| The Last Samurai | |
|---|---|
 Promotional Poster | |
| Directed by | Edward Zwick |
| Produced by | Tom Cruise Tom Engelman Marshall Herskovitz Scott Kroopf Paula Wagner Edward Zwick |
| Written by | Story: John Logan Screenplay: John Logan and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz |
| Starring | Tom Cruise Timothy Spall Ken Watanabe Billy Connolly Tony Goldwyn Hiroyuki Sanada Koyuki Kato Shin Koyamada |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
| Cinematography | John Toll |
| Editing by | Victor Du Bois Steven Rosenblum |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | December 5, 2003 |
| Running time | 154 minutes |
| Language | English Japanese French |
| Budget | $100 million USD |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Last Samurai is an action/drama film written by John Logan and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz based on a story by Logan. It was directed by Edward Zwick and released in the United States on December 5, 2003. The plot deals with American soldier Nathan Algren (played by Tom Cruise) whose personal and emotional conflicts bring him into contact with samurai in the wake of the Meiji Restoration in the Empire of Japan between 1876 and 1877.
The film's plot is loosely based on the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion led by Saigō Takamori, and also on the story of Jules Brunet, a French army captain who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki in the Boshin War. The historical roles in Japanese westernization by the United Kingdom, Germany and France are largely attributed to the United States in the film, and characters in the film and the real story are simplified for plot purposes. While it is not an accurate source of historical information, the film illustrates some major issues in Japanese history.
Plot
Captain Nathan Algren, a disenchanted ex-United States Army captain (once under the command of George Armstrong Custer and a veteran of the Battle of Gettysburg), is tortured by the guilt of his past transgressions against Native American civilians. He is recruited by his former commanding officer Colonel Bagley on behalf of a Japanese businessman, Mr. Omura, to help the new Meiji Restoration government train its first Western-style army.
Algren, under the command of Bagley, trains an army of peasants and farmers in firearm techniques, and is forced to take them into battle, despite lack of sufficient training, against a group of samurai rebels led by Katsumoto, to defend Omura's investment in a new railway. During the battle, the samurai slaughter Algren's poorly trained and inexperienced soldiers, Bagley withdraws from the field, and Algren is captured. Algren, after killing some samurai himself with pistol and a saber, is taken as a prisoner to an isolated village, where he gradually recovers from his wounds. He lives with the family of the samurai he killed, namely his widow Taka, her two sons and Katsumoto's son Nobutada. Over time, Algren's mental and emotional state improve as he learns "the way of the samurai" (Bushido), develops romantic feelings for Taka, studies japanese swordsmanship from a skilled swordmaster (Ujio) and converses with the local residents, gaining their respect.
One night, as the people watch a comic play, a group of ninja assassins attack the village, intent on killing Katsumoto. The Samurai succeed in defeating the ninja, but suffer losses. Algren wins the respect and admiration of the samurai by fighting alongside them, and distinguishing himself in the battle by his defense of Katsumoto. Katsumoto confides in Algren that he believes that Omura is responsible for the attack.
With the arrival of spring, Nathan is taken back to Tokyo, where he learns that the army, under Bagley's command, is now better organized and outfitted with howitzers and Gatling guns. He declines Omura's job offer to lead the army against Katsumoto, to crush the Samurai rebellion. He also witnesses the brutality of the Japanese soldiers who enforce the new laws forbidding samurai to publicly carry swords and wear their hair in chonmage.
At the same time, Katsumoto offers his counsel to the Emperor, to whom he was once a teacher. He learns that the young Emperor's hold upon the throne is much weaker than he thought, and that he is afraid to challenge men like Omura, who control vast wealth and political power.
The samurai leader Katsumoto is arrested and confined to his quarters in Tokyo when he refuses to remove his sword in the Emperor's presence, but Algren, having learned that Omura has ordered his assassination, and narrowly escaping an assassination attempt on his own life, decides to rescue him with help from several of Katsumoto's loyal followers. During the rescue mission, Katsumoto's son Nobutada is killed while allowing Algren and Katsumoto to escape.
Katsumoto is still mourning the loss of his son when he receives word that a large Imperial army unit is marching out to battle the samurai. A force of warriors, numbering only 500, are rallied. Algren receives a katana of his own. He is also given, by Taka, the armor of the samurai he killed. She dresses him into the armor, and they share a kiss just before Algren leaves.
The samurai plan, with the assistance of Algren, is to make their final stand. When a large Imperial Army, under the command of Omura and Bagley confronts the samurai's forces to put down the rebellion, the samurai fall back to higher ground. Omura immediately orders the infantry to pursue them. The samurai lead them into a trap, setting a fire to cut off their escape routes. The samurai then unleash volleys of arrows on the infantrymen, killing many.
Drawing their swords, the samurai, Algren and Katsumoto amongst them, charge the confused and wounded infrantymen. A second wave of Imperial infantry follows behind and quickly joins the battle. After a savage melee that leaves many samurai and infantrymen dead, the surviving samurai resolve to make a final charge. They charge by horse, and up being cut down by Japanese cannons and then by another unit of infantrymen. During the battle, Bagley attempts to shoot Katsumoto but Algren throws his sword into Bagley, killing him, saving Katsumato's life. Against all odds manage to make it through the enemy lines, only to be cut down by Gatling guns the soldiers had brought with them. Katsumoto and Algren are badly wounded from the encounter. Katsumoto, obeying bushido in order to keep his honour, commits seppuku (ceremonial samurai suicide) with help from Algren, ending his life. The Imperial troops, many of whose comrades have also been killed, show their respect by bowing to the fallen samurai. Omura storms off the field in disgust at the behaviour of his subordinates and troops. Algren, who survives the battle heavily wounded, stays at Katsumoto's side.
Later, as American ambassadors prepare to have the emperor sign a treaty that would give the US exclusive rights to sell firearms to the Japanese government, an injured Algren offers Katsumoto's sword as a present to the Emperor and urges the emperor to turn away the American ambassadors' offer. The Emperor agrees and tells the American ambassador that the deal is not in the best interest of Japan. Omura objects, and the emperor - realizing he does not need to live in fear of Omura - confiscates his estates and fortunes. Omura is greatly distressed at this, so the emperor offers him Katsumoto's sword to commit seppuku if the dishonor is too great to bear. Algren then returns to the samurai village where he was imprisoned earlier, and to Taka.
Cast
- Tom Cruise as Captain Nathan Algren, a Civil War and Indian Wars veteran haunted by the massacre of Native American civilians at the Battle of Washita River. He has a penchant for languages and drinking alcoholic beverages, especially whiskey, to drown his guilt and sorrow. He decides to help the new Meiji Restoration government train its first Western-style conscript army for a hefty sum. During the army's first battle he is captured by the samurai Katsumoto and taken to the village of Katsumoto's son, where he soon becomes intrigued with the way of the samurai and decides to join them in their cause. His journal entries reveal his impressions about traditional Japanese culture, which almost immediately evolves to admiration.
- Ken Watanabe as samurai Lord Katsumoto, a warrior-poet who was once Emperor Meiji's most trusted teacher. He is displeased with Mr. Omura's bureaucratic reform policies which leads him into organising a revolt against the Imperial Army.
- Tony Goldwyn as Colonel Bagley, Capt. Algren's commanding officer in the 7th Cavalry Regiment, who was to train the Imperial Army. Algren dislikes Bagley for his role in the Washita River massacre of the Native Americans that Algren cannot get over. His facial hair is very similar to the way Custer wore his and is intended to evoke that image. Bagley is then killed by Algren in the climactic battle.
- Masato Harada as Omura, an industrialist and pro-reform politician who despises the samurai. Coming from a family that like many merchants was repressed during the days of Samurai rule, he assumes a great deal of power during the Meiji Restoration and takes advantages of Meiji's youth to become his chief advisor (wielding power similar to those of the Shoguns).
- Shichinosuke Nakamura as Emperor Meiji. Credited with the implementation of the 1868 Meiji Restoration, the Emperor is eager to import Western ideas and practices to modernize and empower Japan to become a strong nation.
- Shin Koyamada as Nobutada, Katsumoto's only son who is lord of the village that the Samurai are encamped in.
- Hiroyuki Sanada as Ujio, one of the most dedicated and vicious samurai under Katsumoto. He teaches Algren the art of Samurai swordfighting, not very gentle, either.
- Timothy Spall as Simon Graham, a British translator for Captain Algren and his non-Japanese speaking soldiers. Initially portrayed as a typical practical-minded Englishman, he later comes to understand the Samurai cause.
- Seizo Fukumoto as the Silent Samurai, an elderly man assigned to follow Algren (who later calls the samurai "Bob") as he travels through the village. He bears a marked resemblance to Kyuzo from Seven Samurai.
- Koyuki as Taka, Katsumoto's sister and the wife of the red-masked Samurai Hirotaro, whom Nathan Algren kills earlier.
- Billy Connolly as Sergeant Zebulon Gant, a former cavalry soldier who served with Algren and talked him into coming to Japan. He is later killed in the opening battle by Hirotaro (Taka's husband).
- Shun Sugata as Nakao, a tall judo and naginata skilled samurai, takes part in Katsumoto's rescue, and considers Algren ugly.
Reception
The film received an enthusiastic reception among the moviegoing public in Japan, with box office receipts higher in that country than in the USA. [1] Critical reception in Japan was generally positive. Tomomi Katsuta of The Mainichi Shimbun thought that the film was "a vast improvement over previous American attempts to portray Japan", noting that director Ed Zwick "had researched Japanese history, cast well-known Japanese actors and consulted dialogue coaches to make sure he didn't confuse the casual and formal categories of Japanese speech." However, Katsuta still found fault with the film's idealistic, "storybook" portrayal of the samurai, stating that "Our image of samurai are that they were more corrupt." As such, he said, the noble samurai leader Katsumoto "set (his) teeth on edge." [2]
Reviews were harsher in the United States, with numerous unflattering comparisons to Kevin Costner's film Dances With Wolves. Motoko Rich of The New York Times observed that the film has opened up a debate, "particularly among Asian-Americans and Japanese," about whether the film and others like it were "racist, naïve, well-intentioned, accurate — or all of the above." [3] Tom Long, critic for The Detroit News, wrote that "The Last Samurai pretends to honor a culture, but all it's really interested in is cheap sentiment, big fights and, above all, star worship. It is a sham, and further, a shame." Reviewer Todd McCarthy from Variety calls The Last Samurai “ rich in period and historical background,” a “physically impressive” film with costumes that are “rich in eye-catching detail but not self-consciously exotic.” However, he states that the film is “deficient in fresh dramatic and thematic ideas,” and that the end of the movie “feel[s] phony and tacked on as a contrived sop to conventional audience expectations.” [4]
Other actors have displayed some bitterness at having missed their chance to be cast as Captain Algren. Most notably, Steven Seagal stated:
I was raised in Japan. I was schooled in martial arts. I was given the title of master. They take a movie The Last Samurai. They have a five foot two inch little guy, whether he was straight or gay, I don't know. I don't care. He had never been to Japan. He doesn't speak Japanese. He has never held a sword. They make him the last samurai. [5]
Soundtrack
Composed by Hans Zimmer, the score for The Last Samurai makes use of traditional Japanese instrumentation and compositional techniques, as well as the Western equivalent. The Taiko drum features prominently in the action cues. Vocal shouts and chants are featured in the "Red Warrior" cue. The score was nominated for several awards, including a Golden Globe (Best Original Score), and won an ASCAP award.
Track listing
- A Way of Life
- Spectres in the Fog
- Taken
- A Hard Teacher
- To Know My Enemy
- Idyll's End
- Safe Passage
- Ronin
- Red Warrior
- The Way of the Sword
- A Small Measure of Peace
- The End of the beginning
Miscellaneous
- Although many of the film's cast members are Japanese, the production crew is almost entirely American, and most of the movie was filmed in New Zealand.
- Although filmed in New Zealand, to give the appearance of a Japanese setting, actual shots of Mount Fuji were superimposed using CGI.
- Several of the village scenes were shot on the Warner Brothers Studios backlot in Burbank, CA.
- The movie is almost unrelated to the novel The Last Samurai written by Helen DeWitt.
- The golden, circular ring painted on Ujio's black armor is in fact not a tribute to his previous movie Ringu, but is actually the Enso, the Zen circle, commonly seen in Hitsuzendo and various martial arts like Aikido.
- Cruise has stated in interviews that Lord Katsumoto is the "Last Samurai" of the film's titles (against complaints of claiming an untrained Caucasian as the last of the samurai). His character is simply the focal point of the plot.
- Although Cruise has stated that Katsumoto is the "Last Samurai", the title has spawned debate in some circles on the many references the title could have - there is the obvious Cruise or Katsumoto reference, but also the plural "Last Samurai"... as in the end of the warrior caste entirely.
- Algren discusses The Battle of Thermopylae with Katsumoto, explaining how 300 Spartans stood against One Million Persians. The opening manoevers against Omura's forces mirror the tactics used in the early stages of Thermopylae; allowing the advance force beyond a certain point and then trapping them- the Japanese with firewalls, the Spartans with shields in phalanx; This 'duplication' may be a tactical ploy on their part, although it is more likely it was as logical a strategy to the Samurai as it was to the Spartans.
Historical background
The Last Samurai combines real but disconnected historical situations, rather distant in time, into a single narrative. It also replaces the key Western actors of the period (especially the French) by American ones. Finally, it portrays a radical conflict between ancient and modern fighting methods, but in reality all sides of the conflict (the Satsuma Rebellion, and before it the Boshin War) adopted modern equipment to various degrees. Many thematic, and visual elements of the film parallel the films of Akira Kurosawa, specifically Seven Samurai.
Military modernization and Western involvement
The kind of military modernization described in The Last Samurai was already largely achieved by the time of the Boshin War ten years before, in 1868. At that time, forces favourable to the Shogun were modernized and trained by the French Military Mission to Japan (1867), and a modern fleet of steam warships had already been constituted (Eight steam warships, Kaiten, Banryū, Chiyodagata, Chōgei, Kaiyō Maru, Kanrin Maru, Mikaho and Shinsoku formed the core of the Bakufu Navy in 1868). The Western fiefs of Satsuma and Chōshū were also already highly modernized, supported by British interests and expertise. Even the appearance of Gatling guns in Japan goes back to that time (the Gatling guns were invented in 1861, and deployed during the 1868-1869 Boshin War by both sides, at the Battle of Hokuetsu and the Naval Battle of Miyako). Modernization had already advanced at a fast pace during the Bakumatsu period, many years before the installation of the Meiji Emperor.
Although Commodore Perry is credited with opening Japan to foreign contacts in 1854, American involvement in Japan was minimal thereafter. In depth interaction, mainly commercial in nature, only started from 1859 with the Harris Treaty, and from 1861 American influence waned due to the demands of the American Civil War (1861-1865). The main powers involved with the modernization of Japan up to the 1868 Meiji Restoration were the Netherlands, (initiation of a modern navy with the Nagasaki Naval Training Center and the supply of Japan's first modern ships, the Kankō Maru and the Kanrin Maru), France (Construction of the arsenal of Yokosuka by Léonce Verny, the 1867 French Military Mission), and Great Britain (in supplying modern equipment, especially ships, to a variety of domains, and in training the Navy with the Tracey Mission).
Meiji restoration
Following the Meiji restoration in 1868, the early Imperial Japanese Army was essentially developed with the assistance of French advisors again, through the second French Military Mission to Japan (1872-1880). An army of conscripts, mostly peasants replacing the former samurai class, was put in place with French assistance for the first time in March 1873. These troops were further modernized and their officers trained in military academies set up by the French, and would intervene against former samurai in the Satsuma rebellion in 1877. The Haitorei edict in 1876 all but banned carrying swords and guns on streets.
The Satsuma rebellion
The Satsuma Rebellion, the historical event described in The Last Samurai, was even more one-sided than in the movie, although the military techniques employed by each side were less contrasted. It occurred in 1877, ten years after the Boshin War, and ten years after the establishment of the Imperial Japanese army. The Imperial troops sent a huge force of 300,000 soldiers under Kawamura Sumiyoshi, modern in all aspects of warfare, using howitzers and observations balloons, to the island of Kyūshū to fight Saigō Takamori.
Saigō Takamori's rebels numbered around 40,000 in total, until they dwindled to about 400 at the final stand at the Battle of Shiroyama. Although they fought for the preservation of the caste of the samurai, and officers often wore samurai cuirasses, they did not neglect Western military methods: they used guns and cannons, and all contemporary depictions of Saigō Takamori represent him wearing the uniform of a Western general. At the end of the conflict, running out of material and ammunition, they had to fall back to close-quarter tactics and the use of swords, bows and arrows. In a parallel to the movie, they also fought for a more virtuous form of government (their slogan was "新政厚徳", "New government, High morality").
In contrast to the Boshin War, no Westerners are recorded to have fought on either side of the Satsuma rebellion. Specifically, Saigō Takamori did not fight side-by-side with foreign soldiers during the Satsuma Rebellion. During the Boshin War, Saigō may have been supported by British and American military advisors,[6] but the only documented case of foreigners actually fighting for a Japanese cause was that of the French soldiers supporting Enomoto Takeaki.
Further foreign assistance
A third French Military Mission to Japan (1884-1889) was later sent. However, due to the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the Japanese government also relied on Prussia as a model for their army, and hired two German military advisors (Major Jakob Meckel and Captain von Blankenbourg) for the training of the Japanese General Staff from 1886 to 1889. Other known foreign military consultants were the Italian Major Pompeo Grillo, who worked at the Osaka foundry from 1884 to 1888, followed by Major Quaratezi from 1889 to 1890, and the Dutch Captain Schermbeck, who worked on improving coastal defenses from 1883 to 1886.
Japan did not use foreign military advisors anymore between 1889 and 1918, until again a fourth French Military Mission to Japan (1918-1919), headed by Commandant Jacques Faure, was requested to assist in the development of the nascent Japanese airforce.
Westerners fighting alongside Japanese
Historically, the only major case of foreigners taking an active role in a Japanese civil war is that of the French military advisers under Jules Brunet (initially members of the 1867 French Military Mission), who joined the forces favourable to the Shogun under Enomoto Takeaki, during the Boshin war. They were deeply involved in the military organization of the Shogunal forces, and fought (several of them were heavily wounded) almost to end of the conflict. A few days before surrender, when the situation had become desperate, they left on the French frigate Coëtlogon which had been waiting at anchor in Hakodate. Some of these French officers did wear the samurai attire (such as the French Naval officer Eugène Collache), although most officers in the armies of the Bakufu, as well as of course their French colleagues, wore French military uniforms.
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