A Movie Review of the Last Samurai by Edward Zwick

Categories: History Movie Review Samurai

Review, Pages 6 (1273 words)

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The Last Samurai, directed by Edward Zwick, starring actor Tom Cruise is based on the Japanese history during the end of the 19th century and the start of the 19th. The main focus of the movie is the transformation between a thousand year old tradition of a samurai soldier using a sword as his weapon, with the introduction of modern day weapons. During this time period, the Japanese communicated with various other cultures such as those of the French, English, German, American, and many others in order to try and learn many new educational and political systems to try and unify their country.

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An example of this of course would be the decision of the Japanese government to put modern weapons into use. As the transformation began, this symbolized the end of an era with the begging of a new one. As the movie unfolds, not only do we see the changes that occurred during this specific time frame in the society, but we also come to learn a lot more about the Japanese culture.

Captain Nathan Algren played by Tom Cruise, shows just how different their way of living and prospective of life is compared to our modern day views. Captain Algren plays a soldier who once participated in the mass killing of Native Americans, and now feels deep guilt for what he has seen and done. Despite those obstacles, he is sent to Japan under a contract to teach them the use of modern guns. Both the actors in the movie and the sets and costumes used, create a perfectly accurate and entertaining view of the Japanese culture and the end of the last samurai.

One of the most interesting aspects oh the Japanese culture which the movie greatly focuses on is their amazing form of discipline. As we watch the samurais, we see how their every aspect of life is concentrated on precision and perfection, from their razor sharp swords, to their great honor at the battlefield. As mentioned and shown in the film, whatever the Japanese people did, they did it to perfection.

This of course, was an achievement thanks to their great way of concentration. In the film, when Algren tries to learn how to fight like a samurai, he is though that he needs to block out any surrounding disturbances such as people talking etc. This is something the Japanese samurais were known best of doing. This then brings us to the next subject of how the Japanese communicate and their show of respect to one another. From ancient times to modern days, Japanese culture has always focused on respect to one another by bowing. In many scenes of the movie, such as those where the emperor was present or at the final battle, we see how important it is to show respect to someone by bowing. Just the same way that we greet people by shaking someone's hand or simply saying hello, the Japanese had have their own way, and they have kept it for thousands of years. The way the samurais in the movie were portrait are in fact extremely accurate to those that existed in the 18th century. From as young as seven or eight years of age, boys we turned from kids into killing samurais. In one of the scenes of the movie, we see two young boys learning to fight with wooden sticks.

Although so young, their skills were already better them most everyday adults. When trained further, their acceptance of death on the battlefield became greater and with more appreciation. To die at a battlefield was an honor for them as long as they were brave and what they did involved honor. Another interesting point that the film mentions is that for a Japanese samurai at the time, their sword meant more then anything in their life. As much as their friends an family mattered, nothing compared to the meaning of one's sword, for it was said that a samurai's sword was his soul. This way we can see how much the Japanese culture was focused on the samurai and their way of fighting. As the government began pressing on the issue that samurai's are no longer to exist, a law was passed that no samurai shall be allowed to carry a sword in public or wear their hair in long queues. Many samurai's unwilling to adapt to the new way of life disobeyed the rules and were therefore brutally punished. A scene in the movie where one of the samurai's is stopped in the middle of the street an has is hair cut off by the soldiers shows just how fast things were changing. This is also one of the main focuses of the movie, for Japan was no longer using ancient methods, but was now a modernized country. The acting in this movie was done very well from the begging to the end. Actor Tom Cruise plays the role of an American soldier who lives with guilt after killing innocent Native Americans. At the begging off the movie we come to find out that he has witnessed something terrible in his past by observing his drinking problem.

Because many people live with some kind of fear or sorrow because of something, alcohol seems to play an important role in making them not worry or remember about their past. This is why many alcoholics are known to have had a bad past. It is a perfect way to build on the character of Algren. As he begins to train the Japanese soldiers, we come to learn more about his passion for fighting and being a real soldier on the battlefield. We see this by observing how he acts when teaching them to fight and his enthusiasm for their success. The costumes worn throughout the movie were exact of the one's used long ago during the time. In fact, most it the clothes were constructed from the exact same material recorded to have been used. The armor of the Samurai worn at the end of the movie by Algren an the rest of the samurai's is one of the most significant costumes of the movie. It too, was made from close observations of pictures from before. Although not all of the scenes were shot in Japan, the sets created again were extremely accurate to those of before. In the scene's where you can see the town of Tokyo, most of the signs over the stores had the exact writing of the one's back then.

Because there is so much recorded information about the clothes they wore, the costume designers of this movie did a great job of recreating them. This movie is a great source of information for it touches on many key facts about the Japanese culture, beliefs, clothing, history and much more. It is a great way to study Japanese culture for it is shown very exact and in an entertaining form. If I was a history teacher talking about Japan, I would definitely show this movie for other to gain valuable and understating information the same way I did. At first, I was a little spectacle that this movie would lose course regarding its historical accuracy. I imagined another typical Tom Cruise action packed movie. However, as I began to understand the his character more and more, and learned more about Japanese history, this movie actually became really educational. I think movie such as this one are a great way of learning for you visually see and also hear they way of life and language.