastwood was obliged to buy his own clothing
from a second-hand shop in California in order to create the look of The Man With No Name.
There was one exception to his wardrobe: Leone provided the poncho from a shop in Spain.
 ● The film was shot mainly in Spain, to take advantage of the terrain. Very few members of the
production crew spoke English. To encourage distribution in North America, Leone had many
of the film credits Anglicised; in the original print, for example, he is listed as 'Bob Robertson'.
● As a cost-saving measure, Leone decided to use extreme close-ups of the actors' faces to
convey emotion. This became one of Leone's favourite techniques.
● When the film was first broadcast on American television, a new sequence was added by
network executives (unknown to either Eastwood or Leone). In this prologue, the Man with
No Name (played by a look-a-like) has his prison sentence commuted by the prison warden,
provided he cleans up the Mexican village of the film. The prologue was dropped from later
releases and broadcasts of the film.
● A Fistful of Dollars was the first of Leone and Eastwood's Dollars Trilogy, featuring the Man
with No Name. The other two are For A Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly (1966). Contrary to some accounts, neither has anything to do with Kurosawa's
sequel Sanjuro.

Further Notes on Last Man Standing

● This is an official remake of Yojimbo, with Kikushima and Kurosawa receiving a story credit
on the film. The actual screenplay was written by director Walter Hill.
● When New Line Cinema bought the remake rights in 1992, the initial intention was to reset
the story in 21st-Century America. Eventually, the story was moved to the 1920s.
● The film is normally decried as an inferior remake, although it does have some supporters.
Critics concede that Hill's use of cinematography and lighting are first rate, but he has also
been both praised and panned for his stylized use of violence. As the lead actor, Willis
attempts to blend a sense of humour into a film-noirish character; unfortunately, the results
are uneven; 'John Smith' alternates between a wooden demeanour and a 'wise-guy' attitude.
● An interesting innovation is the use of music by Ry Cooder. When Kurosawa asked Masaru
Sato to compose music for Yojimbo, he wanted the main theme to be reminiscent of a
bull-dozer. Cooder actually achieves this effect with his electronic, blues-style main theme.

Availability
All three films have been released on DVD. Yojimbo was released by the Criterion Collection. A
Fistful of Dollars was released by MGM/UA Home Entertainment, and Last Man Standing was
released by New Line Home Entertainment.

1
Kuwabatake means 'mulberry' in Japanese.