The Last Samurai (2003)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 154m
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Ken Watanabe, Tom Cruise, William Atherton, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall
Synopsis:
After the Civil War a distinguished Union Army officer is persuaded to travel to Japan in order to train the Emperor's army in modern tactics and weapons so that the tradition-bound and unbending samurai might be wiped out. However, when taken prisoner by his enemy he finds their ways far more deserving of preservation than the world he has come from.
Review:
Possessing some of that 'lost cause' appeal of The Alamo, and providing a useful historical footnote to most Americans' only other cultural point of reference, Kill Bill, Zwick's handsomely mounted film has nevertheless some of the weaknesses of his earlier ones: it is indulgently long, worthy, and tends towards a somewhat Manichean conception of character. On the plus side it is a good deal more compelling than its predecessors, not least thanks to the energetic conviction of its two leads, and the story has an undeniably romantic, redemptive power. As a Hollywood attempt at a samurai pic, not to mention one opting for reverence rather than rumbustiousness, it's not at all bad.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 154m
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Ken Watanabe, Tom Cruise, William Atherton, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall
Synopsis:
After the Civil War a distinguished Union Army officer is persuaded to travel to Japan in order to train the Emperor's army in modern tactics and weapons so that the tradition-bound and unbending samurai might be wiped out. However, when taken prisoner by his enemy he finds their ways far more deserving of preservation than the world he has come from.
Review:
Possessing some of that 'lost cause' appeal of The Alamo, and providing a useful historical footnote to most Americans' only other cultural point of reference, Kill Bill, Zwick's handsomely mounted film has nevertheless some of the weaknesses of his earlier ones: it is indulgently long, worthy, and tends towards a somewhat Manichean conception of character. On the plus side it is a good deal more compelling than its predecessors, not least thanks to the energetic conviction of its two leads, and the story has an undeniably romantic, redemptive power. As a Hollywood attempt at a samurai pic, not to mention one opting for reverence rather than rumbustiousness, it's not at all bad.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 154m
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Ken Watanabe, Tom Cruise, William Atherton, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall
Synopsis:
After the Civil War a distinguished Union Army officer is persuaded to travel to Japan in order to train the Emperor's army in modern tactics and weapons so that the tradition-bound and unbending samurai might be wiped out. However, when taken prisoner by his enemy he finds their ways far more deserving of preservation than the world he has come from.
Review:
Possessing some of that 'lost cause' appeal of The Alamo, and providing a useful historical footnote to most Americans' only other cultural point of reference, Kill Bill, Zwick's handsomely mounted film has nevertheless some of the weaknesses of his earlier ones: it is indulgently long, worthy, and tends towards a somewhat Manichean conception of character. On the plus side it is a good deal more compelling than its predecessors, not least thanks to the energetic conviction of its two leads, and the story has an undeniably romantic, redemptive power. As a Hollywood attempt at a samurai pic, not to mention one opting for reverence rather than rumbustiousness, it's not at all bad.