Good, unfortunately not great

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2003)

The Last Samurai is good movie, unfortunately, not the great one it almost was. Beautifully filmed and well acted by Cruise and especially Ken Watanabe as Katsumoto (to me, the most interesting and complex characters in quite a while at the movies). The movie kept me involved and interested to almost the very end. At therein lies the problem-the ending. Did the director succumb to pressure to insert a sappy, schmaltzy ending into an otherwise great motion picture? (Warning: possible Spoiler ahead) Why have a main character unbelievably stay alive when he should have died? I would hope that is what the director intended and I am interested in seeing the alternate ending(s) on the DVD. I would definitely recommend the movie but have to take my rating down by 2 points because of the ending. 8/10