Dances with Samurais - a truly awful film

Rating: 4/10 (4 August 2004)

I am amazed by the flood of positive comments regarding this film. Maybe its because i am not from the US, but I found this movie to be an incredibly formulaic and clichéd; the sets looked like sets; and every character a familiar stereotype. Katsumoto (sp?) for example is regal, benevolent, cultured, noble and insanely courageous - there is no complexity or ambiguity there. the bad guys are all bad, and the good as pure as fallen snow. And the English photo guy is erudite but buffoonish - just like all English people, right? Wrong. Nothing is as simple and black and white as Hollywood blockbusters would have them be. I am really concerned that this same idealised, candy floss view of the world is shared by most Americans. Earth to Hollywood - there is no such thing as a thin dividing line between good and bad.
Anyway, absolutely loathed this movie and the whole trash culture Hollywood machine that churned it out.