The Last Samurai - Page 2

Pretty, clichéd, predictable little movie. The "fairy tale" label fits to a t. It´s an epic for the masses - dumb and empty.

Best thing in the movie is the overall design.

Well, not to split hairs again, but it wasn't really traditional Japanese values that pushed Japan toward fascism and a quest for empire. Japan became a nation (1868) at the height of the age of imperialism. Every major nation and their brother (yes, even the U.S.) was out to acquire new territory at this time, and Japan was trying to get in on the action before they were shut out of the market. Similarly, fascism was all the rage in the 1920s and 30s. It took root not only in Japan, but in Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. as well.

At any rate, the end of the film, which is merely about the birth of modern Japan, has nothing to do with the imperialist adventures the nation would embark on a few decades later. By the time of Worlfd War II Japan's leadership had changed drastically.

This had to be, bar-none, the least surprising movie I have ever seen. Including movie adaptations of books I have read. Every plot point was shown in the trailers. I was just so completely unimpressed by it. Not even disappointed, because it did just enough right not to fail completely, just unimpressed.

Cinematography? Great. Watanabe? Great. Ninjas? Instant brownie points, but they looked like they got lost on the way to the set of a Chuck Norris movie. (Anyone ever seen the SNL skit about the group of ninjas who are trying to come up with a strategy better than their attack-the-good-guy-one-at-a-time plan? Hilarious, and I couldn't help thinking about it during the ninja fight.)
And then there is Cruise, Hollywood Highlander. The man cannot be killed. Ever. Even in Vanilla Sky, he throws himself off a building at the end, and you think maybe you have seen the impossible and he is dead, you have to remember that he is really only going to wake up in the future, where he will be miraculously healed of his deformity and probably be fed grapes by naked virgins for all eternity. During the last battle I thought I was witnessing cinema history, when he got shot up several times, and finally off a horse with a goddamn chaingun, but I was wrong. Tom Cruise (and any character he plays) cannot be killed by any means no to man.

The Big T.C. owns all!

Seriously though, it'll be interesting to see what happens with his character in Collateral.

If you want to get really technical... Tom Cruise dies, or is dead... in Interview with the Vampire

of course, its the kind of "dead" that still means he can walk, talk, and attempt to spotlight in all his scenes... but no heartbeat. this is the bottom line. and watching him get his throat cut by a little girl should be more than enough to satisfy this desire to see the man "die" in a movie.. haha

i seem to be one of the rare people who has nothing at all against Tom Cruise, hell.. i really liked him in Top Gun..

oh, and the Last Samurai is a gem. One of my favourite movies of the past 5 years. Not necessarily becuase its the best acted, or directed, or its the most original or historically accurate story... but damnit.. its a samurai movie... and i have a loving obsession with all things fuedal Japan and bushido related (even though they could have done a better job with that philosophy).. besides, as many people have already stated.. theres a freaken ninja attack! what kind of sick, spiritless society do we live in when anyone can hate a movie with ninja assassins? These are dark times we live in...

Last Samurai.

solid. gold.

Lmao great great post. The Hollywood Highlander lmao thats the way I will view Cruise from now on.

Axe, I didn't say I have anything against Cruise. Top Gun, Interview with the Vampire, and Minority Report are all good flicks in my book (there is the troubling issue of MI:2, though). I just thought it odd that in a prolific movie career, he has never played a character who dies. Even more striking is the number of times they have fake deaths. For instance:

The previously mentioned Last Samurai Vanilla Sky, which is a pretty huge fake death.

Far and Away: haven't seen it in a long time, but I seem to remember a horse rolling over him at the end, and Kidman thinking he was dead for a minuter or two.

And you are gonna use Interview with the Vampire to show that he can die? He gets fed dead blood, which is supposed to kill vampires, and then the girl slits his throat, and then he gets dumped in a swamp, from which he returns 200 years later to become a hotshot bloodsucker who plays by his own rules.

The fact is, and we are all going to have to accept this, Cruise cannot be killed in film. The best we can do is injure him so that he will go away for awhile, and hope that future generations will be able to stop him when he awakes.

lol nono, i didnt mean it like you have a personal problem with him.. it just seems that alot of people have a keen dislike for the Cruise, i meant it in a general way, not a "raol duke thinks this!" way, sorry for the confusion

and yeah.. i know he doesnt "really" die in Interview, but its the closest thing we have yet, being dead and all. Give it time... perhaps Collateral or War of the Worlds will claim his Highlanderesque head

Hey look, there's Schwartz and Johnny Daywalker! This seems like as good a thread to raise as any. (More CHUD discussion of the film here - http://www.chud.com/community/t/53653/post-release-the-last-samurai-discussion-spoilers )

 

 

From the Mr Plinkett & Red Letter Media thread ...

 

 

I think I got you. So for you it was about rewriting history in a way which made the Samurai seem too noble, when in reality they were fairly mercenary.

 

 

 

I couldn't see the article on the front page of either CHUD or RLM Nardo. Do you have a link?

 

Thing about The Last Samurai is that, unlike Avatar, the white dude isn't any kind of "chosen one". Cruise's character doesn't prove to be a superior warrior to the samurai and he doesn't become the leader. Algren is not "the central figure of Super Awesomeness". He proves he can hang when he finally successfully defends himself in sword play, but he's never sold as being better than their best or as being the saviour. If anything he's a messenger figure, and the message certainly isn't about "reaffirming how awesome white people are". It's the opposite.

 

Of course, he is the only one left after the battle charge, but that's not a sign of his superiority to the samurai culture in any way, it's just dumb luck (and dumb writing).

I really enjoy this movie. I have no major problems with it. I think Cruise is excellent, and while, sure, I'd have preferred a straight up Katsumodo movie, I think the story we got is inspiring

 

I didn't feel like it was whitewashing samurai culture to a greater degree than we get from virtually any other Samurai movie. As for the "it means to serve" line, I never thought the film was trying to imply that Samurais were there to serve the people. I thought it was just pointing out that the job title means duty and dedication to your feudal lord, a cause greater than yourself. Something Cruise thought no longer existed before he learned bushido

 

It's definitely not a white savior movie either. Cruise is broken and pathetic when he gets to Katsumodo's village. In the end, the samurai and their values save him, not the other way around. It's one of those films like DANCES WITH WOLVES  (which includes dialog from Kevin Costner which states white people have no souls) that is wrongly pilloried for it's racial politics by people who are not terribly familiar with the story or script

 

If I could have done anything to improve this movie, I'd have made it 45 minutes longer and given the story more room to breath in it's first and second acts. Things always felt a bit harried and I think we needed more down time in order to draw the contrast between the serenity Cruise finds with the samurai and the bustle of westernized Tokyo

 

A beautiful film, and one of my favorites of 2004. Excellent action, action cinematography music and scenery.. what more do you want?