The Last Samurai Review

What would it look like if an American was assimilated into the Samurai culture? Well, that's what The Last Samurai directed by Edward Zwick and starring Tom Cruise captures in its story. The film follows Nathan Algren (Cruise) a Civil War soldier turned alcoholic as he is recruited to lead a westernized Japanese army into battle and deals with the fallout of this and Algren’s eventual turn to the way of the Samurai. The film is set in the 1870s setting the stage for the unique relationship between the Japanese and the West. As it stands Cruise is one of the best elements that stand out in this picture.




     The film has a lot of great qualities which make it well worth the watch. When we first meet Cruise’s character Algren in the film he is a drunk suffering from nightmares from his war days. However, we get to see a well played out character journey with Algren during the course of the story as he heals from his wounds and embarks on a new way of life. Another character that really shines here is Katsumoto who seems to be second in power to the Emperor. I was very impressed with this character as he is a man of extreme loyalty to the emperor and holds utmost devotion to the ways of the Samurai. It is also great that they don’t leave his character in a two-dimensional state because they allow the element of conflict to come in with his character when they showcase him questioning his loyalty when his emperor sides with the modernized Japan. The character interactions in this film pay off really well as you get great exchanges between Algren and Katsumoto in which a sort of friendship develops between the two. A crucial element of the story is the relationship between Algren and Taka, the wife of a man Algren killed in battle before being brought to the village of the Samurai and the woman who takes Algren in after he is hurt in that battle. At first, their relationship is estranged but a romance eventually develops which was executed decently. Edward Zwick really shined with the action scenes as he pulled off awesome Samurai and soldier scenes fights in a unique quick flashy style. However, even with all the great qualities of the film, it isn’t perfect.


The faults of the Last Samurai majorly lie in the pacing of the film which is slow. The pacing being slow isn’t necessarily the problem, but the execution of it is. The film feels disservice because certain parts of the story could have had more time to flesh out while other parts could have been shortened. Also as well done as the Algren character journey is in the film it does feel like his adjustment to the life of a Samurai happened a bit quickly. I believe a change in pacing could have helped solved this issue. The ending does have some great moments, yet it begins to feel tedious as the film wraps up, though.

In the end, even with its faults, The Last Samurai is a good movie, even though it's not a great one. I believe the film does a good job showing a disgraced soldier played very well by Cruise and his journey to the unique culture of the Samurai. Overall the film tells a satisfying adventure with good characters which can feel tedious at times, though. The film is definitely a movie worth two and a half hours of your time. In the end, I’m assigning this film a score of 7.8/10.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Review

Image
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is a timely tale about the dangers of AI and also a deeply personal story bringing Ethan Hunt's origins at the IMF full circle. This marks the third entry in the franchise that Christopher McQuarrie has both written and directed as he manages to bring to the screen an intensely cinematic film with both high physical and emotional stakes.  The story is centered around an ominous artificial intelligence known as "The Entity" which has become sentient and proceeded to infiltrate its way into the computer systems of prominent nations across the world. Thus when Ethan is recruited by Kittridge (his old nemesis from MI: 1 played by Henry Czerny) to retrieve the other part of a key that governments across the world are racing to obtain in order to gain control of the AI, Ethan decides to go rogue against his government to destroy the AI thinking that that much power is too much for anyone to have. Ethan's
Read more

Sound of Freedom Review

Image
"The most powerful person in this world is the storyteller", Jim Caviezel declares in the special post-credits message to the audience at the end of this film. The story he's talking about is that of the millions of children who are put into slavery in today's 21st century society. Directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, Sound of Freedom is based on a true story and follows Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) who saves a boy from ruthless child traffickers and then learning the boy's sister is still captive decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her. This film was made 5 years ago but faced every road block you can think of on it's way to the theatres due to the studios being afraid to release it until Angel Studios stepped in as the distributor. And now that it's finally out there in the world this film sends a resounding and powerful message that God's Children Are Not For Sale. It also operates on another level working as a film itself
Read more

Barbenheimer Double Feature Review

Image
I confess I subjected myself to the Barbenheimer social experiment and survived to tell the tale. These are two radically different movies to be sure, but both have one thing in common: they are well told. Barbie is directed by Greta Gerwig and follows Margot Robbie as the stereotypical Barbie who suffers an existential crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. The result is a movie that is paradoxical in tone as it is as silly and irreverent as it is emotionally nuanced. Oppenheimer is directed by Christoper Nolan and follows Cillian Murphy as Robert J. Oppenheimer in his quest to develop the Atomic Bomb during World War Two. For a three-hour drama that isn’t an action film it moves surprisingly fast and is charged with crackling dialogue, breathtaking cinematography, and psychologically wrenching moments.  Returning to Barbieland, Margot Robbie excels as this seemingly one-note character who underneath has all kinds of depth. She is paired with her Ken (Ryan Go
Read more