An underrated masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2017)

I can't understand why The Last Samurai got mixed reviews by critics because it's such a powerful and beautiful movie. In fact, it's up there with other sword fighting movies like Braveheart and Gladiator. But at least, it was a success with audiences and at least Empire Magazine gave it a five-star review.
But all that aside, let me just say that I really enjoyed the film. The two lead actors, Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe are superb in their performances. Tom Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren, a traumatized soldier who finds peace when he's taken prisoner by the samurai warriors and he learns how they live and their culture and language and even becomes a father/husband figure to the family of the samurai that he killed in battle and even becomes a samurai himself. To me, this is Tom Cruise's best performance of his career despite what people might say about him but he's acted well in other movies like Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July. Ken Watanabe plays the samurai leader, Katsumoto who is in conflict with the Japanese Emperor and politicians because he wants to keep the old culture and traditions and honour of Japan alive and goes into battle against the modern Japanese army and I'm glad Watanabe was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
The action scenes and battle sequences are as compelling as the story. And I like how they depict the locations of 19th century Japan at one side, a revolutionary city and at the other side, a vast and beautiful countryside. The cinematography is shot beautifully and the rest of the cast do really well too.
So in conclusion, I just want to say The Last Samurai is one of my favourite movies of 2003 (a rather good year for movies) and I recommend to anyone who likes great drama and action.