I'm starting to wonder. After enjoying many of Tom Cruise's previous movies, I thought the trend of quality would surely buckle with The Last Samurai, which by all accounts did not generate any interest for me when I first saw its copious, grandiose trailers a few months ago. Althought directed by Edward Zwick and featuring Cruise, a superstar whom I have continued to admire more and more as an actor with each passing year, martial arts and wars on the battlefield genres are simply not among my favourites. Yet something in me decided to give this motion picture a whirl, and I am very glad I did. Cruise continues his trend of quality with an award-worthy performance in this film, which he co-produced.
Cruise is Nathan Algren, an alcoholic civil war captain with much pent-up rage over the savage massacres he's witnessed at the expense of the American Indian. Reduced to appearing in town fair sideshows to make ends meet, Algren is recruited in 1876 to train a Japanese army on the tactics of war in order to prepare them for the coming of a rebellious group of traditionalists known as the Samurai. Upon arrival, Algren discovers his pupils have never held a rifle and the language barrier is not easing the transition. Soon, they are put to the test in a foggy forest, where the Samurai make an example of the ill-prepared and ill-fated soldiers. Led by the mysterious Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), the Samurai take Algren prisoner and bring him to their secluded village in hopes of extracting more information from him.
The scenes in the village really set the film into high gear. After Algren's battle wounds start to heal and a chilling detox sequence, a number of characters and customs are introduced. As with Kevin Costner's film Dances With Wolves, Zwick provides scenes of an outsider observing a foreign culture that allows for a breakdown of barriers and misunderstanding. The Samurai way of life and codes of honour are reverently depicted, but are also presented as the clear-cut good guys against the emperor of Japan and those who follow the new order. The film asks us not to intrinsically get swept away in the Samurai culture, only to convey a parable on the perils of repressing history and tradition in favour of socio-political and technological change. At no point do the writers assume the other side of the coin.
It goes without saying that you have to like this "kind" of movie for it to work. If patient character development and sweeping epics are not your bag, much of The Last Samurai will come across as pedantic. Cruise narrates the film, which, in addition to its fabulous hand-to-hand martial arts scenes, offers some equally welcome moments of serenity, levity and compassion. The relationship between Algren and Katsumoto grows out of a mutual respect, and this respect starts to provide an osmosis effect for other characters in the film, including a quiet widow (Koyuki), a blustering American (the inimitable Timothy Spall) and Hiroyuki Sanada as the warrior who would prefer to see Algren dead. However, the film is primarily an ensemble piece, allowing the lush scenery, gorgeous costumes and electric cinematography to come to the foreground.
There will be a fair amount of debate as to why the film ends the way it does. Given Zwick's pension for leaving few characters standing at the conclusion of his features, there is a good argument to be made for having implemented a different, stronger ending that would have been less Hollywood-like. The point is, by the time this debate-worthy scene does transpire, the ride all the way up to that point is sublime regardless. There were points in The Last Samurai where I was actively involved in what was going on, happy to be entertained and thought-provoked simultaneously. While there will no doubt be those who will question the veracity of the film's facts and find fault in particular with its approach to the concept of the Samurai, the movie does not attempt to pass itself off as a documentary or strictly adherent recreation. It's a tale of redemption, action and adventure, executed with a kind of confidence that dazzlingly radiates from the screen. I could never have predicted it, but this is one of my favourite movies of 2003.
