The last samurai
Language : English / Japanese
Year of release : 2003
Run time : 2h34m
Genre : War / Action / Drama
Cast : Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tony Goldwyn
The movie is based on the 1877 Satsuma rebellion led by Saigo Takamori and the Westernization of Japan with the help of foreign powers.
The year is 1876, and former US army captain, Nathan Algen, drinks himself away, in order to forget the atrocities committed by his cavalry in the American Indian Wars. He works for the Winchester guns and rifle making company, advertising for their weapons. Because he is always drunk, missing the mark, when introduced on stage, the owner fires him.
This is when one of his former comrades finds him and proposes he listens to an offer by colonel Bagley, whom Algen offered to k1ll for free, as he hates him.
Bagley asks him to help him train the new Japanese Imperial Army for Omura, a Japanese business man. Omura offers to pay him 400 dollars a month and Algen accepts only with 500 a month for himself and his comrade.
Once he arrives in Japan, Algen is told by Simon Graham (a British photographer and scholar who was hired to translate between Algen and the Japanese soldiers) that the new, very young emperor of Japan loves all things Western, while the Samurai love the old ways of the country.
Algen starts training the Imperial army with guns, as until now they fought with swords and arrows. They have to train to take on the Samurai who fight with swords and arrows (which to me doesn’t seem like a fair fight).
Algen wants to know everything that is to know about the Samurai, as he wants to know his enemy.
Omura arrives while Algen is training the soldiers asking him to bring them to fight the rebels, as they attacked a railroad they are building. Algen tells him they are not ready, and orders them to shoot as proof. Not only they miss the mark, but they can barely load the guns!
Omura doesn’t care, and asks them to march for where the rebels are to confront them.
In battle with the Samurai, the soldiers, scared, start shooting too soon, and the Samurai do a lot of damage. Algen and his comrade, sergeant Gant, are the only ones who don’t flee the scene ,and fight courageously, but even Gant is k1lled. Algen ends up fighting 5 or 6 Samurai, and doesn’t quit even when he’s about to die. For his strength and courage, the Samurai leader, Lord Katsumoto orders his men to take him with them.
Algen is badly wounded, but they heal him, and he finds out Lord Katsumoto placed him in the house of the Samurai he k1lled in self defense, being cared for by his wife.
Living with them, in their beautiful village, he starts training with them, learning their ways, including their language, appreciating the life they lead, and seeing things their way, as he befriends lord Katsumoto, and even gives up drinking.
I personally enjoyed the movie, although I thought it was too long, they could have made a two parts series of it.
I liked the places where they filmed, the beauty of the world created and the landscapes. I also liked how the movie was filmed with the way the light fell in the frame.
Tom Cruise’s character is based on French Imperial Guard officers Jules Brunet and Eugene Collache who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki in the Boshin war; and Philip Kearny, a US Union Army and French Imperial Guard soldier, who fought against the Tututni tribe in the Rogue River Wars in Oregon.
The acting was good. I thought the best was Tom Cruise.
The visual effects were good.
The soundtrack ,by Hans Zimmer, was good, but not at the Interstellar or Inception level.
The movie received positive reviews, including in Japan. It has a 65% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 55 score on Metacritic. Cinema Score audiences graded the movie an A.
The movie grossed 456.8 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 140 million dollars, being the 6th highest grossing movie of the year 2003.
The movie was nominated for many awards, the most notable being the Oscars (with 4 nominations, including for Best Supporting Actor for Ken Watanabe ), the Golden Globes (with 3 nominations, including for Best Actor for Tom Cruise, and Best Supporting Actor for Ken Watanabe) , Satellite Awards (with 10 nominations, winning 4) and Saturn Awards (with 5 nominations).
You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link :
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9gkeem
Rating : Worth a watch !