I haven't seen a film, that Tom Cruise was in, that I've enjoyed for the last few years. My husband had to insist I go see The Last Samurai with him.
This movie was produced by Warner Brothers Films, in 2003.
The Producers: Tom Cruise, Tom Engelman, Marshall Herskovitz, Scott Kroopf and Edward Zwick,
The music was written and directed by Hans Zimmer.
It was filmed in New Zealand, Japan, and on the Warner Brothers Studios, in Los Angeles.
The film takes about an hour to see.
The Cast
Tom Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren.
Timothy Spall plays Simon Graham,(Algren's British interpreter)
Billy Godwyn plays Colonel Bagley, (a friend of Agrens).
Ken Watanbe plays Katsumoto, (the Samuri leader).
Hiroyuki Sanada plays Samurai Ujio, (an advisor to the Emperor, who doesn't like Americans).
Shun Sugata plays Nakao, (a woman martial arts master, and the owner of the home that Algren lives in).
Shichinosuke Nakamura is the Emperor.
Sosuke Ikematsu and Aoi Minato, are Nakao's sons.
What You Should Know Happened Before The Film Begins:
The war between the north and south States, (in the USA), has ended. The Army lost the battle with Little Big Horn, (and his tribe), in Montana. Woodrow Algren and a few of his friends aren't happy with their leader, when lead them into battle, unprepared).
Hiro Hito, the sun god, and the Emperor of Japan, has just become Emperor. He wants the old ways to end, and wants to have a modern Army. This means that the old warriors of Japan, (the Samurai), must end.
A lot of Countries want to sell him weapons, and they are all competing for this privilege.
The Plot:
The movie begins in 1870, in San Francisco. His former General, has been asked to gather his troops together again, and go to Japan to train the new Army.
One of Captain Woodrow, is asked to attend a meeting. He hasn't been doing too well, since he retired from the Army. He doesn't want to go to the meeting, but one of his good friends persuades him to go.
The Americans are offering a lot of money for the men that go. He decides to accept the offer and the next time we see him is on a ship, sailing for Japan. During the voyage, he has a lot of time to reflect on his life, and he isn't too happy, with it. He has become an alcoholic and is moody and mean.
The Americans begin to train the Japanese, and their General, wants to send them to battle the Samurai. He tells the General the troops are not ready to fight anyone. Hiro Hito is there and he is the one that will make the finally decision. He's a young man, and doesn't trust his instincts, or anyone who isn't Japanese. He tells them to go kill as many Samurai as they can.
Andrews agrees to go, only because he wants to see how the Samurai fight, (know thy enemy). During the battle, Woodrow kills a Samurai, before he is injured.
The head of the Katsumoto captures him, and take him back to their mountain village. He is taken to the home of a young widow, Taka, who has two sons.
She not only cures his wounds, but stops him from drinking, and eventually saves his soul.
Every time you see her looking at him she is polite, but if you look into her eyes you see how much she hates him.
She pleas with the head of the Katsumoto, (who is her brother-in-law), to take him to live in another house, but he refuses her request.
Katsumoto starts to have small talks with Woodrow. When Woodrow asks him why, Katsumoto replies, ''I want to know how my enemy fights''. The talks get longer and soon they become friends.
Woodrow, decides that it is a good idea to learn how to fight like his enemy, (the Samurai).
He lives with the Samurai for a long time. The young children start to teach him how to fight like a Samurai.
He begins by using sticks and gradually gets a sword. During frequent small chats he becomes friends with the Samurai War Lord.
Katsumoto offer to let Captain Nathan Algren return to the Japanese Army.
Why does Nakao hate him?
Why are Nakao's sons, Sosuke Ikematsu and Aoi Minato, frightened of him?
Does he go back?
I never tell the end of a film, so I will end here.
To Become A Samurai, (you learn these in this order):
Friendship, courage, respect, learning to be a warrior and a fighting spirit.
What I Thought
Then chemistry between Shun Sugata and her sons, started out slowly, and became fabulous. It's amazing what one can do without speaking, but by moving their bodies and eyes.
Director Edward Zwick, used the KISS, (keep it simple), theory, because he showed it how it might have happened in real life.
The Costumes were incredible. I loved the scene where Tom Cruise tried to put on the cloths the Samurai wear. I read somewhere that this scene wasn't scheduled to appear in the movie, but they were shooting it for fun. It turned out so well they used it.
The Cinematography was superb, epically in the battle scenes, and when Cruise was interacting with the sons.
Most of the dialogue is in English, and there isn't too much translation from Japanese to English. It is so funny to see the Japanese being so nice, and saying terrible things, which are not translated, but the English, and Cruise, were told something different.
The music went well with the action on the screen. I thought this was edited very well.
My Conclusion
This was the best movie I've seen in months. I highly recommend it to you.
The website is:
https://lastsamurai.warnerbros.com/index.php?c=3
Thank you for reading my review.
©LL2004
