Beautiful scenery, interesting history and awesome battle scenes makes a great combination

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2017)

I missed out on this movie back when it came out and finally got the chance to watch it. It is loosely based on real events about the samurai and Japanese history which sound interesting to me, but how does that combine with Tom Cruise?
The film opens in San Francisco in the summer of 1876. Ex-United States Army captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is having troubles dealing with his military past: he drinks a lot and has nightmares of the horrors he has seen, especially the battles against the native Americans. His former commanding officer Colonel Bagley (Tony Goldwyn) offers him a job in Japan: train the new imperial Japanese army to strike down the samurai rebellion who are opposing the new western-style changes to Japanese civil life. Although Algren hates Bagley he accepts the job and travels to Japan. He starts training the soldiers but they are very inexperienced and can't hit anything with they're firearms. Despite not being ready for battle, Bagley orders an attack on the samurai. In the battle that follows, the heavily experienced samurai easily overwhelm the soldiers who flee the battlefield in terror. Captain Angler is left alone but to his own surprise he is not killed, the samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) spares his life and he is taken with the samurai into the mountains. Once he is nursed back to health, he learns to know and respect the old Japanese way and develops a friendship with Katsumoto. Soon Algren begins to doubt where his loyalty truly lies.
I really enjoyed this movie, all the actors did a good job (especially Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe), it looks gorgeous and the story keeps you glued to the screen for two and a half hours. Everything looks authentic and it really feels like you are in a different time era. I also like that there is actually Japanese spoken in this movie, this makes it all feel more real. One of the best things in this film is the chemistry between Cruise and Watanabe, it really made me feel like two completely different people who slowly develop a friendship. Cruise also did a good job acting out the transition of a man who doesn't care about anything first and then becoming more and more attached to the old Japanese way of life.
The only thing that troubled me is that it got a little bit to dramatic at the ending for my taste. It felt to me that they were pushing "the message" a little bit to hard. But fortunately they did not make the imperial army that fought against the samurai look like inhuman monsters (like 'the Patriot' did with the English) but just people that did as ordered and thought was best. Perhaps the move could use a little bit more action, but on the other hand they needed to take the time to show the way the samurai lived which was important for the story so it's all good in the end.
The Last Samurai is an excellent historical war movie that teaches you many things about the history of Japan, has lots of beautiful scenery pictures and has some very good battle scenes as well.