Feb 26, 2004 04:49 AM
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(Updated Feb 26, 2004 07:50 AM)
The Last Samurai is a story of warriors in different cultures, their perspectives on the art of war, and the story of how one warrior who has lost his identity, regains his sense of honor.
The era in which the movie is set is the post civil war era in the United States and during the Meiji Restoration in Japan.
The movie opens with a drunk Nathan Algren (played by Tom Cruise) who fought under General George Custer at Little Big Horse against the Sioux and the Cheyenne led by chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. He has recurring visions of women and children being mercilessly slaughtered by soldiers in the post Civil War Indian (native American) battles. He is troubled by his conscience over it, and uses alcohol to ease his mind.
Simultaneously Katsumoto (played by Ken Watanabe) has a vision of a tiger defending itself when being surrounded by four soldiers.
Algren decides to accept a position as a military advisor to help build the fledgling army in Japan. He finds that the soldiers are nothing more than untrained peasants and faces the uphill task of making them fighting men, fit enough to take on the samurai (''... whose sole occupation has been war for the past 1000 years'') led by Katsumoto.
On his first encounter with the samurai (brilliantly shot) , he is captured and is taken to the village which belongs to Katsumoto's son. He's nursed back to health by Katsumoto's sister Taka (played by Koyuki) who agrees to take care of him much against her wishes.
Algren finds out that Taka is the widow of the warrior he killed in battle.
He is despised by the other samurai as a ''gaijin'' (foreigner) but Katsumoto engages him in brief and interesting conversations trying to learn more about the west.
Algren tries to learn Japanese along with making an attempt to learn Kendo (Japanese art of sword fighting).
In the time which he spends with the samurai, he learns of their attitude towards war, the guiding principles of a warrior's life and about the samurai, who are warrior-poets.
Meanwhile the Emperor's army has been trained well and modernized, thanks to the efforts of Algren's associate Colonel Bagley. Algren is escorted back to Edo (now Tokyo) by Katsumoto and his fellow samurai.
Katsumoto who also happens to be the Emperor's teacher is imprisoned by the emperor and asked to commit ritual hara-kiri (suicide by cutting open one's stomach).
But Algren and the others rescue him and head back to the village. The Emperor sends his army to quell the Samurai rebellion and the final battle scene is shot very well showing unparalleled heroism and tragedy of how the old way violently gives way to the new.
The film is a treat to watch, especially with the excellent scenes of Japan's rural landscape. Tom Cruise seems to show no exceptional acting, especially when all of his emotions seem to be centered on a smoldering stare. The other actors are really good, but I wish that somebody else could have played Nathan Algren. For instance, he could have studied Marlon Brando in ''Sayonara''.
Also the movie tells very little about the Tokugawa Shogunate or about Katsumoto and how he is the instructor of the young emperor.
Hans Zimmer's music is as haunting as his Gladiator score.
If you are really interested in samurai history and tradition ''Chusingura'' is a great movie to watch.It tells the story of the 47 ronin (masterless samurai) and is approximately 205 minutes long.
