Well worth seeing, but needs more realism

Rating: Null/10 (6 February 2004)

I saw this movie recently, not because I particularly wanted to see it, but because a friend of mine wanted to, I wasn't disappointed. It's well worth watching once, I'm not sure I'd want to see it again, it didn't 'move' me in ways other films have.
Having said that, it is an enjoyable and entertaining film to watch, beautifully filmed, the costumes were excellent, good screenplay and the central theme of someone searching for their identity, searching for their own 'meaning of life' and finding it in a set of moral values, discipline and ethical code ala 'Dancing with Wolves' was well portrayed.
Where the film failed in my mind was it's 'unrealistic' portrayal of reality. In a serious film, or at least a film trying to portray reality one expects a certain amount of credibility. This was most evident in the last scene of the 'last stand' of the Samurai warriors against the 'modernised' howitzer, machine gun equipped japanese modernists who used these modern weapons to great effect against the sword equipped Samurai, yet our hero - Nathan Algren, after a moving scene of seeing his mentor and Lord die, gets up unscathed, whilst all around him are dead and wanders off the field of battle! Come on! Great shame as this ruined the film for me.
Nevertheless, it was an entertaining film to watch and I'm sure many people will enjoy it.