Saw the premier last night at Kent Station AMC (these things are at 10pm now...used to be midnight only...mmm).

Love the Rio Bravo reference, obviously a model for the plot.

However I think to understand Last Stand you also have to look at some of great "Getaway" movies of the early 70s such as Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and Vanishing Point ( the style of the movie poster is a giveaway http://cf.drafthouse.com/_uploads/galler… ). In DMCL there is even a chase scene in rows of orange groves, just like the fantastic crawl speed car chase in TLS.

The interesting bit being, like in your reference to Rio Bravo, that the lawless, breaking away from the Man anti-hero is portrayed as the bad guy, and the sheriff, who in those getaway movies would be a dopey guy, is turned into the hero.

So yes, Rio Bravo inflecting Dirty Harry. But Last Stand is a great piece of cinematography too. It's kind of dreamlike mostly visual movie with sparse dialog and a stripped down Americana theme that the Cohen Brothers have been trying to make for 3 decades. But here it works! Take off your thinking cap and stare blankly into the screen and you'll get it.