The Last Samurai (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Last Samurai (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Edward Zwick

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DVD details

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen;

DVD Reviews of The Last Samurai (Two-Disc Special Edition)

DVD Review: Fun, but very overrated
Summary: 3 Stars

Let's take, for example, just the mere existance of Tom Cruise's character in the story. I can understand why Katsumoto spares him - the dream of the white tiger - although I pondered just how readily this culture of people (who only a decade ago murdered any foreign sailors shipwrecked on their island) could accept him so readily. And even then, he probably should have been more of an observer to the Japanese customs than a participant. Miyamoto Musashi spent his whole life realizing how to become a great warrior, but Tom Cruise's character manages to do it within six months. And please...you have GOT to be kidding me when he uses not only two swords at once, but two LONG swords at once! Not even the greatest samurai could do that, and there's a reason - it's practically impossible. And even if it is possible, you're telling me Tom Cruise has had that much training to do it? The scene where Katsumoto's son takes out a long sword and a short sword is more realistic, as samurai would do that so they could switch from one to the other, but people rarely used katanas in each hand. Oh yes, and I agree with other reviewers here...why does Tom Cruise take six or seven bullets to the torso come out perfectly fine, yet samurai take the same hits and die?

The character development for some people needed work as well. For example, the Irish sergeant that is Tom Cruise's lifelong friend gets killed by the samurai, and a samurai even gets off his horse and stabs the man in the stomach! Yet Tom Cruise forgets his friend and doesn't seem to mind the company of men who killed a man he knew longer than them - in fact we never hear of the Irish sergeant again. And the love story was so unnecessary and unrealistic. Tom Cruise kills the husband of Katsumoto's sister, she says to her nephew that he smells like pigs, and then five minutes later she's having feelings for him? And she actually falls in love with him, and her kids adore him? Why? Because he taught them baseball? I don't know about you, but a person who killed my dad would have to take a bullet for me before I even consider them a friend...let alone my new father. And Tom Cruise's old enemy, an American lieutenant colonel he used to serve under, doesn't do much except walk around and be evil. And what was the purpose of the ninjas, particularly the guy with the Gorbachev birthmark on his cheek? Why would a government leader so bent on stopping traditionalism employ ninjas, who historically sided with the Shogun...who was a SAMURAI! It's almost like they put them in just so they can say, "Hey! We have ninjas!"

I also took disliking to how INCOMPETANT they made the government characters. When they rescue Katsumoto they use arrows against the guards, which is fine except the guards seem to have a habit of running out into the open with their fronts to the archers, making themselves great targets. Also in the final battle the samurai lay a trap, and the American lieutenant colonel, suggests to send out skirmishers, to which a corrupt government official (who seems to be every where across Japan) simply says, "No need! Send the troops forward!" I might also add that the samurai trap for the government troops at the end is planned not by Katsumoto, but by Tom Cruise. Excuse me if I sound like I'm looking for an arguement, but can't the Japanese think on their own? This is the culture that produced Oda Nobunaga, Takeda Shingen, Admiral Togo, and even Admiral Yamamoto, yet it seems in this movie it's as if the idea of war is entirely new to them.

There are also a lot of historical inaccuracies in this film as well. For example, there was no lone samurai standing up against the government with less than 500 troops. In fact, the majority of samurai clans to the west supported the foreign traders and backed the Emperor. The Satsuma Rebellion in 1860's, led by the Satsuma and Chosun samurai clans, was the move to stop foreign intervention...but they at one point had an army as large as 40,000 soldiers. In fact, the army of Japan was fairly modernized by the time set in the film, and it was being led and instructed not by military leaders from America or any other foreign nation, but by fellow Japanese such as Aritomo Yamagata who travelled abroad in Europe studying the ways of the west. The only revolt against the government in 1876/1877 was by former army officer Takamori Saigo - and even though he did want to restore the use of samurai, he could bring up a force of 15,000 against the government and held a fairly modernized army, having served in the professional Japanese military - he also lost not in a grand charge but instead his fortress at Kagoshima. I also find it funny that the movie makes the samurai seem like a noble and proud people built on honor and dignity - they fail to mention according to the traditionalist laws a samurai could kill any peasant and get away with it, being of a higher class. The Emperor himself is portrayed as weak and under the influence of advisors, and while the Emperor was indeed surrounded by advisors and the Japanese government began to fall into an oligarchy, it was Emperor Meiji himself who revoked the samurai of their titles and stripped the Shogun of his power, replacing it more and more to his own stature. He was hardly the weak, indecisive ruler they portrayed in this movie, bending to the will of ONE government agent.

Oh yeah, and this has got to be "Dances With Wolves II: I'm Turning Japanese." I mean come on now, Tom Cruise has experience in both the Civil War and the Indian Wars, and he knows the Indians like he was one. It's almost like Kevin Costner's character just went to Japan. Story simularities are too easy to spot...white man joins non-white culture, gets in conflict with his own culture and stands up for the little guy. There's even a romantic interest with a member of the non-white culture! Seriously...I was joking when I said this looked like "Dances With Wolves," but after seeing this movie I realized just how right I was.

Well...um...as you can see, I had a "few" problems with the film. I'd have to say I would almost give it 2.5 stars, but like I said there is some guilty pleasure action in it, but I don't consider it the greatest film ever like many called it. I had fun watching it, but I found it to be INCREDIBLY overrated. To toy with a history and culture like this may have been good for a smaller, less-known nation - but Japan's history has a good place in the hearts of many, and she is a major nation on the international scene. Watch this film if you like Tom Cruise or you just want to see some action. Don't watch it expecting an American version of a Kurosawa film like people are trying to make it out to be, because you will be disappointed. Very, very disappointed.

Description of The Last Samurai (Two-Disc Special Edition)