The Last Samurai
The trailers for The Last Samurai baffled me somewhat, I couldn’t quite work out what to expect, was this going to be a Kill Bill superslick sword fighting vanity trip for Tom Cruise, or a Dances with Wolves intelligent study of the conflict between the traditional Eastern culture and the invading West, or maybe someone was trying to cash in on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by getting rid of those cumbersome subtitles and putting in a white superstar?
Well I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by the epic mixture that Samurai provided, and Epic is the right word, set in the 1876 Japanese civil war the story follows Cruise’s ‘war hero’ as he is hired to train an inexperienced and ill equipped Japanese army as it battles the uprising by the last of the traditional Samurai warrior caste. The immediate theme is that of the conflict between the traditional and the modern, the Imperial powers of Europe and American and the traditional, ‘backward’ cultures of the old world, represented by the Samurai in Japan, and the Native Americans in America. The historical conflict is mirrored by the emotional conflict carried by Cruise’s drunken Cavalry Captain, and the story follows as he combats his personal demons (whiskey, sake etc) within the great battles between sword wielding Samurai warriors and the guns and cannons of the Japanese soldiers.
With such a massive emphasis on the main character, I was worried the film would slip into a vanity fest for Cruise, as I dreaded seeing him learn Buddism and start flying across the rooftops in a wire-worked Crouching Tiger style, but thankfully it didn’t happen, at least not to that extent. Instead Cruise puts on one of his strongest performances for some time as the grizzled war veteran, and though he overplays it somewhat, I genuinely enjoyed watching him learn the value of honour (which seemed to mean a lot of being hit round the head with a wooden stick), wearing ill fitting Japanese robes and grooming his lovely beard.
But I don’t want to overemphasise the cultural themes, the scenery or the epic storylines that are so important with this kind of film, because, like Lord of the Rings or Crouching Tiger, it’s the liberal bursts of ultra violent swordplay that breaks up the more tedious parts of the film with heart thumping action. I know this might provoke some criticism by my fellow Knockouters, but the katana action in this film wipes Kill Bill’s breakdancing ass and then cuts its head off, and in this film you don’t laugh when the limbs hit the floor. Samurai wisely forgoes all out Karate, Kung Fu, Judo martial arts scenes and concentrates on the sword fighting, and its good, bloody fast and good. Impressive as the sword fighting is, and it is impressive, eventually the Samurai warriors come up against guns, and unlike Kill Bill (somebody just shoot her!) they do get shot, and we realise how helpless the sword wielding warriors must have felt when they were finally confronted with cannons and bullets.
There is a little more to the film than the action and the historical themes, even a slight love story and replacement father cliché, but they are not too sappy and don’t draw away too much from the main film. With epics like this its best to sit back and let yourself be immersed, if you start to get bored or its gets a bit too self righteous and sentimental then just wait for the bit with the Ninjas, its worth it. Oh and Billy Connelly’s in it, as an Irishman, bit odd that.
8.0
Superdan 21:13 26/01/2004