The Last Samurai

Synopsis: Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is a popular hero of the United States war against the Indians. Algren knows that fact is a far-cry from legend. He is however a career soldier and when offered a job to train recruits to the Japanese Army in the ways of American warfare, he heads off the Land of The Rising Sun. There he encounters a very different reality and through his opponent the rebellious Samurai warlord (Ken Watanabe) he finds that life is not all hucksterism.

Tom Cruise as a samurai? Arnold Schwarzenegger as the President of the USA? Go ahead, make my day. You don’t need a crystal ball before seeing this film to know that you’re in for a fair dose of the Top Gun as, yet another, all-conquering hero. Producer (with his sister, Paula Wagner) Cruise makes sure that you are not disappointed. Needless to say that’s the first place this film goes wrong. This is not so clearly a vanity project, as was Bruce Willis’s Tears of The Sun, but it comes close.

I’ve never been convinced by Cruise. For me, he remains that well-fed, well-bred All-American boy in everything he does. As a baseball-cap-wearing West Coast hustler in jeans and a sports jacket I can cop him but as a burnt-out soldier from the Wild West days who learns Japanese and The Way of The Samurai in a few months, no. The Last Samurai is essentially a Western with the samurai taking the place of the redskin. This is a concept not easy to come to terms as one watches the film. Perhaps there were marketing decisions behind this seemingly-forced substitution, the result of which being that the film is also reminiscent of those Americo-Anglocentric Cinemascope epics full of exotic foreigners (not uncommonly played by made-up Westerners) lthat Hollywood used to churn out in the 1950s amd '60s. This is most apparent in its treatment of the relationship between Cruise and his romantic interest. That this is a lot better made than those forgettable efforts won’t be enough for anyone sensitive to cultural imperialism.

But back to the Western. Cruise’s Nathan Algren is the paradigmatic Western hero – an outsider, a man on the margins, down on his luck, yet at the same time the embodiment of individual integrity. Or at least the film takes the redemptive trajectory to ensure that he is by its closure. Trouble is, as per earlier remarks, Cruise doesn’t have the laconic presence of a John Wayne or Gary Cooper. He’s just too cruisey. Despite loading his character with demons aplenty, in typical Hollywood style, Tom bounces off the ropes of moral anguish with good looks and winning ways restored. And is suitably rewarded.

Not that this film is in any way a serious attempt at extending or exploring the Western genre. It plays its popular entertainment hand too obviously for that and, despite its dabbling with critical ideas, stays too much on their surface, escaping into glib evasions and familiar resolutions . At one point Algren’s superior officer, asks him: ‘What is it about your own people that makes you hate them so much?’. It is an interesting question, particularly in these times. It is typical of the film that Cruise does not answer.

The team behind the film is familiar with the big budget spectacular – director Zwick, whose credits include the action blockbuster The Siege, co-wrote with his long-time collaborator Marshall Herskovitz and John Logan, the latter who wrote Gladiator, whilst Hans Zimmer no doubt can knock off an epically-heroic score with only one hand on his synthesiser keyboard (as he did for Tears of the Sun). As for Cruise, well, ‘nuff said. The result is a skilfully-crafted, expensive-looking mish-mash of elements and ideas that will frustrate a discerning audience without completely alienating them. Taken as an action/adventure film, there’s plenty of money on screen, with the final battle scene a cracker, but one’s got to wade through a lot of Tom and loosely-handled profundities for these moments of excitement.

 

 

Want more about this film?

    

Want something different?