So good I had to eat sushi after seeing it

Rating: Null/10 (1 December 2003)

Norman's Mark: 4 stars `The Last Samurai' is best Hollywood epic since `Lawrence of
Arabia,' with battle sequences equal to the classics of cinema.
Yet, in its own focused and Zen way, this wonderful, admirable film
also brings the audience inside the smallest of life's moments 
the curiosity of enemies, the slow-growing relationship between
the outsider and the tribe that has him as their captive, and the
quiet tensions at the dinner table. Tom Cruise, who simply gets better with each film, plays a drunk Civil War hero who finds redemption in Japan. He
is hired to create a modern army to fight the samurai, warriors who
are holding out for the old values and who battle rifles with swords.
The marvelously smart director, Ed Zwick, who gave us `Glory'
(the Civil War story that got Denzel Washington an Oscar),
understands how to put the audience inside battle scenes. We
see the dozens of stunning one-on-one fights in brilliant montages
with no overload or confusion.	Zwick and his writers, which included John Logan, who wrote
`Gladiator,' brilliantly communicate the gradual change in Cruise,
who is captured by the samurai and who learns to admire their
way of life.	After nearly 2 1/2 hours, I didn't want the film to end. I loved the
scenes that were filmed as if they were a cinematic poem to
ancient Japanese values. I reveled in the humor, humanity and
intelligence of `The Last Samurai.'	In fact, the film was so good that, when it was over, I desperately
wanted to eat sushi.