I rewatched this a few days ago after buying it on DVD ( I watched it on DVD when it was intitially released) and it is a really great movie with the hollywoodesque ending being the only thing that bothered me. I wouldn't call this movie a "war movie", but a character study focusing on both the physical and the mental. The action sequences weren't there just to people could see intense amounts of violence. They had purpose, mainly for Tom Cruise's character. I also watched the movie with the commentary by Edward Zwick (the director) and he talks in detail about the message of the entire movie, the characters, and the story). The acting is impeccable, even by Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. This film made me understand and appreciate the way of the Samurai more. If only America could practice the way of the Samurai (minus the suicide for shame act), what an improvement the USA would be.
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The Last Samurai
- Thread starter Nightwing
- Start date
Nightwing said:
While I liked the cinematographt and elaborate sets, I disliked the inaccurate potrayal of the samura, besides the ending. These are my objections:
1) Ever since the bakumatsu, a modernized army and navy has been in place, modelled after the Prussian and the French. They were the force which defeated the Tokugawa Shogunate in the first place, and most of the officers were samurai, or of samurai descent.
2) Contrary to what is commonly thought, although the class system has been abolished, and wearing of swords and topknot were outlawed, most of the people in the government are samurai. For example, the police force were mostly samurai. So it does not make sense to say that the Meiji gicernment wants to kill samurai.
3) Contrary to what is shown in the movie, samurai did used guns since the Onin war, and was regarded as a legitimate weapon.
4) During the Satsuma rebellion, led by Saigo Takamori (whom Ken Watanabe's character was based on), his army had modern arms, including cannons, and they were a real threat to the imperial army.
5) As a kendo and iaido student, I find that some of the sword techniques are too flashy to be usable. Furthermore, no matter how fit a person is, wearing armour needs time to get used to, and is certainly uncomfortable.
6) What is commonly known as bushido is a romantization of the past, there is no single set of values called bushido until the peaceful Togugawa period, when many samurai became scholars and administrators. It was only in the Meiji era when Inazo Nitobe wrote a book about Bushido when the idea really crystalized.
On another note, while it is quite easy to find a link between Katsumoto in the film and the real Saigo Takamori; the historical counterpart of villian, Omura is more difficult to determine. My guess is the real Prime Minister, Okubo Toshimichi based on physical similarity (which could be coincidental) and the fact that he is the most powerful person in government. The only thing I cannot figure out is that Okubo Toshimichi was not that radical...
Lastly, my main gripe is that based on what they watched on the movie, there was a larger influx of students in my current and previous kendo dojo, onlt to have most of them drop out after finding out it is not quite what they expected.
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