Honor is honor. You have to pick your battles.

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2008)

This is one of those movies that captures you and forces all emotion from your body. I know nothing about Samurai history; let alone ancient Japanese history. I'm not even a Tom Cruise fan, but he gives up every ounce he has to give in THE LAST SAMURAI. Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren, a Civil War hero down and out traveling making money on his fame until he is offered $500 a month to go to Japan to revise an untrained army. In no way picking the battle, Algren will fight against a Samurai and after being captured ends up pledging himself to the cause of Samurai Katsomoto(Ken Watanabe), who is bravely facing a vanishing way of life.
Beautiful photography. Intensely graphic battle scenes. A romantic vision of a dying way of life and an emotional birth of a modernized Japan. Astonishing direction from Edward Zwick. Cruise may be at his very best to date. Watanabe is strong as the fearless Japanese warrior. THE LAST SAMURAI is an epic in every sense and is well worth the 154 minutes you invest. The cast also includes: Timothy Spall, Chad Lindberg, Billy Connolly, Masato Harada, Togo Igawa and William Atherton.