Review of The Last Samurai (2003) by Augustine H — 23 Jun 2013

It is hard to describe The Last Samurai as anything other than an epic film. Everything about it looks stunning, from the battles to the costumes to the scenery; the world was just very engrossing overall, and by the end I really wanted to travel to that little village.

The screenplay has its weak points, but benefits from fleshed out characters with dynamic histories; the actors that play these characters are also quite great (even the kids in this movie are great actors).

I've never been a fan of Cruise, but his performance in this movie is one of his strongest, and Ken Watanabe gives a performance with multiple layers. The pacing is also for the most part excellent considering the length of the movie, with only a couple points that drag - most notably the beginning.

But possibly the best part of the film is Hans Zimmer's epic score, which is consistently epic yet never loud - it's easily one of his best scores to date, and a perfect accompaniment to the movie.

To conclude, The Last Samurai is far from the perfect epic, but I think it's one of Tom Cruise's best movies to date and a war movie you would be hard pressed to miss.