Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai’s way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
<%%item_is_not_adult%%
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Nathan Algren: Tom Cruise
- Moritsugu Katsumoto: Ken Watanabe
- Simon Graham: Timothy Spall
- Colonel Bagley: Tony Goldwyn
- Ujio: Hiroyuki Sanada
- Taka: Koyuki
- Nobutada: Shin Koyamada
- Zebulon Gant: Billy Connolly
- General Hasegawa: Togo Igawa
- Emperor Meiji: Shichinosuke Nakamura
- Omura: Masato Harada
- Winchester Rep: William Atherton
- Winchester Rep Assistant: Chad Lindberg
- Ambassador Swanbeck: Scott Wilson
- Convention Hall Attendee: Ray Godshall Sr.
- Omura’s Companion: Masashi Odate
- Omura’s Bodyguard: John Koyama
- N.C.O.: Satoshi Nikaido
- Young Recruit: Shintaro Wada
- Nakao: Shun Sugata
- Higen: Sosuke Ikematsu
- Magojiro: Aoi Minato
- Silent Samurai: Seizô Fukumoto
- Sword Master: Shoji Yoshihara
- Kyogen Player #1: Kosaburo Nomura IV
- Kyogen Player #2: Takashi Noguchi
- Kyogen Player #3: Noguchi Takayuki
- Omura’s Secretary: Sven Toorvald
- Soldier in Street #1: Yuki Matsuzaki
- Soldier in Street #2: Mitsuyuki Oishi
- Soldier in Street #3: Jiro Wada
- Guard: Hiroshi Watanabe
- Sword Master’s Assistant: Yusuke Myochin
- Samurai Ensemble: Hiroaki Amano
- Samurai Ensemble: Kenta Daibo
- Samurai Ensemble: Koji Fujii
- Samurai Ensemble: Makoto Hashiba
- Samurai Ensemble: Shimpei Horinouchi
- Samurai Ensemble: Takashi Kora
- Samurai Ensemble: Shane Kosugi
- Samurai Ensemble: Takeshi Maya
- Samurai Ensemble: Seiji Morita
- Samurai Ensemble: Lee Murayama
- Samurai Ensemble: Takeru Shimizu
- Samurai Ensemble: Shinji Suzuki
- Samurai Ensemble: Hisao Takeda
- Samurai Ensemble: Ryoichiro Yonekura
- Samurai Ensemble: Ryoichi Noguchi
Film Crew:
- Original Music Composer: Hans Zimmer
- Producer: Tom Cruise
- Casting: Victoria Thomas
- Story: John Logan
- Costume Design: Ngila Dickson
- Director of Photography: John Toll
- Editor: Steven Rosenblum
- Executive Producer: Charles Mulvehill
- Production Design: Lilly Kilvert
- Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau
- Producer: Edward Zwick
- Producer: Marshall Herskovitz
- Producer: Paula Wagner
- Producer: Scott Kroopf
- Producer: Tom Engelman
- Editor: Victor Du Bois
- Executive Producer: Ted Field
- Executive Producer: Richard Solomon
- Executive Producer: Vincent Ward
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Andy Nelson
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Ray McIntyre Jr.
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Anna Behlmer
- Production Sound Mixer: Jeff Wexler
- Stunts: Nobuyuki Obikane
- Stunts: Hiroki Takano
Movie Reviews:
- TopKek: Edward Zwick’s “The Last Samurai” is about two warriors whose cultures make them aliens, but whose values make them comrades. The battle scenes are stirring and elegantly mounted, but they are less about who wins than about what can be proven by dying. Beautifully designed, intelligently written, acted with conviction, it’s an uncommonly thoughtful epic. Its power is compromised only by an ending that sheepishly backs away from what the film is really about.
Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe co-star, as a shabby Civil War veteran and a proud samurai warrior. Cruise plays Nathan Algren, a war hero who now drifts and drinks too much, with no purpose in life. He’s hired by Americans who are supplying mercenaries to train an army for the Japanese emperor, who wants to move his country into the modern world and is faced with a samurai rebellion.
The role of the samurai leader Katsumoto (Watanabe) is complex; he is fighting against the emperor’s men, but out of loyalty to the tradition the emperor represents, he would sacrifice his life in an instant, he says, if the emperor requested it. But Japan has been seized with a fever to shake off its medieval ways and copy the West, and the West sees money to be made in the transition: Representatives from the Remington arms company are filling big contracts for weapons, and the U.S. Embassy is a clearinghouse for lucrative trade arrangements.
Into this cauldron Algren descends as a cynic. He is told the samurai are “savages with bows and arrows,” but sees that the American advisers have done a poor job of training the modernized Japanese army to fight them. Leading his untried troops into battle, he is captured and faces death — but is spared by a word from Katsumoto, who returns him as a prisoner to the village of his son.
- r96sk: Recommended.
‘The Last Samurai’ features some very cool and entertaining battle sequences, which are shot excellently. The premise itself is attracting, it’s acted out astutely by the noteworthy cast list. It probably lasts too long, but I never truly got a feeling of it dragging out though.
Tom Cruise is fantastic as Capt. Nathan Algren. It’s no secret or surprise as we all know that guy can act, he adds a great deal to his character here; especially on the emotional side of things. As for what happens with Algren, it’s all good even if the love interest parts are undercooked.
Ken Watanabe is splendid in the role of Katsumoto, while Masato Harada (Omura) and Timothy Spall (Graham) give positive performances. It’s also nice to see Billy Connolly (Gant) and Scott Wilson (Swanbeck) appear. Hans Zimmer’s score is, as presumed, grand. That would be one of a number of reasons why I’d say you should watch this.