Review of The Last Samurai (2003) by Luke M — 18 Jun 2014

The Last Samurai is a tale of a an American soldier who is captured by the "last samurai" and comes to quickly respect then fall in with their principles and way of life. Yes, it pretty much is "Dances with Wolves" in East Asia. However, that aspect of the film is the weakest. Tom Cruise just doesn't pull off brooding and suicidal very well. He replaces a depth of character with cheesily overacting most of his scenes at the beginning of the film. He laughs contemptuously at his old cronies who hire him to become an advisor for the Japanese millitary. It's so over the top you have to wonder why noone reached across the table and slapped him during an early dinner scene. There also is kind of a pointless scene where to prove the Japanese soldiers he is training are not ready for battle, stands in front of a target and demands one of his charges shoots him. Well, in that situation, who wouldn't shoot over his head? Couldn't he have just shown how none of his men could hit the targets? To drive home his alcoholism, once captured by the samurai his character repeatedly asks for only saki, in a hilarious manner "SaaakIiiiii!!" That part alone probably gives the movie I reason to be watched, I'm not going to lie.

So of course once Cruise is captured and stops demanding booze every five minutes he quickly realizes the Samurai way is pretty respectable, compared to his shoot everyone in sight mentality in the army. It would have been nice if this transformation would have taken more than 10 minutes to be completed. Perhaps the writer know this change was going to be so predictable to anyone who had ever seen a film that it was best just to get it over with. Cruise's character also shares a home with the family of the man he killed in the opening battle of the film. This could have let to an interesting dynamic but all the wife really says is "He smells", offers to kill herself, and that is the end of it. If Japanese culture got in the way of her having a greater voice of anger and frustration, why have Cruise stay there in the first place?

Ken Wantanabe easily brings the intensity with intelligence to the film that Cruise has to fake. We do understand his motivations, he wants to protect the emperor from outside forces that would corrupt the Japanese way of life. So apparently racism is ok when it involves Japanese nationalism?

Despite my criticisms this isn't the worst movie to watch. It looks really nice and the samurai costumes are beautiful works of art. There also is a rousing battle at the end of the film when the samurai use their ingenuity to take on a force much larger than they are. Score: 6.5.