A Tale Of Swords and Honor: The Last Samurai

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in Ancient Japan and the ways of the Samurai. Well, from that point on when I heard that my uncle John Logan (Gladiator, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Time Machine) was working on a movie entitled The Last Samurai and that it was going to be all about Samurai sword fights and things like that, I grew really excited. A lot of people thought that maybe it would be like Gladiator, but based in Japan, and those narrow-minded idiots are the reasons why I hate our pop culture. Not only is this one of the best films of 2003, but it has to be one of the best action/war movies of all time, because instead of being simply a fighting movie with tons of sword fights, but it is similar to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the way that the story is put first instead of the action. That’s one of the main reasons why I love this movie.

Film Synopsis

Nathan Algren (Cruise) is a retired war hero who’s deeply depressed, drunk and doing a show describing what he saw and did in the war with the Indians. In his time doing this, a man approaches him asking him if he wants to work for the government again for a large lump sum of cash from this Japanese advisor who wants Algren to train his troops like Americans. At first, he denies the request, because he had a bad past with one of the American generals involved (which we learn about later into the film), but then he looks at the amount of money he would get just to train some soldiers so he reconsiders and agrees.

When he arrives in Japan, he finds that a tribe of Samurai is mad about how the Emperor has gone to the American way of fighting with guns rather than the skill of the Samurai with their sword and fighting talents. Algren starts training the soldiers, but when it’s time for them to ship out to fight against the Samurai faction, the soldiers still suck at shooting guns. But the general who Algren has a bitter past with urges them to move and out they do. While fighting a lot of the unskilled soldiers are slain, but the general gets away. As for Algren, well, he’s captured by the Samurai and taken hostage.

The Samurai, in their dragon armor and swords, take Algren to their village, but he’s wounded pretty bad from some stab wounds, so while he’s recuperating the Samurai are curious to what their leader, Katsumoto (Watanabe), wants with the prisoner. When the American recovers, the whole town is frightened of him and the Samurai glare at him wherever he goes. He’s not a prisoner per say since he can walk around the village, but he just can’t leave. During his time spent in this small village of Japan, he tries to overcome the feelings of anger towards him and in time earns the respect and friendship among the Samurai and ends up joining them to fight the Emperor’s soldiers.

What’s Algren’s dreadful past with the general? Will the Samurai stop the corruption of the Emperor? Why’s the movie titled “The Last Samurai”? I guess you have to find out by seeing this flick.

The script is just fantastic and I’m not just saying that because the writer is my uncle. Logan’s always been great with dialogue (if you have noticed from his past films), but in The Last Samurai he truly takes the cake with lines that are appropriate for each scene as well as are believable lines. The witty and humorous dialogue that he adds between characters also livens up the story as well as supplies comic relief for the audience.

Edward Zwick (Legends Of The Fall, Glory) did a fabulous job in the director’s chair. Being a fan of Glory, I thought that maybe he was the ideal director to shoot this movie so I had high hopes for seeing some of the killer shots he’s known for. Towards the end of the movie a huge battle rages between the Samurai and Emperor’s soldiers and you see the scope of the whole battle in dramatic detail through his superb shots.

The Last Samurai is an action flick with awesome sword fights, battles, and just plain seeing Ken Watanabe and Tom Cruise beating up people, but instead of relying on action just to keep the audience interested (a la The Transporter), you want to get through the movie to see what happens not just to see if the closing action sequence is going to top the whole movie. And instead of using Matrix-style slow motion action or gimmicky camera angles to make the action look better, everything is made in old school kung fu camera like in the old Bruce Lee films.

Tom Cruise (Minority Report, Top Gun, Mission: Impossible) heads the cast and although a lot of people dislike him for some reason, I thought he did a magnificent job in The Last Samurai. I’ve been a fan of his since Rain Man and I thought that maybe The Last Samurai was a different style of movie that he’s never done before, but he pulls it off well. John Logan and him are best friends, so Cruise was the ideal star of the movie and he did a great job that was believable and dramatic. Ken Watanabe did such a good job as a supporting character that I think he’s going to get an Academy Award or at least an Oscar. His character is mysterious, curious, wise, and has a heart of gold, and Watanabe acts the role very well. The onscreen chemistry he has with Cruise is incredible and they just click when they’re in a scene with one another.

Don’t even get me on the setting and design. If Gladiator blew you away with all of the cool areas and costumes, than you will just die for The Last Samurai. So much time and preparation was set for the designs and costumes like it was a top priority. The swords look fabulous and actually real while the costumes are designed gloriously as if they were carved out of jade or something. Being shot in New Zealand, you see a lot of spectacular views of mountains and plains (like in Lord Of The Rings fashion) and the locations where each scene is shot at are very realistic. As for props, all the way down to the house that the Samurai live in and the bowls they eat out of are all right on.

In Closing

Although the ending was sort of Western-inspired and had been peed on by Hollywood (“The Last Samurai was never seen again as he rode off into the sunset, but people say he lived happily ever after”) The Last Samurai is definitely worth a watch and I know for a fact that I’m going to be first in line to see this movie when it comes onto shelves because it is definitely without a shadow of a doubt the best film to come out this year and I advise everyone with a passion of swords and Samurai to see it. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be on the edge of your seat, you’ll love it; The Last Samurai. Go see it.


© Jason Haskins, 2003

“JiggyJay”


”The Last Samurai”

Starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe

Directed by Edward Zwick

Produced by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner

Story by John Logan

2003

Rated R for Action, Violence, and War Scenes