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I have seen a good many epic movies in my day. Braveheart, Glory, Gettysburg, Gladiator, The Seven Samurai are just a few. What separated the great movies like Glory and The Seven Samurai from the mediocre ones (Gladiator and The Patriot come to mind) was this key difference. Great movies are not afraid to respect their audience, to push the envelope, to engage our emotions through story-telling rather than flashy special effects and melodrama. The Patriot cheated us, because it relied on Mel Gibson's star power and unfair depiction of the British as evil to gain our interest. Gladiator relied on over-the-top violence and cardboard cut-out bad guys. The Last Samurai does none of these. It has a star in Tom Cruise, but it does not exploit his star power. It could give us stereotypical bad guys, but doesn't. Instead, it challenges us to wonder if there even are any bad guys. It forces us to confront the notion that maybe traditional ways are better than our own modern ones. Tom Cruise is Captain Nathan Algren, a Civil War veteran who is sent to Japan in 1876 to train a new regiment and crush a rebellion. The rebel forces are samurai, sworn to upholding tradition while loyally serving the Emperor Meiji. Algren arrives in Japan a drunkard who is haunted by flashbacks of his involvement in suppressing Native American rebellions in the West. He has no aspirations for fame or glory; money is his only cause for fighting. His troops are sent into battle only shortly after their training has begun, unprepared greenhorns still frightened by the sound of rifles firing. In a beautifully lit scene in the forest, with sunlight streaming through the fog, Algren's forces face the samurai, who wield only spears, bows and katana. In the resulting battle, Algren is captured after putting up a desperate fight and killing one of the samurai. It is then that he meets Katsumoto, leader of the samurai, who spares his life. Katsumoto is portrayed brilliantly by Ken Watanabe, who brings pathos and complexity to the role. His performance reminded me at once of Shimura Takashi in Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. Both actors gave their roles compassion and strength, coupled by just the right touch of humour. Here, he proves that he is the one actor who could take Toshiro Mifune's place in Japanese cinema. Katsumoto sees that Algren is healed of his wounds, because he wishes to "learn more about his enemy." Algren is placed in the home of a woman named Taka (played by Koyuki), who happens to be the widow of the samurai he killed. As he slowly begins to recover from his wounds and the throes of alcoholism, he investigates the small town and its people. He also begins to learn swordsmanship, under the tutelage of Ujio, Katsumoto's right-hand man. Ujio is played by Japanese super-star Hiroyuki Sanada, who you may have seen in Ringu. Even though his part has few lines, his presence is overwhelming every time he's on the screen. He just has so much charisma, even if he's only sneering. Ujio may hate Algren at first, but he is soon won over by the American's unwillingness to give up. To cut a long story short, Algren eventually teams up with the rebels, and he and Katsumoto become friends and brothers-in-arms. This all leads to the inevitable, final battle, in which Katsumoto's samurai are outnumbered 500 to 2,000. I won't tell you how the battle ends, but if you understand the movie when you see it, you'll know before it happens. The Last Samurai is a great film because it portrays the Japanese as complex and human, something few other Western films have done (or even attempted). And it forces us to understand the samurai in a different way, as something other than men willing to die at any moment. It also shows us that while fighting and dying in battle may be futile, it is never, ever meaningless. I recommend this film to any fan of epic movies, great drama, or action films. The set design and costuming is lavish, the script superb and the cinematography sweeping in scope. This is probably the best samurai film since the works of Akira Kurosawa, and that's saying a lot. |