Last Supper, The - DVD

Yu is a young noble handsome, brave, admired. Commander of the eras most powerful army, he leads the revolt against the cruel Qin dynasty. Yu recognizes great potential in Liu, a peasant, and gives him command of 5,000 soldiers. Liu breaks an agreement with Yu by entering and ransacking the Qin capital alone. The Qin dynasty falls and Yu rules. Wary of treachery, his advisers plot to kill Liu at a great banquet, but the emperor spares his life. From this last supper, Liu will wage war against Yu. Xin, an adviser to Yu, joins him. Defeated, Yu commits suicide on the battlefield rather than submit to capture. Yu is dead, but now Xin is a threat. Liu imprisons then releases him, but broods about having spared Xins life as Yu spared his Xin too must die. Emperor Liu has finally reached his goal. But his soul remains deeply troubled - haunted by the ghosts of his betrayals, unable to find peace in the position he dreamed of and fought ruthlessly to achieve.

Consciously self-reflexive and co-written by Hopper and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE screenwriter Stewart Stern, THE LAST MOVIE follows a Hollywood movie crew in the midst of making a western in a remote Peruvian village. When production wraps, Hopper, as the baleful stuntman Kansas, remains, attempting to find redemption in the isolation of Peru and the arms of a former prostitute. Meanwhile, the local Indians have taken over the abandoned set and begun to stage a ritualistic re-enactment of the production - with Kansas as their sacrificial lamb. Among the most storied productions of the New Hollywood Era, Hopper was given carte blanche by Universal for his next directorial feature after the tremendous commercial success of EASY RIDER, and writer-director-star took the money and ran - literally - staging THE LAST MOVIE in Peru at farthest remove from the Hollywood machine, with an on-screen entourage in tow that included Kris Kristofferson, Julie Adams, Stella Garcia, Peter Fonda, Dean Stockwell, Toni Basil, Russ Tamblyn, Michelle Phillips and director Samuel Fuller. Although it won a special award at the Venice Film Festival, THE LAST MOVIE would effectively end Hopper's career for many years - the Hollywood establishment gleefully writing him off as a self-indulgent madman. Yet the movie remains thrillingly innovative and remarkably contemporary - influenced greatly by the work of Bruce Conner and the French New Wave, as well as the Pop and Abstract artists Hopper revered.

A biting black comedy, THE LAST SUPPER details the lives of five grad students who suddenly murder a bigoted, ultra right-wing dinner guest and then decide to rid society of its most offensive members. Featured in cameos as the reprehensible victims are Bill Paxton, Charles Durning, Jason Alexander and Ron Perlman.