A Very Entertaining Action Film

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2017)

This film begins in 1876 with a Samurai warlord by the name of "Katsumoto" (Ken Watanabe) meditating on a hill in Japan and having an eerie vision of a white tiger fighting for its life in an extremely fierce and desperate battle. The scene then shifts to a small town in America where a Medal-of-Honor winner named "Captain Nathan Algren" (Tom Cruise) is demonstrating to the crowd the capabilities of a brand new Winchester repeating rifle. Not long afterward he is recruited to come to Japan to teach Japanese soldiers how to fight using Western weapons and techniques to be used primarily against an internal rebellion of Samurai warriors led by none other than--Katsumoto. Accompanying him is a former commander he intensely dislikes by the name of "Colonel Bagley" (Tony Goldwyn) along with a respected comrade-in-arms named "Sergeant Zebulon Gant" (Billy Connolly). Yet, even though he is strictly a military adviser it is only a matter of time before Captain Algren and his raw recruits meet Katsumoto and his highly-skilled samurai on the field of battle-and neither of them will be the same afterward. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a very entertaining action film which managed to capture the turmoil and anguish brought on by the Meiji Restoration in a superb manner. Likewise, the performances of Ken Watanable and Tom Cruise were also first-rate as well. In short, I enjoyed this film and I definitely recommend it to those who might be interested.