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Title: The Last Samurai (2003)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Ken Watanabe | ... | Katsumoto | |
| Tom Cruise | ... | Nathan Algren | |
| William Atherton | ... | Winchester Rep | |
| Chad Lindberg | ... | Winchester Rep Assistant | |
 |
Ray Godshall Sr. | ... | Convention Hall Attendee |
| Billy Connolly | ... | Zebulon Gant | |
| Tony Goldwyn | ... | Colonel Bagley | |
| Masato Harada | ... | Omura | |
| Masashi Odate | ... | Omura's Companion | |
| John Koyama | ... | Omura's Bodyguard | |
| Timothy Spall | ... | Simon Graham | |
| Shichinosuke Nakamura | ... | Emperor Meiji | |
| Togo Igawa | ... | General Hasegawa | |
|
|
Satoshi Nikaido | ... | N.C.O. |
|
|
Shintaro Wada | ... | Young Recruit |
In recent years Tom Cruise is most known for his action movie roles such as Mission Impossible, The Last Samurai, and Jack Reacher. What were some of his early credits?
In the 1870s, Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a cynical veteran of the American Civil War, who will work for anyone, is hired by Americans who want lucrative contracts with the Emperor of Japan to train the peasant conscripts for the first standing Imperial Army in modern warfare using firearms. The Imperial Omura (Masato Harada) cabinet's first priority is to repress a rebellion of traditionalist Samurai, hereditary warriors, who remain devoted to the sacred dynasty, but reject the Westernizing policy, and even refuse firearms. Yet, when his ill-prepared superior force sets out too soon, their panic allows the sword-wielding samurai to crush them. Badly wounded, Algren's courageous stand makes the samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) spare his life. Once nursed to health, he learns to know and respect the old Japanese way, and participates as advisor in Katsumoto's failed attempt to save the Bushido tradition, but Omura gets repressive laws enacted. He must now choose to honor... Written by KGF Vissers
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The Last Samurai is a strictly by-the-numbers samurai epic set in 1876-1877 Japan. All the necessary ingredients are here - beautiful Japanese landscapes and costumes, larger than life battlefield sequences, and eastern philosophy.Although the pageantry is not as beautiful as such samurai epics as "Heaven and Earth", it is more than adequate.
Do not, however go into this film expecting "Kill Bill", grindhouse type swordplay nor the poignancy of a Kurosawa piece. Instead, "The Last Samurai" occupies the middle ground; a human story of one Westerner learning to embrace another culture kind of a mixture of "Dances With Wolves" and "Shogun", films from which it derives almost directly. And this is the films greatest flaw. It is utterly predictable. No spoilers here, we all know what happens to the samurai. If not, the title ought to give you a clue. Every scene is one that you were expecting to see. And the ending is the ending you expect.
But Zwick and co. still manage to weave an engaging story with panache, and a climactic (despite it's predictability) ending, and that is why "The Last Samurai" is such a great film. As the Zen saying goes, "Success is a journey, not a destination". It is equally applicable to the samurai in the film, and the film itself. A success. 8/10.