The Last Samurai

In The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise plays Nathan Algren, a US Army officer hired by the emperor of Japan to train the modern Japanese army to fight against a renegade group of samurai led by Ken Wantanabe, who still cling onto their way of life and refuse to modernise. Algren is captured during a bloody battle and spends the winter in Wantanabe's village, in his sister Taka's house. He finds, to his chagrin, that he is living in the house of Wantanabe's brother-in-law, whom he killed in battle. He struggles to understand that none of them hold it against him - they viewed the death as an honorable warrior's one and that Algren had just been doing his duty. When winter is over, Algren and the samurai travel to Tokyo, hoping to resolve their differences with the emperor, but Wantanabe is detained. It is then that Algren realises his destiny lies with the samurai and their way of life because he has come to love them, and helps Wantanabe escape back to his village for a final showdown with the modern Japanese army, armed with Howitzers. The battle, needless to say, wipes out every last one of the samurai except for Algren, thus making him the "Last Samurai" of the movie's title.

This movie is far too multi-layered to review from one viewpoint. We can see it through Algren's eyes, respectful and curious of the mysterious Japanese, whom he describes as having "a deep reservoir of feelings beneath all that courtesy"; or from the emperor's viewpoint, how he was pressured to sign treaties with the foreigners, how he was manipulated by his own self-serving ministers, how much he regretted not listening to Wantanabe, his own teacher, and how much he regretted causing the deaths of all those fine samurai, the backbone of Japan, the keepers of its proud spirit and traditions. Then there are the widow Taka and her fatherless sons. How would they have told the story - that they were proud of their husband's and father's death? And Wantanabe's teenage son, who befriended Algren when no one else in the village would - did he see something in Algren others couldn't? Taka's fatherless sons would have told you how much they came to like Algren, and Taka overcame her reticence to let Algren wear her late husband's armor to the final battle.

The Actors...
Tom Cruise gives no less than a stellar performance, but it is Wantanabe who steals the show. If you want to know why he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, watch the movie. He brings to it a depth, a warmth, an insight otherwise impossible with a less skilled actor. You almost think he is a real samurai, but then you wake up to the fact that the movie was filmed in 2003. But Wantanabe must have imbibed the spirit of the samurai, immersed himself in bushido, to give such a fine performance, not at all studied or measured. Had it not been for Cruise's star and experience, I would say Wantanabe deserves to be the lead actor.

These are the two main actors, but the supporting cast is surprisingly good - the casting director did well in casting the emperor, who is so skinny and pale and spineless that you just loathe him; and Taka's sons, who are cute and devoid of any hard feelings towards Algren. Taka, too, gives a solid performance; there is something so deicately feminine and fragile about her and you feel sorry that she has to put up with the man who killed her husband, only to fall in love with him (well, as close as you can get to falling in love when bi-racial marriages were taboo - I mean, all they shared was a chaste peck, I wouldn't even call it a kiss but it is so evident that she likes him).

Thumbs Up..
This is one of the best movies Hollywood has made about Japan, very respectful, very insightful, though I must say I would have preferred for the story to be told through Wantanabe's eyes. Nothing is spared in the cinematography - the camera pans the lush, wild, beautiful Japanese countryside, the stately Buddhist temples, the flawless Japanese architecture and decor. You want to weep when the Howitzers are strafing the last charge of the remaining samurai, how they rode on until they couldn't, and when Wantanabe committed hara-kiri.

You feel a sense of triumph when in the last scenes the emperor stands up to his ministers and the foreigners, saying that all he wanted was for Japan to be strong and independent, that they could not forget where they came from or who they were. You could almost forgive him, knowing that Wantanabe would.

Thumbs Down...
They could have gone more in-depth into bushido, as one short conversation is not nearly enough.There is just so much about the Japanese psyche I don't understand, even though our cultures are quite similar. And also, the ending leaves you hanging in the air - Algren returns to the village after the battle, but what then? Does he defy tradition and marry Taka, or does he stay single? Does he return to America? This kind od ending is highly unsatisfactory, but otherwise the movie is good.

I do find it difficult, though, that Algren takes so easily to bushido. It is almost as if it were scripted, but then I suppose it was. I find it hard to believe that he was actually willing to commit hara-kiri if the emperor ordered him to.

Should you watch the movie...
Yes! Watch it for one of the best movies of the year that it is. But be warned - there is a realistically gruesome hara-kiri and beheading scene, so skip that part if you have a weak stomach. After all, you don't want to throw up a perfectly good meal on an otherwise good movie, would you?