The Last Samurai

[Guaranteed]

I just saw it. It was basically a cross between "Dances With Wolves" and "Seven Years in Tibet."

Every DUer will relate to this movie, and should see it. It was one of the most outstanding movies I've seen in years.

I'd like to hear others' opinions on it, to, though.

[pippin]

1. sounds also like

Shogun redux. Hollywood keeps making these movie where great white heroes lead and/or save the natives. Also the "forbidden love" angle between native woman and white hero a la Miss Saigon, Madame Butterfly etc., etc.,

[Guaranteed]

2. Yeah, there was a lot of formula involved

And I wasn't that impressed by the ending.

I related to Cruise's character, though, in his disallusionment. I felt really attached to the plot and the other characters. The middle 2/3 of the movie was the best.

[MaryBear]

4. Is the theme of these films

one of leadership or saviorship by a great white male, or is it that the white male has much to learn?

[Guaranteed]

5. Actually, you know, he's not "saving" or leading them

In this movie, it's more of Cruise rejecting Western Civilization's commercialism for the sense of meaning he finds in living in a community of samurais.

On edit: I really think that DU people will like this movie. I was thinking about DU, and how we tend to feel in relation to society, the whole time I was watching it. It's kind of crazy how deeply I got involved in it. DUers should really see it.

[MaryBear]

26. My response was to Pippin's post.

[Guaranteed]

3. Kick

Come on folks, I wanna hear what you thought of this flick.

[7th_Sephiroth]

6. makes me kinda feel like

democrats are the samurai,and its all gonna go downhill

[Guaranteed]

7. Did you see it?

Edit: Alright, dumb question...

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Doesn't it feel that way, though? That we're right, but we're getting pushed out by a bunch of corporate whores?

[Kosmos Mariner]

9. I don't think so...

You can be just, seek truth, have honor, and carry a M-16. The weapons just change... :-)


:dem:

[7th_Sephiroth]

10. Actually if he had taken

even 40-50 of his men and sent them around (the landscape looked to be about right) he could have flanked the heavier artellery from the rear

[Guaranteed]

42. That's

exactly what I was thinking. I thought it was what they were GOING to do when they were hiding.

[Kosmos Mariner]

8. I agree with you BullGoose!

Post #5 sums it up. White man from powerful capitalist society gives up money, notoriety, and some power by learning/relearning? honor from a "savage" society. Finds inner peace from the Samurai way of life. One of the better movies in the last few years. I normally am not a big Tom Cruise fan, but I think he did an admirable job. Honor is something very important to think about, especially at this juncture in American history. By the way, I think Repugs are going to hate this movie...."Damn liberal revisionist history!!!! George Custer was the fair hair, virtuous gift from GOD!! Long live the 7th Cav!!"" :-) Go see it DUers!


:dem:

[DrWeird]

11. God, that movie was fucking horrible "spoilers"

I gave Cruise the benefit of the doubt going in, but it was just as bad as I'd feared it would be. Basically a big dumbeddown star vehicle and general Tom Cruise blowjob fest.

The hero, Cruise, plays a former US soldier who apparently gained the trust of american indians before massacreing them. Apparently we're supposed to sympathize because he resorted to alcoholism.

The bad guy is Cruise's former C.O., played my some Viggo Mortenson wannabe. It's never explained if Cruise is a mercenary, he still takes orders from the guy he keeps threatening to kill.

So anyway, Cruise goes to Japan, trains recruits, and heads off to fight the samurai. The samurai show up and massacre everybody... except Cruise. Apparently a drunk american with no training in martial arts can fight off dozens of samurai with a flag pole.

This apparently impresses the head samurai, who decides to take him prisoner, shack him up with the widow of one of the samurai who he kills (and they fall in love), and train him how to fight. Regardless of the fact that he killed a bunch of samurai, he magically doesn't remember how to fight.

And if there's anything good to say about this, it's the actor who plays the head samurai. Unfortunately he's as out of place here as Al Pacino would be in an episode of Saved by the Bell.

Fastforward to the end. A few hundred samurai lead by the head samurai and the gaijin mow down a couple thousand riflemen. The big bad american officer comes out to get Cruise, and Cruise THROWS his sword at him, impaling him. Apparently Tom Cruise's sword fighting hasn't changed much since Legend.

Finally the good guys get hosed down by machine gunfire, everybody and horse getting shot numerous times, and everbody dies... except for Tom Cruise, who fully recovers, lectures the Emperor, than go back to live happily ever after with the woman who's husband he killed.

I want my money back. I haven't seen a movie this bad since I saw The Missing last weekend. But that's a whole 'nother story.

[Guaranteed]

12. Awww come on...

You're not giving it nearly enough credit. I admit it was kind of a Dances With Wolves ripoff, but it really sucked me in. Do you remember that fight scene with the ninjas, in the house? That was INTENSE. And, philosophically, that movie was dead on. Those characters had a helluva lot of courage.

I agree that the ending sucked, though, like I said before.

[DrWeird]

13. Bahhhhhhhh!

Those were the worst fight scenes I'd seen in years. If you're going to do a campy kung fu movie, make a campy kung fu movie, if you're going to make a serious period piece, don't have a bunch of sterotypical ninjas jump out of shadows at convient times and numbers to be cut down by the heroes.

[democracyindanger]

34. Kung fu

is Chinese. And if you're looking for a serious period piece, try Merchant and Ivory, not Zwick and Cruise doing a big-budget epic.

[DrWeird]

35. It's also a movie genre.

The audience, of which, this movie attempts to pander to.

[democracyindanger]

36. Samurai flicks

are a completely separate movie genre. How are you sure that they aren't trying to pander to that audience?

[DrWeird]

37. When I think of Samurai flicks I think of Kurasawa.

And this is hardly a Kurasawa.

The fight scene in the house, replete with faceless, numerous ninjas that were fended off with luckily placed inanimate objects and bad choreography reminded me more of kung fu movies. Not the authentic chinese stuff, but badly done american rip offs.

This scene pandered as much to the young american male "matrix" viewer as much as the badly done romance subplot pandered to the young american female "english patient" viewer.

[democracyindanger]

39. Fair enough, good points

I'm a Kurosawa fan, and I agree that it doesn't measure up--but I didn't expect it to. I figure I got my eight bucks worth.

On another note, it's not like Kurosawa's fight scenes are technically accurate (aside from The Seven Samurai).

And this could've been a much more horrible bastardization of the genre, like Kill Bill. Talk about pandering to Matrix fans...

[DrWeird]

40. Oh, I loved Kill Bill.

I thought it was a total homage to the genre. I thought Tarantino was really paying respect to the best that came before him.

[democracyindanger]

43. Now it all makes sense

You're just plain crazy and have no taste :evilgrin:

Kill Bill was entertaining, but I thought it was more Tarantino using the best that came before him to pay homage to, well, Tarantino.

[DrWeird]

45. That's why I loved it, it was really entertaining.

And sure, Tarantino admitted he made it to be the movie that he always wanted to make. And I always would have loved to see a combination blaxploitation/anime/kung-fu/whateversinthenextmovie flick.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

16. Yer review was sure worth the price of admission.

Purty dang funny, DrW. E.g.:

"Apparently a drunk american with no training in martial arts can fight off dozens of samurai with a flag pole."

+

"I haven't seen a movie this bad since I saw The Missing last weekend."

[DrWeird]

18. I was thinking of starting my own regular movie reviews.

Mebbe here. What do you think?

[A-Schwarzenegger]

21. Let them try and stop you!?!

I will then review your reviews.
Just remember, many of the people
who make movies are humans and have
feelings also.

[DrWeird]

22. "people who make movies are humans "

I take it you haven't seen any Jerry Bruckheimer movies lately.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

23. I said, "MANY of the people who make movies are human"

Did Jerry Brickheimer make that one about the
Greyhound bus that became invisible and took
over the world or something? It was pretty good.
I didn't see it but I heard good things about it.
I don't really go to the movies so if you could
do reviews like on "Tom Samurai" it would make me
feel better about not going. The last movie I liked
was called "Elling" about one big guy and one little
guy that got released from a mental hospital and lived
in an apartment together trying to get up the courage
to go outside and things like that. It was Scandanavian.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. I haven't seen the film but a review that I read pointed out that...

the "heroes" of the movie--the samurai--were the forces of feudalism and aristocratic privilege, and, although the reviewer didn't say this, incredibly cruel to both their enemies and the commoners. They enforced a rigid, elitist society that was paranoid against outside influences.

I would have trouble cheering for them.

[DrWeird]

48. Yup, but you wouldn't have known that from the movie.

It also shows the head samurai as a devout buddhist; doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[Guaranteed]

49. He wasn't a Buddhist.

He just meditated a lot.

Man, it's not the politics of the samurai that make the movie good. Besides, how do you know that the atrocities commited by the samurai weren't just rumors started by pro-western historians?

[HEyHEY]

14. question

Haven't seen it....but how would the average american relate to samurai's?

[Guaranteed]

15. I think that, ideologically,

it's easy to relate to samurais. Integrity and dedication aren't alien in or uncommon to our society...I dunno, maybe dedication to the death is....or, maybe it isn't.

[Bushknew]

17. Why do you hate your people so much?

When it was said to Tom Cruise, I just said Uhhh !!! out loud.

It reminded me of how arrogant, narcissistic and morally superior some Americans think they are.

Repugs will hate this movie.

All DUers should see it.

[Guaranteed]

41. E X A C T L Y. nt

[neuvocat]

19. Go see "Six String Samurai"

because I said so.

[DrWeird]

20. Is that the one where the post-apocalyptic Buddy Holly...

travels across the wasteland to claim the throne from the deceased King Elvis I?

never heard of it.

[7th_Sephiroth]

29. oh hell yeah man

that movie rocked

[REP]

24. The Samurai Were Repressive

and sentimentalizing the feudal system makes no sense. This movie glorifies a brutal system that is the antipathy of what most Democrats and DUers support.

[Bushknew]

25. .

[brainshrub]

27. Why is "The Last Samurai" a white guy?

Note how "Last of the Mohicans" was a white guy too.

[DrWeird]

28. I thought the last Mohican was Chingachgook

Or maybe Uncas. Certainly not Natty Bumppo.

[T Roosevelt]

32. The "last samurai" was Katsumoto, not Cruise

and I don't believe the last Mohican was white either.

[Emboldened Chimp]

30. I thought it was pretty good

It started off weak--20 mins in and I thought it was going to suck. But the first battle, where the untrained Japanese were slaughtered by the Samurai, brought me in. That particular scene was a nice cross between Glory (also directed by Ed Zwick) and Lord of the Rings (it was the wierd armor). As a whole, the film stuck to formula and was very reminicent of Dances With Wolves, though I think the Samurai culture is much more interesting. Tom Cruise was horribly miscast; it should've been given to someone who can act (he's no Kevin Costner!) But Cruise can pack them into theatres, which is why he starred in it. Overall: worth the price of admission.

[T Roosevelt]

31. The diverse views here are amazing

I thought it was a very good movie (can't go so far as excellent), and Cruise did a great job (probably his best performance). I didn't see it as the "white man savior" so much as the "white man save himself" storyline (very much like Dances With Wolves). I did get the Howard Zinn history feeling (which I'm sure most of us here recognize, and most repugs wish to ignore).

True, at the end I was thinking what I would have done tactically (ahhh those days of wargaming) to win the battle (where did those archers run off to anyway?), but in the end it was done more for the story.

[Guaranteed]

44. It's not the kind of movie I'd expect

everyone to like...I just thought that DUers in particular would really, really relate to it.

[poskonig]

33. Strong movie.

It stressed the difference between the medieval and modern worldview. Rank and excellence are concepts that are given larger roles in aristocratic societies, while in egalitarian societies, everyone and everything is believed to be the same, including morals, the arts, knowledge, et cetera. The mechanizing modernity versus the pastoral individualism theme parked itself alongside this idea.

[durutti]

38. I wanna see it.

It looks good.

[Guaranteed]

46. See it, dammit! nt