Yeah, until recently, I hadn’t seen The Last Samurai. I’m not a huge Tom Cruise fan. I question how much an American movie would get right Japanese culture and history. I wonder if this is just another version of the story from Dances with Wolves. And really, when it came out, I didn’t get to the movies as often as I have in recent years. So, if I did go, it was probably something I really wanted to see. And, quite frankly, at the time I did not want to see The Last Samurai.
But I am all about filling my gaps, and to the movie’s credit, they did cast Japanese actors as the Japanese characters. Plenty of American movies in the past didn’t do that sort of thing. So, I’ll give the movie credit where it’s due.
Alcoholic former Army Captain Nathan Algren (Cruise) is between jobs when he’s given an chance to make some money doing what he does best: go to Japan and advice the government there on how to build a modern army. It’s the middle of the 19th century, and Algren hasn’t been the same since he was ordered to commit atrocities during the Indian Wars, and the officer who issued those orders (Tony Goldwyn because of course it was Tony Goldwyn) is there too. However, there is a clan led by a samurai, one Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe in his first English language role) that wants Japan to keep its traditional ways. Katsumoto insists he is still loyal to the Emperor, but his resistance puts him against the Emperor’s army. Against Algren’s advice, the Imperial army attacks Katsumoto’s forces and finds itself routed. However, Algren himself manages to acquit himself well and is taken alive back to Katsumodo’s compound as Katsumodo wants to learn about his enemy’s ways. Algren, in turn, perhaps just wants peace even as he’s staying with the widow (Koyuki Kato) of a man Algren personally slew in battle. Can these two men help each other?
Well, of course they can. That’s the formula for a movie like this. Algren finds a lot to like about the samurai ways, even as the movie acknowledges that they can be hard on some people living under the code. How accurate the movie is when it talks about these sorts of things, I have no idea, but I am less interested for my purposes here with historical accuracy than I am in evaluating the movie. And, as a movie, it works. Katsumoto is the last samurai, and the movie doesn’t even pretend Algren is despite Cruise’s playing the part, and Katsumoto’s the sort of leader that it is easy to see why people follow him. Algren grows and learns, discarding alcohol to learn martial arts and the Japanese language. He’s a figure either of curiosity or derision when he first appears in Katsumoto’s village, but he obviously wins over everyone with his stubborn refusal to give up.
Now, anyone who knows even a little about Japanese history knows the country obviously modernized, and rather quickly, during this time period. How much or how little the samurai code would be respected is Katsumoto’s real goal. He wants to keep outside influence out, and he wants Japan to stay strong that way. Given the Emperor (Nakamura Shichinosuke) is himself a very young man, the thing being fought for is just to offer the lad guidance. Modernity can come, but it doesn’t have to be Western ways.
Given his experience on movies like Glory, it probably goes without saying that director Edward Zwick knows how to stage a large-scale battle scene, particularly one where his protagonists are fighting a doomed final battle, especially if they know it. Yes, the samurai are dying out–Katsumoto is the last samurai for a reason–but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t go out on his own terms. It’s moments like this that win me over to movies like The Last Samurai. I have no idea how accurate it was, but given the way the movie played out, as a work of fiction, I am not sure I cared all that much. It was engrossing, exciting, and even if it fit a certain movie formula, it played the formula expertly.
Grade: B+
0 Comments