Good movie, but predictable, derivative

Rating: 6/10 (7 August 2005)

I liked this movie. However, after watching it, I noticed that it seemed familiar.My sudden epiphany was fueled by a sudden thought of how much this film is like "Dances with Wolves," a film that I also like. In short, a stranger with a checkered past comes to a strange land to do his duty but comes to admire and respect those who should be his adversaries. Climactic battles result in his being irrevocably estranged from his own people, who now see him as having betrayed them by going native. The scenery is majestic, the battles are epic, but a seven year old could have predicted the end. The female lead, Lady Taka, is very beautiful. The ending is confusing. At the end of the climactic battle Tom Cruise's character, Algren, is surrounded by the enemies and is apparently being the only survivor for the Samurai. Despite this, he later appears before the emperor in time to convince him that doing away with the Samurai and modernizing Japan was the wrong thing to do. Why didn't the modernist Japanese take him prisoner, kill him, or at least deport him?