Dances With Wolves set in Japan

Rating: 4/10 (5 September 2006)

In 1990, Kevin Costner directed and starred in "Dances With Wolves", a story about a disillusioned American army officer who goes to live with native Americans and learns something about himself. The "Fish Out of Water" tale is an old one, but Costner and screenwriter Michael Blake managed to inject some soul into it and the result is now a movie classic.
Transplanting the "Fish Out of Water" story to 19th Century Japan doesn't work because it has no human or emotional core. All that "The Last Samurai" manages to do is provide Tom Cruise with another star vehicle. I reckon that there is more truth about Bushido in the comic book, "Usagi Yojimbo". Cruise has acted well in other movies but in this one he merely goes through the motions. He is like a man learning to handle a katana sword without understanding any of the ritual or tradition behind its use.
The script is a tired cliché from start to finish. Despite the director's visual flair and the efforts of the actors (apart from Cruise, who faxes his performance in from Palm Beach), the film fails to offer anything more than the odd moment of spectacle. The rest is a mish-mash of cod philosophy and second-rate political thriller filler.
The final battle of the film is pure Spaghetti Western and an unworthy tribute to the last real Samurai of Japan.
Not a truly awful film but too bland and uninspiring to be rated as highly as "Dances With Wolves".