If you're expecting a movie that captures the heart and feeling of the Meiji Restoration or the Satsuma Rebellion... yeah, forget it. And don't get me wrong, I don't expect movies to be 100% accurate with history. Some things will have to be changed for the sake of drama and story, but this film doesn't just add or change a few things. This movie is about as accurate about late 19th century Japan as the movie "Pearl Harbor" was about the Battle of Pearl Harbor. In fact, the movie feels like the filmmakers were just going off whatever they heard about Japan in a high school history class.
The role of Americans - especially the American military - is greatly exaggerated. (If you're hoping to see any French, German, or Dutch advisors in this movie... keep dreaming.) The Imperial forces are portrayed as overly incompetent, to the point that they walk into a really obvious trap set by the samurai. (Never mind that, in reality, the samurai rebellion was actually put down rather swiftly and easily.) This latter point also made the samurai's suicidal charge at the end rather nonsensical - it's like the filmmakers made the samurai look TOO good, then realized, "Oh crud, wait, they're supposed to lose in the end." The movie also greatly exaggerates the demise of the samurai class itself. Rather than dying out in one big charge, many of the samurai chose rather to adapt to the new times. Consider, for example, that many of the officers and soldiers opposing the samurai rebels were, in fact, former samurai themselves. (Another detail left out by the film, but... well, that would require actually STUDYING the time period you're trying to portray to your audience.) Again, I don't expect historical films to get everything right or be 100% accurate, but... for crying out loud! The anime film "Dagger of Kamui" touched on this time period (specifically the Boshin War) better, and that treated it more as a backdrop to the main story.
This leads into another problem with the film, which is Tom Cruise. This movie is, in fact, a prime example of why I tend to avoid Tom Cruise movies. Aside from the fact that he's not that great of an actor, the bigger problem is that his characters always come across as a Gary Stu of Tom Cruise himself. That is, they're basically Tom Cruise, but a far more awesome version. This character is sadly no exception. Consider that, with only about six months of training - part of which he was going through alcohol withdrawal, mind you - he is not only able to take down a horde of other well trained swordsman with gusto, but is able to do so with two katanas at once. (Something most warrior guides from the time period suggested against, unless you happened to be a really good swordsman.) Then, at the end of the movie, when he joins the suicidal charge, he gets hit like ten to fifteen times by bullets... but reappears a scene later, a-okay, as if nothing had happened. (I seriously expected him to look at the audience and mutter in a John Cleese accent, "I got better...")
The cheesiness doesn't end here - which brings me to one of the worst parts of the film. Early in the movie, Tom Cruise kills a samurai whose wife and kids live in the village he's taken to. Not only does he win the hearts of the children of the man he killed, but even woos and gets into a relationship with THE MAN'S WIFE. The latter part is perhaps the most ridiculous part of the entire movie. When she first meets him, she hates him and says he smells like a pig... but literally ONE SCENE LATER (man, I wish I was exaggerating), she's watching him get beaten and is frowning, looking sad and ever so concerned. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good reconciliation story. I've read about women who went through concentration camps and later forgave the SS guards who tortured them. I've read about men who suffered through a POW camp, then went and forgave the officers who tortured them. I've read about parents whose children were gruesomely murdered, and learned to forgive the killers. The thing is, in all those examples, you had the personal struggle of the individual's need to overcome bitterness, and the slow realization of the need to forgive. Here? You don't have any of that. You don't even have a hint of it. Tom Cruise shows up after having killed a guy, and literally a few scenes later he's laughing and playing baseball with the man's kids, while the wife shoots him the "I wanna have your babies" look. So when I say Tom Cruise's characters come across as a Gary Stu of himself, I'm not kidding.
And before anyone blows a gasket and scrolls to the thumbs down button to rebuke me, keep in mind that this film is called "The Last Samurai", yet not a single movie poster, DVD cover, or source of advertising I've ever come across actually had Ken Watanabe on it, front and center. No, it was always Tom Cruise. That's why so many people, when this film first came out, erroneously believed it was saying Tom Cruise's character was said last samurai. However, given the actor's well known ego and overblown sense of importance, it wouldn't surprise me if he truly did believe his character was, in fact, the very last samurai. Forget the titular character and all those Japanese people who actually grew up in samurai training! He's the real deal. After all, he's the one who's able to take down a group of dangerous ninjas after only a few months of training. (Yes, there are ninjas in this movie, because, y'know, it's an American-made film about Japan, gotta have those ninjas.)
The title of this review is meant as a joke, but it captures how I felt walking away from this movie. It's the same story of a westerner leaving civilization into the world of the noble savage, and learning that it's his culture that's the bad guy. It's sad because this movie could have been good. Even if you wanted Tom Cruise's character to be a fictional observer to events (sort of like the main character in the book "The Last King of Scotland"), it could have followed events more closely. Instead, it treated it as another Tom Cruise vehicle with Hollywood nonsense.
The role of Americans - especially the American military - is greatly exaggerated. (If you're hoping to see any French, German, or Dutch advisors in this movie... keep dreaming.) The Imperial forces are portrayed as overly incompetent, to the point that they walk into a really obvious trap set by the samurai. (Never mind that, in reality, the samurai rebellion was actually put down rather swiftly and easily.) This latter point also made the samurai's suicidal charge at the end rather nonsensical - it's like the filmmakers made the samurai look TOO good, then realized, "Oh crud, wait, they're supposed to lose in the end." The movie also greatly exaggerates the demise of the samurai class itself. Rather than dying out in one big charge, many of the samurai chose rather to adapt to the new times. Consider, for example, that many of the officers and soldiers opposing the samurai rebels were, in fact, former samurai themselves. (Another detail left out by the film, but... well, that would require actually STUDYING the time period you're trying to portray to your audience.) Again, I don't expect historical films to get everything right or be 100% accurate, but... for crying out loud! The anime film "Dagger of Kamui" touched on this time period (specifically the Boshin War) better, and that treated it more as a backdrop to the main story.
This leads into another problem with the film, which is Tom Cruise. This movie is, in fact, a prime example of why I tend to avoid Tom Cruise movies. Aside from the fact that he's not that great of an actor, the bigger problem is that his characters always come across as a Gary Stu of Tom Cruise himself. That is, they're basically Tom Cruise, but a far more awesome version. This character is sadly no exception. Consider that, with only about six months of training - part of which he was going through alcohol withdrawal, mind you - he is not only able to take down a horde of other well trained swordsman with gusto, but is able to do so with two katanas at once. (Something most warrior guides from the time period suggested against, unless you happened to be a really good swordsman.) Then, at the end of the movie, when he joins the suicidal charge, he gets hit like ten to fifteen times by bullets... but reappears a scene later, a-okay, as if nothing had happened. (I seriously expected him to look at the audience and mutter in a John Cleese accent, "I got better...")
The cheesiness doesn't end here - which brings me to one of the worst parts of the film. Early in the movie, Tom Cruise kills a samurai whose wife and kids live in the village he's taken to. Not only does he win the hearts of the children of the man he killed, but even woos and gets into a relationship with THE MAN'S WIFE. The latter part is perhaps the most ridiculous part of the entire movie. When she first meets him, she hates him and says he smells like a pig... but literally ONE SCENE LATER (man, I wish I was exaggerating), she's watching him get beaten and is frowning, looking sad and ever so concerned. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good reconciliation story. I've read about women who went through concentration camps and later forgave the SS guards who tortured them. I've read about men who suffered through a POW camp, then went and forgave the officers who tortured them. I've read about parents whose children were gruesomely murdered, and learned to forgive the killers. The thing is, in all those examples, you had the personal struggle of the individual's need to overcome bitterness, and the slow realization of the need to forgive. Here? You don't have any of that. You don't even have a hint of it. Tom Cruise shows up after having killed a guy, and literally a few scenes later he's laughing and playing baseball with the man's kids, while the wife shoots him the "I wanna have your babies" look. So when I say Tom Cruise's characters come across as a Gary Stu of himself, I'm not kidding.
And before anyone blows a gasket and scrolls to the thumbs down button to rebuke me, keep in mind that this film is called "The Last Samurai", yet not a single movie poster, DVD cover, or source of advertising I've ever come across actually had Ken Watanabe on it, front and center. No, it was always Tom Cruise. That's why so many people, when this film first came out, erroneously believed it was saying Tom Cruise's character was said last samurai. However, given the actor's well known ego and overblown sense of importance, it wouldn't surprise me if he truly did believe his character was, in fact, the very last samurai. Forget the titular character and all those Japanese people who actually grew up in samurai training! He's the real deal. After all, he's the one who's able to take down a group of dangerous ninjas after only a few months of training. (Yes, there are ninjas in this movie, because, y'know, it's an American-made film about Japan, gotta have those ninjas.)
The title of this review is meant as a joke, but it captures how I felt walking away from this movie. It's the same story of a westerner leaving civilization into the world of the noble savage, and learning that it's his culture that's the bad guy. It's sad because this movie could have been good. Even if you wanted Tom Cruise's character to be a fictional observer to events (sort of like the main character in the book "The Last King of Scotland"), it could have followed events more closely. Instead, it treated it as another Tom Cruise vehicle with Hollywood nonsense.
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