Beautiful and Brutal

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2004)

Plot spoilers - do not read if you don't want to know what happens!!
Tom Cruise rarely gets the recognition he deserves for his acting. Now finally with The Last Samurai he finally achieve this. He is still perceived as a star rather than actor even with performances from Magnolia, Jerry Maguire, Born On The Fourth Of July among others. But here he should truly lay these ghosts to rest with a memorable turn as an anti America war hero.
I read someones review of this saying that they disliked it because the white man once again saved the day. It shouldn't be looked at as a matter of color. The Last Samurai tries to show that color should be ignored. With Tom's Nathan Algren statement that Custer was a murderer. His belief that the Indians weren't an enemy but a people trying to look after all they had left after it was taken from the so called discoverers of America. With the mutual respect Katsumoto and Algren show for one another as warriors not as race. And in the fact that the white man didn't save the day but helped destroy it with their supply of weapons to the Emperor's army to kill the Samurai.
The film mixes the violence of the battlefield with the tranquility and discipline of a Samurai life with ease. You are shown that these people are warriors and not killers and their way of life can help a lost soul find itself once again. Stunningly shot, you are treated to a visual beauty rarely seen within a film about war. Think of the contrast The Thin Red Line provided for WW2 and within its own context, The Last Samurai repeats this feat.
Some will try and compare this, quite naturally, to the work of Kurosawa but as with all films of a similar genre, they should be judged on their own merit. Even Quentin Tarantino mass produces his influences to make his movies but does that make their quality any less?
Samurai is a wonderful film experience. Enjoy it with an open mind and listen to what is said rather than the color it is spoken by.