Imported war expert profoundly dumb

Rating: 5/10 (11 December 2003)

There were times in THE LAST SAMURAI when Tom Cruise has both smarts and skill. Then, at other times, Tom is shockingly inept. In his first battle it was easy for him to kill many Samurai. Then all through the middle of the movie he suddenly is unable to lay a hand on any of them.
Next, Tom leaves his room to go rescue his friend, but he forgets his weapon that just moments ago was in his hands. It was quite the airhead blunder.
Last and worst, all the nice Samurai who are seen to be husbands, fathers, sons, uncles, brothers, village elders and kind neighbors, are too often little more than cannon fodder for no good reason during the final third of the film.
Specifically, there was no reason for the Samurai to patiently remain the same distance away from the cannons as the gun crews worked to re-sight all of the cannons for a second volley. Changing distance would make the second volley less than a sure thing.
In BRAVEHEART, each side has the same weapon type. The face-to-face confrontations are most realistic. But in THE LAST SAMURAI, Tom sees that he and the Samurai have only arrows and swords, while the bad guys have long range cannons and deadly rifles. Any experienced soldier, most specially one who was alive during the time of the American Civil War which was a major teaching war for the western world, would want to OUT FLANK the cannon and infantry lines. A face-to-face confrontation would be madness. If you are looking for a smart flanking maneuver at the end of this movie, you will be waiting for a long, long time. Tom's battle tactics are lazy and rather dumb for a so-called expert.