Check Your History at the Door and Enjoy!

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2003)

Overall, I liked the Last Samurai--as a story. As a representative piece of Japanese history, though, I'm sure there are plenty of purists out there holding their noses.
Hollywood has this real penchant for producing historical figures who are uncharacteristically 21st Century Politically Correct for whatever era they live in. Tom Cruise is no exception in this film. He, with conventional wisdom no older than forty years, had no respect for Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer or his tactics. A genuine military contemporary of Custer, however, would realize he was the youngest US officer to reach the grade of Brigadier General during the Civil War. He didn't reach that rank for having a good filing system.
What about the premise of the film? Tom Cruise, a has-been hero from the wild west, is hired to help develop Japan's new modern Army. How does being an individually brave person who can handle a weapon and ride like a trick shot artists translate into being an organizer and trainer of an entire army? Had such a person demonstrated all those skills in military service, he would have been promoted like Custer was.
Beyond that, it's hard to believe his purpose for being in Japan: building the Army. The film seems to imply it is for fighting an internal rebellion. Sure, there have been people like Katsumoto in the film known to operate briefly even in modern times (Noted author Yukio Mishima, who committed seppuku about 35 years ago, is a recent example of such a person). Nonetheless, they haven't been a serious threat to Japan's order since the early shoguns a couple of hundred years prior to the Meiji era. Japan developed a modern army, all right, but the purpose was external--there were issues with the Chinese and the Russians.
I think the intent here was to turn the tables for the character in the film. He went from fighting on the side with the guns against the side with the bows and arrows to the opposite situation. In that respect, the film succeeds. The characters had depth and the story was fascinating. Unlike many American films with Japanese themes, I would have no problem recommending this film to a Japanese--provided he doesn't take history too seriously. I gave the film a seven.