To the Last Man: Collector's Edition

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Over in England, people used to say that "the BBC just cannot make good westerns," which was very disappointing to the network because all of the big television shows at the time were cowboy frolics like Gunsmoke, Wagon Train and Bonanza. Well, To the Last Man raises a new question - can a cosmopolitan San Francisco gay porn studio run my lifelong urban dwellers make a gay porn Western? For me, this issue is key to why I was disappointed by their double DVD epic.

We have applauded the ambitious talents and visions of Chris Ward, Ben Leon and Tony DiMarco frequently. Unfortunately in this genre, they have created a picture that is surprisingly soulless. Ambitiously filmed on ranches in Arizona and Northern California, the movie is well edited and contains some memorable moments. The movie is also a must see for fans of Ricky Sinz, Scott Tanner, Damien Crosse and R.J. Danvers.

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Looking at similar films in this genre, it falls well short to Buckshot's Buckleroos, or even this year's completely overlooked western movie from Jet Set Productions, Hung Country for Young Men, which was directed by transplanted Texan Chris Steele.

The story of To the Last Man centers around two neighboring ranches who get into a deadly fight over water. Perhaps the producers were modeling this over the 1950's Hollywood chestnut The Big Country, a lengthy Cinemascope epic starring Gregory Peck and the glamorously understated Jean Simmons. The script is a real reach for Tony DiMarco, who also penned this same year the confident story behind the excellent film The Drifter.

To The Last Man Part 1: The Gathering Storm

The film begins with some hot sequences starting with a beautifully filmed solo from Damien Crosse, a Cuban-American hunk who the studio has signed into a well deserved exclusive contract. (More Damien Crosse on our FriskyBoards post) Crosse also does some things with a bottle of Jack Daniel's that will make any viewer's jaw drop. After this, he wanders into an very authentic looking forge, where Antton Harri busies himself making horseshoes over the burning kiln.

Crosse finds the indoor heat dire, so he strips down to nothing but an apron. Seeing Crosse, naked in a work apron, is arguably one of the hottest images of the entire movie. All this naked forge work leads him to throw a rousing fuck into Harri, who for a Euromuscle guy has been popping up frequently in gay porn cowboy movies. (Muscle Ranch 2)

After this, a bearded Antonio Biaggi shows up to shoe away Harri so that he can pull his giant cock and balls out of his pants for a vigorous blowjob from Crosse.

Over in the barn, R.J. Danvers decides to work over fellow ranch hand Dan Rhodes, a bald Australian daddy who makes good work of the bottom's jiggly buns. After a while, Tanner shows up. Rhodes pulls out and steps aside so that the boss can have some of Danvers' butt. In a hot sequence, Danvers cums then exits, while Tanner gets his rocks off by fucking Rhodes.

Tension mounts when evil ranch owner Sinz learns that his neighbors have pilfered fresh water off of his property. What's worse, he hears that one of his employees, Harri, has been friendly this doomed fellow, played by Jake Deckard. After getting cussed out, Harri continues his forbidden relationship, meeting Decked for a late night tryst outdoors. This leads Sinz to brand the vaquero with a hot poker, just like one of his own cattle.

Meanwhile, a drunken Sinz corrals Jackson Wild into sucking him off in a barn. Sinz relishes a cigarette while Wild smokes his cock, culminating with an enthusiastic face-fucking.

As the drought rages, things look bleak for the good guys. Dismayed, Tristan Jaxx and a returning Danvers throws up his hands from fixing a dilapidated tractor, instead throwing his legs up to fellow worker Tristan Jaxx. In that same old barn, Jaxx (Endless Crush), who has a nice uncut cock, bangs the passive Danvers very hard. In one inventive visual, Jaxx swaps his dick out with a very large metal wrench, which is wrapped in a condom.

After this, Scott Campbell gets into an argument with Logan McCree, who works for the adjacent, evil ranch. He also is one of the few guys in the movie who wear long underwear, the backside conveniently ripped out. Their anger snaps into passion, which turns into one of the film's more romantic interludes. Their sucking and fucking is framed in the background of a yawning canyon.

McCree is a riveting figure to watch, fucking Campbell with his big, tattooed dick. Then after a while, McCree casually sits down on Campbell, fucking himself until he cums.

The film ends with an abrupt lynching, when Sinz's gang shows up and brutally hangs Deckard as punishment for trespassing on his property.

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To the Last Man Part 2: Gunz Blazing

For the second film, To the Last Man: Guns Blazing, the ghost of Sam Peckinpah returns from the grave and takes control of the camera. The movie features murders, bloody gunfights and a rape scene.

The film starts with Deckard's funeral, where Harri surreptitiously appears at the very end to leave flowers in mourning. Rhodes suddenly pops out and guns Harri down, who gets his own a deadly gunshot back, killing the shooter.

Meanwhile, Sinz decides to relieve some stress with by taking all of his frustrations out on Damien Rios' poor asshole. Just like in GRUNTS, Sinz is one power-fucker, pounding Rios in several positions, often clutching his own bottle of Jack Daniels.

At the end, Rios shoots a gusher of a money shot.

Next, Jimmy Trips makes his Raging Stallion debut, using that big cock of his to drill muscle-bear Rick Powers. Trips is a feisty little sparkplug. He shows that he is just as hot a top as in Michael Lucas' Auditions Vol. 19 - Jimmy Trips.

Renn returns for the very next scene, gorging himself on Jaxx's big dick. They retreat to yet another convenient barn where Renn receives a hard ass pounding. Jaxx cums on the bottom's face.

To the Last Man Preview

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Next, the blond Campbell foolishly runs to pilfer more fresh water from Sinz's ranch. For some reason he spontaneously decides to go skinny dipping. Biaggi crawls out of the forest like a spider. With a long rifle in hand, he persuades Campbell to suck his eleven inch cock. Biaggi stretches Campbell's ass to the absolute max, whilst bent over some convenient small boulders. In a surprise finish, they both cum in each other's mouth.

Then as a follow-up, the two get into a kerfuffle in the water, ending with Campbell violently drowning Biaggi in the cold spring.

Breaking the build-up of tension, Cross and Wild are able to have a pretty hot one-on-one together in yet another barn, fucking standing doggie amidst the hay. After a solo performance from Trips, the movie ends with Tanner's rape scene from McCree and Sinz, culminating in a gun battle where there is only one man left standing. To the Last Man is aptly titled in this regard.

More Award-Winning Problems

Am I being too harsh on To the Last Man? Let me just say that edited into one movie it would have been much more powerful. The studio clearly went to great expense going far to film on location. For the finished product, the team simply bit off more then they can chew, and I'll attribute it to the fact that writing a Western just may not have been easy for this San Francisco-based group. And in this writer's opinion, the additional buckets of blood were thrown in to generate marketing controversy. This arguably works for the Cohen Brothers, but it didn't for Raging Stallion.

Another big criticism, apparently J.D. Slater was unavailable to produce the music for the film, so another musician was hired. Slater, who typically writes memorable musical soundtracks to the studio's films, is sorely missed here. The music for To the Last Man ranges from boring, endless guitar strumming to completely forgettable canned keyboards. Worse, the brutal hanging at the end of part one, as well its closing credits are oddly to the dreamy music of Camille Saint-Saëns' romantic classical piece, Aquarium. Weird. And this movie won a GayVN for Best Music?

To contrast, Jet Set's modest Hung Country for Young Men closed nicely with a poignant, old country song playing under some lovely shots of the New Mexico countryside. The BBC today contines making some fine television, and Raging Stallion produces fine porn. Know your limits.

-Dessie