Movie Review: The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai

Some years ago (never mind how many), I was fortunate to be a foreign exchange student to Japan. While I lived there, I grew to have a deep appreciation for many aspects of the Japanese culture. Unfortunately, that culture had nearly been overwhelmed by western mores by the time I was there. The Last Samurai takes us back in history to the very beginning of the end of Japanese culture, the time when the samurai - a fixture in Japan and the Japanese government for a thousand years - were forced to end their influence and way of life by the incoming tide of western ideas and technologies.

Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is an American Civil War hero, and he has the medals to prove it. Over time, however, his career as a soldier has become less glorious, and some of what he's done sickens him. He drinks to forget, but his expertise and reputation causes Japanese Minister Omura (Masato Harada) to seek him out to train the newly formed Japanese Army. Algren isn't thrilled with the job assignment, and he's even less fond of the man who will accompany him, a Colonel Bagley (Tony Goldwyn) who has commanded him in battle before. But he agrees to take the job because he wants the money.

Once he arrives in Tokyo, Algren and Bagley meet Simon Graham (Timothy Spall). Graham briefs the men on proper Japanese behavior, and acts as their interpreter as needed. As the two American soldiers begin to train the newly conscripted Japanese fighting men, it becomes clear to all concerned that Omura has a very personal interest in wiping out a group of "rebels," men who are Japan's last living samurai. In his urgency, Omura forces the soldiers into battle before they're prepared to fight with western weapons, and the company is roundly defeated by the samurai warriors. Algren fights like a man possessed, but is taken captive by Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) and his men. Katsumoto wants to learn more about his enemies; Algren is an angry prisoner of war who's determined to do the same. The more Algren learns about "bushido" (the "way of the warrior"), however, the less he sees Katsumoto as the enemy and realizes his real battle is with his inner demons and the man he doesn't wish to be any more.

The Last Samurai was filmed in Japan and New Zealand, and it's spectacular. The costuming and living quarters are entirely authentic. And the war between westernization and traditional Japanese culture is, of course, a documented fact. While The Last Samurai is fictional, the story it tells is all too real in general terms. Tom Cruise, who did his own stuntwork for the film, is terrific as a man who first seeks to lose himself and then strives to become again the man he once was. Ken Watanabe is perfect as the proud, yet humbly willing to serve warrior. Katsumoto's sister, Taka (Koyuki, one of Japan's premiere actresses) is lovely and utterly believable as the unwilling woman charged with Algren's care. The battle scenes are both thrilling and horrifying. And the story, while somewhat predictable (what really happened is, after all, a matter of record), is still mesmerizing and more than a little touching. With the exception of a couple of awkward edits that leave some abrupt breaks in the storyline (I suspect there's a lot of footage on a cutting room floor somewhere that will be restored to us when The Last Samurai is finally released on DVD) and an early matte problem, The Last Samuraii is everything the advertisers promised it would be, and I recommend it to all.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Last Samurai is rated R. Some of the battle scenes are quite frightening and graphic, and the plot is very adult. There's also a reasonable amount of subtitling when the characters are speaking in Japanese. As a history lesson, The Last Samurai isn't bad. And as a life lesson, The Last Samuraii is not only effective, but truly moving. I think anyone age 14 and up would enjoy the movie as well as get something a little more lasting from it and a whole lot more important: a respect for bushido, which has as much to recommend it now as it ever did in old Japan.