Who said it was unrealistic?

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2004)

Contrary to common comments I read, I don't agree to call it a boring unrealistic movie because it is quite realistic for both American (America native people) story and Japanese according to the real history and time. The only part invented was that those supposed hired strangers were British and not American. But at large I liked the way they have judged the United States war history old times from a soldier point of view.
Native massacre was real and a 3000 year's old civilization was destroyed in less than 100 years. On the Japanese part, it was well done to make it simple, because Japan's history is not quite so. The characters names were even kept to give an epic illusion. Everything was quite realist, the weapon, the philosophy and even the complete discuss of strangers that you can feel all along the movie is realistic. On the other hand I hated the battle scenes as I hated the brave heart/lord of the ring etc. battle style. On a giant cinema screen you can't seen a damn thing because the camera is zooming-moving and shaking at the same time (the point is get you trilled) and 2000 men fighting with 2 very alike colors moving as fast as they can. I thought Matrix and other modern movies had killed this battle style once and for all, but some people look to appreciate those head hake images. I don't really like to comment on actors, because Tom did the job and this was not a very difficult role, not stunning at least, so I prefer to comment the movie as an entire work. Very American directing, slick and swell, is all I can say. If you need any idea what a Japanese movie is supposed to look like, then watch some Kurosawa or even Kill Bill vol.1. Attention Spoiler!!! The last battle, with the canon shooting: I have seen this part at least 20 times in Japanese movies and animations! That is such a classic, so probably it happened more than one time. Samurai's proud ''Katana'' against a great Portuguese canon and even automatic gun, is a classic to illustrate the brutal ''bushido'' end. As often, I judge many critics to be wrong (unrepresentative) because of a lack of knowledge. But all information was given in the movie (names / period etc.) as tools to complete the story by yourselves by reading books or other information sources. Can you expect to have complete understanding of a historical culture simply by watching a 2 hour American movie about it! I don't think so.