Very Good...But Almost Identical To "Dances With Wolves"

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2004)

About every 3-4 movies, Tom Cruise likes to remind us that he really can act. He did it with "Rain Man" and "Born On The Fourth of July", and now he's done it with "The Last Samurai".
"The Last Samurai" tells an epic story set in Japan during the late 19th's century when the island nation first opened its doors to Western ways and trade, sparking a cultural battle between the old ways epitomized by the samurai and the new ways of the outside world. This is the Japan as seen by Cruise's character, Captain Nathan Algren, a Civil War hero haunted by battlefield horrors to the point where he has become a self-hating, alcoholic plugging Winchester rifles for $25/week.
Algren is recruited by his former commanding officer to travel to Japan and help train the nation's fledgling army. Specifically, his new employers want their modern army to defeat rebel samurai who aggressively oppose the invasion of Western thought and technology into their culture. With nothing to lose and a significant pay raise to gain, Algren accepts and soon finds himself drilling conscripted Japanese farmers.
Against his recommendations, Algren is forced to lead his barely-trained troops against the samurai. Algren's troops are slaughtered even though the samurai fight with traditional weapons (sword, spear, bows & arrows). Algren is captured by the samurai leader, Katsumoto (skillfully played by veteran Japanese actor Ken Watanabe), so that he may learn about his American enemy.
It is here that we get to the meat of the story. Algren is held captive in the samurai's mountain village where he gradually becomes more involved and amazed by the samurai lifestyle and philosophy. While he slowly becomes integrated into their culture, he never quite convinces himself that he's one of them. Nonetheless, as his relationship with the samurai switches from being adversarial to deep friendship, and even love, we are treated to a series of rich and emotional transformations for both Algren and the samurai. In most movies, this would be the "slow" part between battle scenes. In "The Last Samurai" conversation gets balanced with action to keep you involved in both the story and the action.
On many levels, it is as much a deftly-told love story as it is an epic adventure. And not just a stock love story. "The Last Samurai" wraps the love of ones culture, love between a man and a woman, and the deep, familial bond between soldiers into one story.
Considering the barrage of summer/autumn action thrillers, we're not accustomed to films like "The Last Samurai". Here we see director Edward Zwick (who also directed 1989's "Glory" and 1994's "Legends of the Fall") use a more thoughtful pace to let us settle into the story, watch characters interact, and then ramp up the tension with carefully placed (and beautifully filmed) battle scenes. "The Last Samurai" leads the audience through a broad range of emotions and shouldn't be compared to the high-octane action films we've watched for the past few months.
So, overall it is a very good and powerful story. But as you're watching "The Last Samurai" you may get the sense that you've seen this very good and powerful story before. And perhaps you have. It was called "Dances With Wolves", another fine epic film that addressed the same themes, conflicts, and even used many of the same character types that are carbon-copied into "The Last Samurai".
This isn't necessarily a criticism. The story worked for audiences before and "The Last Samurai" adds enough new angles to avoid being a blatant rip-off. After all, "Dances With Wolves" was ultimately a loose rework of "Lawrence of Arabia", and no one seemed to mind.