The Last Samurai

Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is a hero of the american army and the civil war, who is haunted by inner demons. He is hired along with his commanding officer from the war Colonel Bagley (Tony Goldwyn) and a N.C.O from his regiment Sgt. Zebulon Gant (Billy Connolly) to help quell a rebellion in Japan. Omura (Masato Harada) a rich businessmen has been convincing the Emperor Meiji (Shichinosuke Nakamura) to industrialize Japan through trade with western countries.

Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) is the teacher of the emperor and memeber of the council who has been losing political power. Katsumoto is fiercly loyal to the emperor, but against Omura and the western influence. Katsumoto and his band of Samurai have made offensive strikes against Omura, so Algren is hired to stop him. Algren arrives in Japan and begins training the imperial army with the new weapons from the West. Algren says his men are not ready, but Katsumoto has hit Omura's railway and he must be stopped. So they go into battle, but they are beaten by the fierce Samurai and Algren is taken prisoner.

After healing from his wounds Algren begins to learn the way of the Samurai from Ujio (Hiroyuki Sanada). Algren stays in the village of Katsumoto's son Nobutada (Shin Koyamada) and in the house of Katsumoto's sister Taka (Koyuki). Algren has talks with Katsumoto and reveals his demons from the civil war and his hatred toward Colonel Bagley for ordering a peaceful village of native americans to be wiped out. A year later Algren is released, but decides to fight against Omura and Bagley. While he was gone they built a new army with even more powerful weapons like gatling guns and howizters. The movie ends with a gigantic battle between the Samurai and this new army of Omura's.

I thought this was a very good movie. I loved the sword fighting, it was very well done. The acting in both Japenese and english was very good. Katsumoto and his Samurai are very eccentric interesting characters. I don't really like Tom Cruise that much, but he didn't ruin the movie for me, I actually thought he did a pretty good job. The ninja attack was very cool. The music was good and the whole cinematography was very artfully done. This is mostly a fighting/war movie which is ok with me, but there are subplots about romance, loss, remebering the old ways and clashing cultures. The battle at the end is one of the best battles I have ever scene. You will like this if you liked Braveheart, Last of the Mohicans, Robinhood Prince of Thieves, El Cid or basically any other swordplay action movie.

More Reviews
The Last Samurai at IMDB
The Last Samurai at Movie City Geek
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