THE LAST SAMURAI
After having a fairly bad night on Saturday I got a phone call from my best friend asking me if I wanted to go out to the cinema on the Sunday. That was fine, the only problem was that neither of us knew what was actually showing, so we arrived at the cinema and went out on a limb and chose The Last Samurai.
Initially, because neither of us had really seen too much about the film we chose it because Tom Cruise starred in it and well we were both very pleased to have chosen this film as it was absolutely brilliant. In fact it left me totally dumbstruck.
The film stars Tom Cruise, as the troubled American soldier Captain Nathan Algren who is chosen to go to Japan and train their troops to stand against a Samurai rebellion. When Algren is captured by the supposedly ‘savage’ Samurai he begins to see and to understand their way of life. He sees that their lives are relatively simple and peaceful but he also begins to realise one thing. The Samurai life is one of honour. During his stay with the Samurai we see Algren battling with his drinking and his nightmares of past wars, we also see him slowly but surely adopting to their way of life. During his time there with the samurai he begins to learn the way of the sword. This is done beautifully in my opinion. It isn’t like other films where you see the character training for one scene and then in the next the character is a master. It is a gradual progression showing all the times Algren fails and the help he gets from everyone in the village. Gradually we see Algren go from a drunken American soldier to a calm swordsman. We also see how his relationships with people develop especially the relationships between Katsumoto, the rebellion leader and his sister Taka.
Captain Algren is taken in by Taka, her two sons and her nephew. This plays an important part throughout the film. We see Algren warming to Taka and vice versa. Initially Captain Algren is disliked by the family due to the fact that (going to spoil it now) he killed the husband. It was refreshing to see that Tom Cruise was playing in a role where he had to be recognised for his acting talent and not his brilliant good looks. The love that develops between Taka and Algren is always shown throughout the movie, but it is not like any other love story. I think in truth there was only one kiss between the two. We see Taka’s sons also warming to Algren.
The film actually has several different sub plots going on. It is cleverly done. We see the life that Algren leads while he is in the Samurai village, we see his development then we see the vast difference between that life and the Westernised and corrupt way of life that the emperor chooses to lead.
The one thing that struck me the most about this film was the very realistic nature of it. There was an absolutely minimum use of special effects so all of the scenes became very touching.
There are several epic scenes throughout the film especially the fight scenes. It was great to see swords and skill being used instead of the usual gun fights. What made the fight scenes even better was the lack of unnecessary gore. You didn’t need to see the gore to understand how brutal the fight scenes were. The film is about honour not about how much blood they can spill over the camera.
I do not want to say too much about the storyline and everything that happens in the film as I do not want to spoil it too much. The historical accuracy of this film astounded me. The one thing that sort of threw the historical feel was how well groomed Tom Cruise was throughout the film.
I absolutely adored this film and like I said previously it left me totally dumbstruck. It was a drama, it was historical, it was a love story and at the same time a good chunk of the film could have been put down as comedy. The funniest scene has got to have been Tom Cruise’s random fit of laughter when he meets with Omura and his companion. There are some very clever little quips throughout the film and the characters were just fabulous.
My particular favourites were Billy Connolly who played Zebulon Gant, the man who leads Algren in the right direction. Billy Connolly with an Irish accent is just great and he was rather amusing to watch. Also another favourite was Mr Graham, a British man who is very excitable and a little bit clueless, but he was a little breath of fresh air. I also really liked the three main characters being Tom Cruise as Captain Algren,
Katsumoto and Taka. They all complimented each very well. I found myself really liking Taka’s nephew again because he was very excitable through the film and very honourable. The cast were mostly Japanese and it just added to the authenticity of the film.
This film is one of those films that keeps you on the edge of your seat but yet it still touches you in a deep profound way, or at least it did with me. It kept me so on edge that I ended up biting off one of my longest nails. A warning to the girls, especially if you are anything like myself, it’s a tear jerker
The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer just adds to the sensation that is The Last Samurai, each piece of music compliments the film and its meaning. In fact I loved the soundtrack so much that I have just bought it.
This is by far the best film I have seen in a while and it is most definitely one of Tom Cruise’s best films. I personally don’t think he has made a film that good since, well, Interview with a Vampire. It is a must see I would recommend it to anyone. For choosing this film at random and for not knowing all that much about it, I was left speechless, which is odd for me.
It just blew me away it’s that simple.
Thanks for reading, I hope this was of some use.
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