The Last Samurai (Full Screen Edition)

The Last Samurai (Full Screen Edition)
by Edward Zwick

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DVD details

Actor: Billy Connolly, Chad Lindberg, Ken Watanabe, Tom Cruise, William Atherton
Director: Edward Zwick
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Edward Zwick
Writer: Edward Zwick
Producer: Charles Mulvehill
Producer: Graham Larson
Producer: Marshall Herskovitz
Writer: Marshall Herskovitz
Writer: John Logan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 154 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-04
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video

DVD Reviews of The Last Samurai (Full Screen Edition)

DVD Review: cruise at his best!!!
Summary: 5 Stars

I had owned this dvd and watched it many times! This is a cinematic spectacle with lush cinematography and action, as well as a fantastic storyline! I wanted to watch it one day and could not find it! I literally went right to amazon.com and ordered it and am happy I did. It definately makes my top 25 films of all time in a collection of over 7000 titles! Go out and get this movie if you have not seen it. You'll be glad you did! Michael

DVD Review: Excelent movie and photograph
Summary: 5 Stars

What a great movie the lands japan it's so beautiful in HD Blue Ray great disc.

DVD Review: Tom Cruise's best.
Summary: 5 Stars

The Last Samurai is an outstanding film that tells the fictional story of Captain Nathan Algren (Cruise), a soldier haunted by regrets hired to train raw Japanese recruits to fight the Samurai, and Samurai leader Katsumoto (Watanabe), who is leading a rebellion in Japan against those who he believes are westernizing the country too quickly. Algren ends up becoming a prisoner of the Samurai, but after spending a number of months as their captive, subsequently finds peace in their way of life. Eventually, he joins forces with the men he was hired to fight against.

Not only is the plot interesting and original, but the performances of the actors are nothing short of amazing. Tom Cruise puts forth an outstanding effort, which I consider his best ever. Ken Watanabe is perfect as Katsumoto, commanding even more attention than Cruise, and all of the secondary characters are equally convincing in their roles. Some of the highlights include Koyuki as Taka, Hiroyuki Sanada as Ujio, and Timothy Spall as Simon Graham.

The execution of the battle scenes was excellent. This can be attributed to a cast full of professional sword-fighters as extras and Cruise and Watanabe doing all their own stunts. As seen in the extras, the progression of Cruise's skills with a sword isn't staged, either. Sanada and others spent hours working with him every day until he could handle a blade with precision.

Having seen this film a dozen times, I can also say I honestly am not able to find many mistakes in the filming and editing, either. The ones I have noticed are hidden well, and none of them take away from the film in any way. There are a few lines in the script that come across as slightly bland or predictable, but overall the script is very well written. Tom Cruise actually speaks Japanese in a handful of scenes, and he does it well.

What really makes the movie, on top of everything else, is the beautiful score composed by Hans Zimmer. Though he often recycles his scores and changes them very little, this one is unique and powerful.

The Last Samurai's historical accuracy isn't as poor as some reviewers would suggest, but it is a work of fiction. On the special edition of this DVD, 2 deleted scenes are included, along with "the filming of" one of the scenes, and "the filming of" the Cruise beheading scene. There is also a handful of interviews and a look at the real history of the decline of the Samurai in Japan.

All in all, The Last Samurai is an extremely entertaining and convincing film. The special edition of this DVD is well worth the extra few dollars, and it has become one of my all time favorite movies.

DVD Review: Blu-Ray Review
Summary: 5 Stars

I'm gonna review the quality of the blu-ray version of this movie. I'm not gonna review the movie itself as there are enough reviews of it. The image quality is totally HD quality, image is crisp and detailed and the audio is superb. I'm not a fan of special features so I can't tell you if there are enough as I normally don't watch them unless there are deleted scenes or alternate endings. If you like this movie and you have an hdtv then this is a good purchase.

DVD Review: The Last Samurai... Dances with Samurai
Summary: 5 Stars

The Last Samurai: 8 out of 10: I admit I greeted this movie with low expectations. The idea of Tom Cruise as the last Samurai was laughable. The movie completely suspended this disbelief right until the horribly awful last scene. Tom Cruise plays a drunken Civil War hero who hired by the Japanese government to modernize their army is captured by the Samurai rebels and falls in love with their doomed way of life.

And what a life. Every shot of the Samurai village is postcard perfect almost to the point of unintended parody. Like Robert Redford's take on Montana in "Legends of the Fall", every view is spectacular, every sunset is orange, every leaf is colorful and falls just so and all the characters are freshly scrubbed and dressed in their Sunday best. You wouldn't be half surprised to see Hobbits pop out at any moment. Of course the old time Samurai are romanticized to the nth degree. Historically the Samurai at this point resembled Afghan warlords resisting a long overdue central government rather than the honorable colorfully armored knights that are depicted. (Samurai no more wore armor in the late 18th century than the British army did.)

Yet the picture despite one or two faults works. The acting, with one exception is uniformly excellent. The battle scenes are plentiful and full of surprise and the pacing is good. On the dark side newcomer Nakamura Shichinosuke plays the Japanese emperor like he was channeling Michael Jackson. The voice and mannerisms of the gloved one is as out of place for a Japanese emperor than it would be for the Pope. His strangely self effacing dialogue doesn't help his cause, yet it truly is his performance that is cringe worthy. In addition the last scene is an awful Hollywood copout. I still recommend The Last Samurai highly however as a thinking mans action movie.

Description of The Last Samurai (Full Screen Edition)

Epic Action Drama. Set in Japan during the 1870s, The Last Samurai tells the story of Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a respected American military officer hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the art of modern warfare. As the Emperor attempts to eradicate the ancient Imperial Samurai warriors in preparation for more Westernized and trade-friendly government policies, Algren finds himself unexpectedly impressed and influenced by his encounters with the Samurai, which places him at the center of a struggle between two eras and two worlds, with only his own sense of honor to guide him.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by Edward Zwick
DVD ROM Features
Deleted Scenes:The Beheading (Behind the Beheading) Algren and Katsumoto
Documentaries:History vs. Hollywood: The Last Samurai {History Channel Documentary)
Featurette:Tom Cruise: A Warrior's Journey Edward Zwick: Director's Video Journal {Behind-the-scenes production journal - narrated by Ed Zwick and Tom Cruise A World of Detail: Production Design with Lilly Kilvert Silk and Armor: Costume Design with Ngila Dickson Imperial Army Basic Training: From Soldier to Samurai: The Weapons
Interviews:Making an Epic: A Conversation with Edward Zwick
Other:Japan Premieres {Tokyo & Kyoto red carpet)

While Japan undergoes tumultuous transition to a more Westernized society in 1876-77, The Last Samurai gives epic sweep to an intimate story of cultures at a crossroads. In America, tormented Civil War veteran Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is coerced by a mercenary officer (Tony Goldwyn) to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern weaponry. Opposing this "progress" is a rebellion of samurai warriors, holding fast to their traditions of honor despite strategic disadvantage. As a captive of the samurai leader (Ken Watanabe), Algren learns, appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic battle that will put everyone's honor to the ultimate test. All of which makes director Edward Zwick's noble epic eminently worthwhile, even if its Hollywood trappings (including an all-too-conventional ending) prevent it from being the masterpiece that Zwick and screenwriter John Logan clearly wanted it to be. Instead, The Last Samurai is an elegant mainstream adventure, impressive in all aspects of its production. It may not engage the emotions as effectively as Logan's script for Gladiator, but like Cruise's character, it finds its own quality of honor. --Jeff Shannon

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