Story of epic scale

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2003)

The last samurai follows a number of movies made in the east-meets-west style. What makes the movie successful is Zwick's portrayal of eastern culture and the influence of western culture during the given period. Everything in this movie is of epic scale. The sets, the battles, scope of time, as well as the range of characters. . . .
NOT giving anything away (less damage than a trailer would do), just like other "last" movies such as "The Last of the Mohicans," the last samurai is about the end of an era when the samurai is no longer paramount. The clash between old ways and the new, east and west, physical and spiritual, are all elements of this film that add to its dimension.
Of course the best examples of samurai film are by Akira Kurosawa. This movie does not contend to be better or a replacement for any of Kurosawa's classics. Rather, in the spirit of Kurosawa Zwick creates a historical epic capturing the brutal beauty of the samurai warrior during a setting when Japan is becoming increasingly more western.
8/10