Generic.

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2010)

In 1990 "Dances With Wolves" was released. It was about an officer who fought the Indians on the plains in the 1870s, became disgusted with the war, and joined the Indians, learning their language, their culture, their mystical ways. It garnered all sorts of critical praise and commercial rewards.
In 2003 there appeared "The Last Samurai." It's about an officer who fought the Indians on the plains in the 1870s, became disgusted with the war, and joined the Japanese fundamentalists, learning their language, their culture, their mystical ways. Maybe it garnered one kudos less but it still made money. Thirteen years is an eternity in the minds of many.
But "Dances With Wolves" isn't the only model for this film. There have been numerous others in which an American or European it swept up in an alien culture and discovers its hidden virtues. The vices are ignored or minimized. In "Broken Arrow," it was Jimmy Stewart. In "A Man Called Horse" it was Richard Harris. In "Black Rain" and "The Yakuza," Michael Douglas and Robert Mitchum, respectively, learned all about honor from the Japanese.
There's usually a good-looking woman in the alien culture. The native beauty serves a couple of purposes. (1) She provides a focus for those in the audience looking more for romance than blood; ie., the female audience. (2) A chance for a little nudity and simulated sex for the men. (3) She serves as an index of the white guy's integration into the alien community. (4) She's there to demonstrate that, by falling in love with her, our boy is not a racist.
Tom Cruise is hired by the Japanese court to train civilians in the use of guns so they can put down a nativistic rebellion of a group governed by the code of the Samurai. After a clash with the rebels, Cruise is captured and harshly indoctrinated. He proves his worth. All the generic conventions apply.
I didn't stick around until the end because another officer in the US Army, about half way through, shows Cruise the new model of the Gatling gun -- two hundred round per minute and it doesn't jam. The rebels are armed only with swords and bows and arrows. I could see some unpleasant scenes in the offing. I quit watching when Cruise made an ominous reference to Thermopylae.
Maybe I was wrong and the rebels, whom we've come to respect and admire, didn't get slaughtered. However, that would be going against the generic current. It would take the inner gyroscope of a Samurai to do that and I don't think this movie has the guts.