A Great Movie That Borrows A Bit Too Heavily

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2008)

After the first half hour or so, I have to admit that I was very disappointed with this movie. It seemed as though we were being treated to a remake of Edward Zwick's earlier (and magnificent) Civil War movie "Glory." Several of the scenes seemed lifted almost word for word and action by action from that script. Think about it: the young officer (Algren, played by Tom Cruise) tormented by his memories of past battles (like Shaw in "Glory"); the training scene in which Algren demands that the inexperienced Japanese soldier shoot under fire (as Shaw did with Jupiter in "Glory"); the Samurai emerging from the fog to take on the inexperienced Japanese army (as the Confederates did in taking on the 54th Massachussetts in "Glory"). "Glory" was a great movie, but I really wasn't looking for it to be refilmed in the context of a Japanese civil war. Fortunately after that first half hour the overt references to Zwick's earlier movie faded away (with the exception of one scene near the end of the movie when Algren hands his journal and papers to an observing journalist before going into battle, just as Shaw did before the Battle of Fort Wagner) and "The Last Samurai" is then able to take on a life of its own, and it does so very well.
There were a number of things I really liked about this movie. It provided an interesting reflection on Samurai culture. (I say reflection rather than study because I have no idea how historically accurate the reflection was.) We see a clear reflection on American history (and particularly on the winning of the west.) Algren was supposedly a veteran of battles against the Sioux, and there are several references to Custer. Obviously, Algren is trying to make amends for helping to wipe out native American culture by trying to preserve traditional Japanese culture. There was also a perhaps inadvertent reflection on the so-called "Stockholm Syndrome," in which a captive begins to increasingly identify with his captor, as Algren clearly does after being taken prisoner by the Samurai.
This movie features very good performances by Cruise (with whom I am not always enamoured) and also by Ken Watanabe, playing Katsumoto, the head of the Samurai warriors, and there was an excellent closing battle scene (obviously Zwick - as he showed previously in "Glory" - is an expert at recreating such scenes.) The only thing that detracted from this (aside from the lack of originality in stealing too many scenes from "Glory") was an ending that was altogether too sappy in a number of ways. I would have ended this on the battlefield, which to me would have been more appropriate. Still, there's no doubt that this is deserving of an 8/10.