The last samurai how good/bad is it?

[Drake Tungsten]

I know, I was just kidddin'

I wouldn't joke about that kind of thing. You're likely to start a riot in China with those kind of mix-ups.

I am sure nationalist will hate this in Japan.

Who cares?

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Ned


Ali, I think you have heard wrong.

Well, I saw this last night and it was actually far better than I had expected. The romance between Cruise and his Japanese hostess is not nearly as intrusive or cloying as I thought it would be from the trailers.

And as for the ending - you thought that was a happy ending? Aside from the (structural) drama of Cruise surviving and the scene with Emperor Meiji, you've seen all the protagonists killed off and their way of life exterminated. Cruise returns to a village that has lost all its able men. Hardly a saccharine 'n' sweet ending by any means.

It wasn't completely free from influences of dramatization (eg the final scene between Cruise and the samurai leader on the battlefield) but it's a good development from the awful 1980s tradition of ninja/samurai films where the white guy plays the only good guy and all the Japanese guys are brutal thugs. I was expecting to see Cruise tediously kicking samurai ass, against all logic and palatability.

What I'd be interested in is the accuracy of the representation of the samurai and the Meiji restoration. This film could be one of those "sexy and sensitive" historical films that nonetheless twist the actual facts to fit some agenda, a la Braveheart (which I hated, knowing a bit more about English history and Wallace's real life story).

[chequita guevara]

Salon trashed the movie as boring. Erbert gave it 3.5 stars, so I'm conflicted.

[SlowwHand]

If Cruise was a communist samuri, Salon would have rated it higher.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Wraith
Haven't seen it, but the most common comment I've seen about it is "Dances with Samurai". So if you liked Dances with Wolves, sure, go see it.

I dont dislike "Dances with Wolves". I just havent made it through the whole thing without falling asleep yet.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Jac de Molay
Another BIG epic where Tom Cruise chews scenery, and shows those samurai how to kick ass after only months of training with them?

Think I'll wait for this one to come out at the dollar theater...

actually I think it's just the opposite from what I read. I'll try to see this today or tomorrow.

[Jac de Molay]

Rotten tomatoes gives it an average 6.8 out of 10, which isn't spectacular.

I just think Cruise is way overrated, aside from The Color of Money and Born on the Fourth. I could easily see this as just vehicle for his bloated ego.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I dont dislike "Dances with Wolves". I just havent made it through the whole thing without falling asleep yet.

Heh... I wonder how you would deal with my special edition Dances DVD which is about 4 hours long .

[MrFun]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
If Cruise was a communist samuri, Salon would have rated it higher.

well, duh

[SpencerH]

I thought it was around 4hrs anyway. I guess from your comment that there is a shorter version. It doesnt really matter much though (its kinda like worrying about the depth of the water you're swimming on top of), so far I've made it up to the part shortly after the buffalo hunt. I caught a glimpse of something near the end once (I think) where he was in the custody of other troops.

[Ned]

Ali, the romance parts were what really caught my wife's attention and she (and I) thought it was a happy ending from that point of view.

It was also happy to the extent that the bad lord's property was confiscated and the Emperor said that Japan should not forget its tradition.

What I found frankly implausible was that Cruise could break into audience with the Emperor the way he did. Further, I find it unimaginable that the US ambassador would loose his cool in front of the Emperor.

[SnowFire]

I'm leary of the movie, simply because it sounds like it'll be romaniticizing Bushido & the whole samurai class, something that kept Japan ground in the mud for centuries. The great glory of the Meiji era was those impetous Samurai running their revolutions, and then getting brutally shot down by the Imperial army made up of common people with guns that shot 'em all before they could get in sword range.

I was reasonably okay with romanticizing the Indians in Dances with Wolves, but the Samurai deserve it a lot less.

[Drake Tungsten]

I'm leary of the movie, simply because it sounds like it'll be romaniticizing Bushido & the whole samurai class, something that kept Japan ground in the mud for centuries.

The caste system instituted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and continued by the Tokugawa bakufu is what kept Japanese society stagnant and "ground in the mud". Bushido had little to do with it.

The great glory of the Meiji era was those impetous Samurai running their revolutions, and then getting brutally shot down by the Imperial army made up of common people with guns that shot 'em all before they could get in sword range.

Japanese armies had been fighting with guns since shortly after first contact with Europeans, some three centuries before the Meiji era. Oda Nobunaga was one of the first to make extensive use of muskets, wielded by common conscripts, and this tactic led to his great success and helped him start the reunification of Japan. The use of guns was not something that was introduced by the Meiji army. They did have a technological advantage (rifles) though, IIRC.

I was reasonably okay with romanticizing the Indians in Dances with Wolves, but the Samurai deserve it a lot less.

The samurai were hardly a monolithic group that can be painted as either good or evil. I don't see how you can judge an integral part of Japanese society that existed for centuries and went through many profound changes throughout Japanese history. It would be as silly as claiming all Indians are evil because the Pawnee were ruthless bastards.

[Dis]

Originally posted by SnowFire
I'm leary of the movie, simply because it sounds like it'll be romaniticizing Bushido & the whole samurai class, something that kept Japan ground in the mud for centuries. The great glory of the Meiji era was those impetous Samurai running their revolutions, and then getting brutally shot down by the Imperial army made up of common people with guns that shot 'em all before they could get in sword range.

I was reasonably okay with romanticizing the Indians in Dances with Wolves, but the Samurai deserve it a lot less.

well I'm okay with it. I believe it is a subject worthy of romanticizing.

[mrmitchell]

Not that good really. He just ran into the musketman and died. Even after I'd bombarded the loser too.