MOVIE - THE LAST SAMURAI - Review Rating $$$$$ $$$ (OUT OF 10)

STARRING - Tom Cruise (Nathan Algren), Ken Watanabe (Katsumoto), Billy Connolly (Sgt. Zebulah Grant), Tony Goldwyn (Col. Benjamin Bagly), Koyuki (Taka), Shin Koyamada (Nobutada), Aoi Minata (Magojiro), Timothy Spall (Simon Graham), Hiroyuki Sanada (Ujio) & Scichinosuke Nakamura (Emperor).

DIRECTOR - Edward Zwick (Legends of the Fall, Courage Under Fire, Glory, About Last Night..., & The Siege)

The Last Samurai is a tale of two heroes joining forces, out of mutual respect for the other, to make a historic last stand. The heroes are not, however, equally interesting.

Tom Cruise (Nathan Algren) is a smart, successful actor as opposed to a great actor. His smartness is evident in the manner he has choreographed his career. With the exceptions of Far and Away and Eyes Wide Shut his rise to mega stardom has been seemingly as effortless as driving down the interstate with your car set on cruise control (pardon the pun).

In the process Cruise has chosen roles that compliment his talents as opposed to exposing his weaknesses. The role of Nathan Algren does both. Part of the blame for this lies with Cruise and part of it lies with the script.

The first 45 minutes or so of The Last Samurai is actually a little hard to watch. While the hint of epic battles to come keeps you in your seat the movie gets off to a very clumsy start. The opening scenes feature Cruise as a drunken U.S. Calvary veteran, Algren, wallowing in alcoholism and suffering from post traumatic stress. Cruise simply isn't convincing as a washed up mercenary for hire.

In much the same manner as Tom Hanks stumbled in the Road To Perdition, Cruise's performance is lackluster up to the point his character more closely resembles roles he's more comfortable playing. Cruise doesn't hit his stride until the character Nathan Algren resurrects his faith in himself and finds an idealistic purpose to pursue.

Not helping matters much are equally unconvincing flashbacks to atrocities committed by Algren and his fellow soldiers. Unlike Cold Mountain, this attempt at moral equivalency is poorly portrayed and comes off as a crass attempt to infuse Algren with demons needing to be conquered.

This is one instance where character development could have been either dispensed with altogether or at least taken a much different and less contrived route. The transformation of Algren from war criminal to war hero turns out to be almost irrelevant to the success of the film. What makes The Last Samurai compelling is the Samurais. Steeped in tradition and led by Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), a leader without an ounce of moral ambiguity, their attempt to preserve what is sacred, to them, is what makes the film interesting.

In this regard The Last Samurai is similar to some of Cruise's other excellent films (Rainman & Color of Money). Watanabe, like Hoffman and Newman before him, steals scene after scene and Cruise's humble role is to bask in the glory of another great performance.

The Last Samurai makes no explicit claims of historical accuracy and much of what transpires has been covered before in other films. Some have suggested The Last Samurai is nothing more than a reworked Dances With Wolves. I haven't seen that film so I can't comment further in that regard. What I can say is, that despite adhering to numerous Hollywood conventions, the second half of The Last Samurai pushes all the right buttons and evolves into a rousing film in the tradition of Gladiator.

The Last Samurai finishes strongly enough to make you forget about it flaws.

Running time - 150 minutes.

Check out my TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2003 & WORST MOVIES OF 2003 lists.

ALTERNATIVE REVIEWS:

Roger Ebert's Review

Private Joker Review

Peter Travers / Rolling Stone Review

Rotten Tomatoes Reviews

The Last Samurai Official Web Site

---

© Copyright 2005 David Schwartz. Last update: 2/28/05; 1:48:29 AM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.