Too predictable

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2004)

Warning - possible spoilers!
'The Last Samurai' could have been a great Hollywood movie in the series of films dedicated to the meeting between the Western and Far East civilizations. It does have many of the needed ingredients , and enjoys the participation of two mega-stars of the American and Japanese cinema. For much of the duration of the film, it meets the expectations, especially with respect to the rendition of the atmosphere and in the building of the conflict between the modern world and the old ways of the traditional Japanese culture. Tom Cruise is good as you expect, but does not get to the level of an Oscar performance. The film gets worse in its last part. First it is too long, suffering as many of the Hollywood films lately of the tendency to add the unjustified half hour to our film experience. The historical truth is badly twisted, but this would be no problem if this would buy some real emotions. What happens is that the Hollywood clichees take over any artistic logic - soldiers die in the slow motion we have seen in that many action films, the main hero dies exactly the way you would expect from minute two of the film, and even some dream-like rosy end is stuck as a final scene without any reason.
That's how what could have been one of the great films of Hollywood falls into mediocrity. What a miss! Still a film worth seeing, but only 7 out of 10 on my personal scale.