Given that I talked about being a warrior in a videogame in my previous post, I thought it
would only be appropriate and make my first official review about
real-life warriors; specifically, The Last Samurai, one of my
favorite movies. We'll address the obvious issues most people have
with the film before diving into the story:
-Yes, it is a rather
idealized representation of how the samurai actually behaved and how
tightly they adhered to their principles. However, not only is this
easily excused because it's fiction, intending to make specific
points rather than be a perfectly accurate representation of history,
but because the samurai are just a vehicle for the some deeper
examinations about life and war in general. More on that later.
-No, the title does not
refer to Tom Cruise's character, nor even Ken Watanabe's character;
at least, not the latter specifically. As explained by the director,
the title refers to the samurai as a social class.
The Last Samurai proper
begins with Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a veteran of both the Civil
War and the American Indian Wars, now working to promote the sale of
Winchester rifles to civilians. As is quickly apparent, Algren is a
broken, troubled man, so haunted by the atrocities he has committed
during his time with the Cavalry that he devotes all of his money to
keeping a drink in his hand as often as possible. Hired by the
Japanese government to train their newly-Westernized army, he comes
into conflict with the samurai lord Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) and ends
up a prisoner. Algren doesn't spend his time in chains, though;
brought to a remote mountain village as winter sets in, there is no
need to keep him confined, so Algren spends his time conversing with
Katsumoto, observing the Japanese people and culture, and learning
their ways of warfare and philosophy.