The Last Samurai

[shorty larsen]

Saw Last Samurai yesterday.

I lliked it, good movie, I think with a better directior we could have seen a GREAT movie, an epic one...

What I wanted to say is that, in The Last Samurai we find, again, the railroad..... and the different forms of destructive capitalism.

Modernization in Japan ment industrialisation, "capitalisation" and destruction of the ancient visions of the world, like the Bushido of the Samurai.

The Tom Cruise character, like the John Dumbar character in Dance with wolves, escapes from capitalist "civilization", who destroys EVERYTHING.

[The Smoker]

Have to agree shorty larsen.
I walked into the cinema with a friend with quite a unimpressed  outlook really. But i was quite surprised, its been done very well.

Not the Tom Cruise Vehicle ive come to believe.
He is almost up staged by whats going on around him as he embraces the culture, with just the right balance
Hiroyuki Sanada was a little under used.
Its mostly pure fantasy historically, but thats what Epics are about.  a little part of Sengoku feudal Japan in the 19th century. .
I thought it might of been about the Satsuma rebellion more in keeping with Japanese era that Captain Algren was coming into.

It reminded of that Shogun TV series and Lawrence Of Arabia in its nature.

But

If i had a hat id be eating it.   good night at the cinema

[shorty larsen]

Shogun tv series with Richard Chamberlain!!!

Now, what a tv serie, really excellent, with a great Toshiro Mifune.

I have an excellent concept of the serie. I agree with you, Hiroyuki Sanada was under used. But a great actor like Togo Igawa, who played general Hasegawa, only appears a few seconds, he don't even speak....

Now, I must say that there are similarities between Last Samurai, Dances woth Wolves and OUTW.

In OUTW, a past, glorious or not, pure or not, but with rules, is destroyed by the "progress", symbolized in rairoad. Like "Last Samurai" and "Dances with Wolves", there is a character in OUTW, Harmonica who leaves the "scene" when capitalism arrives and destroys everything. The Tom Cruise character too, and John Dumbar, that is to say Kevin Costner too. They leva "civilization" and its crimes and go elsewhere, elsewhere new, virgin, pure, non contaminated by the crimes of industrialization, "progress", "modernization", who hace no ethics at all.

[Il Buono]

I saw it too yesterday.  I thought the first hour and a half was really great and did very well avoiding the typical clichés of the story, but after this, it went seriously downhill.  The Tom Cruise character became too much of a hero, and the clichés about living by the way of the samurai started to build up.  What a shame, this could have been a fantastic movie.

[shorty larsen]

Yeah, it is exactly the way I feel too. I have the feeling that it could have been a great movie, like Dances with Wolves.

But, well, I don't complain. Good music by Hans Zimmer, good photography.

I would prefer if the Tom Cruise character die at the same time than Matsumoto.

[The Smoker]

Yeah. his own death would of made it a more powerful film.
Looking at the film at that turning point?
Id bet ya theres a draft script with that outcome floating around somewhere.

[COLONNA]

I didn' see this film but I'm wondering:

1° why ,still in 2004, American people and more generally Occidental  people including Europe need a "white ambassador" to understand and appreciate others civilizations and races ?  Why not DIRECTLY? is it so difficult for us ?

Remember Peter O'Toole , Kevin Costner... and now Tom Cruise . They are all like cosmonauts discovering Arabs, Sioux   and Japanese in a new planet  .

Except for  "Tiger and Dragon", large public is not ready to appreciate foreign actors playing in foreign films.

Too bad

[Jayson Kennedy]

Hmmm, dunno about this film, I'll stick with what's amazing, Kurosawa  

[The Smoker]

I didn' see this film but I'm wondering:

1° why ,still in 2004, American people and more generally Occidental  people including Europe need a "white ambassador" to understand and appreciate others civilizations and races ?  Why not DIRECTLY? is it so difficult for us ?

Remember Peter O'Toole , Kevin Costner... and now Tom Cruise . They are all like cosmonauts discovering Arabs, Sioux   and Japanese in a new planet  .

Except for  "Tiger and Dragon", large public is not ready to appreciate foreign actors playing in foreign films.

Too bad

Exactly why i had look warm feelings about seeing this movie. There is also some kinda white mans guilt trip going on in these movies.. that dosn't sit well with me.

It just about gets away with it. Only just... his own death would made it for me. .

Id let off Peter O Toole.
Because its not fantasy, Romantisized maybe but.. Lawrance's Seven Pillars Of Wisdom is at times frightingly close to that film. Maybe less on sadomachism and the British/French betrayal.

But same here id rather watch Kenji Misumi or Akira Kurosawa do rounds anyday.  

One of the greatest experiences for me in film watchin? was going to see Tiger/Dragon it had a re-opening  at a local cinema when the Academy Awards rolled in.

Non English Speaking Film, Subtitles in a Multiplex Cinema.. these don't sound right together? It almost felt perverse
I did it three times in one week.  

[COLONNA]

Lawrance's Seven Pillars Of Wisdom is at times frightingly close to that film. Maybe less on sadomachism and the British/French betrayal.

(Thanks Smoker,)

Do you think so ? I like very much the book: very dry like a desert sand, not so easy to read ... in comparision the film is a sugared pleasure , a perfect entertainment Hollywood product with a well-shaved Lawrence and some white actors playing Arabians and Turkishs.

By the way  ,is Georges W. the new Lawrence ? Shall he learn to drive a camel ?  After Bagdad he currently dreams about Damas
 

[Rubio]

I agree that I think the film would have been much better had Cruise died. I'm not much of a Cruise fan but I think he did okay as Algren acting wise. It just irks me though that he turned into such a great samurai in such a short time...I understand he was previously a warrior, but COME ON. He's all the sudden one of the best samurai in an army of men who trained at being samurai since the age of 7? Please...  He could have at least died in the battle but of course he didn't, the title itself gave away the fact he'd survive it all.

On the positives though, Watanabe was great as Katsumoto and Sanada was good too, a little underused though. The battle scenes were done well as well. The music was decent too.