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THE LAST SAMURAI **1/2 out of *****
Genres
2003 Directed by
Edward Zwick Written by John Logan Edward Zwick Marshall Herskovitz Cast Tom Cruise .... Nathan Algren Ken Watanabe .... Katsumoto William Atherton .... Winchester Rep Chad Lindberg .... Winchester Rep Assistant Ray Godshall Sr. .... Convention Hall Attendee Billy Connolly .... Zebulon Gant Tony Goldwyn .... Colonel Bagley Masato Harada .... Omura Masashi Odate .... Omura's Companion John Koyama .... Omura's Bodyguard Timothy Spall .... Simon Graham Shichinosuke Nakamura .... Emperor Meiji Togo Igawa .... General Hasegawa
The Last Samurai had all the makings of an awesome movie. It had a great plot, a great director (Edward Zwick), a star actor (Tom Cruise), a great supporting cast, a big budget, and beautiful natural New Zealand locations (yes, contrary to belief only a small percentage of the film was shot in Japan, almost all of the film's exteriors where shot in Taranaki). But at the end of the day this was just another Tom Cruise movie, just set in a different time period. And don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. You know, the films where Tom plays a guy who has failed in life somehow, has low self esteem, but at one time in his life was the best at whatever he did. Until he takes a job that he doesn't really want, but does anyway only to learn through the strength of a woman that he can be all that he can be, in fact he always was, and then saves the world or something. You know movies like Top Gun, Days of Thunder, etc, etc, etc. They're all the same (with a few exceptions such as Magnolia and Born on the Fourth of July).
 | Contrary to rumour this is
not a picture of the hero of
Sister Street Fighter. | I have a love-hate relationship with Tom Cruise, but let's not turn this into some Tom-bashing, because this film does have its saving graces. Let's start with the plot. We meet Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise, of course), a Civil War hero haunted by the brutality he witnessed during battle. His life has gone down the toilet, he's an alcoholic, non-caring low-life who is paid almost nothing to be the spokesperson for a rifle company. But his luck changes when he is headhunted by the US Army and the Imperial Army of Japan to go to Japan and train the modern army to fight the samurai armies and bury the traditions of the past to make way for the new Japan. To make a long story short he gets caught by the Samurai in a battle, of which his troops were not ready for in the first place, and is transported to the Samurai village as a prisoner. He is eventually looked after until healed and gets set up to live with the woman and her children of the Samurai he killed in battle. Algren progressively learns their ways and develops a friendship with the Samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe). And before you know it Algren is trained in the way of the Samurai and becomes one of them and fights against what he originally came to Japan to fight for, the modern army.
 | No matter how he used those magical
eyes, she was not going to convert to
Scientology. | This is sort of a Dances with Wolves-meets Samurai movie-meets Tom Cruise movie all rolled up into one. After having seen this film on the big screen I came away wondering how such a good idea could be a little unsatisfying, note the use of the word "little" because it wasn't a complete waste of time. And after a few moments I came to the answer, It was not only the fact that it was a typical Tom Cruise movie but there was more to it, the direction felt manipulative, as if playing with the audience's feelings (I don't know about you, but I like to make up my own mind about a character and not have to be forced to feel something). Team that up with a few cheesy lines and you get a schmaltzy product.
 | Tom Cruise slashes another man's
hat. Later in the film he cuts a ninja's
tie off. | But this product isn't all that bad, despite all that this was an entertaining film, which can mainly be attributed to an amazing supporting cast, which includes Ken Watanabe who delivered an Oscar nominated performance and outshined Cruise in almost every scene. We also have great photography that shows off the stunning beauty of the locations, accurate and wonderful costumes and set pieces and well staged epic-scale battle scenes that will keep all the guys happy, which in all honesty saved this film from being an all out dog. This is basically a big-budget Hollywood movie masquerading as an intelligent epic film that was watchable and enjoyable at times. Wow I didn't think that was possible. |
