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Edward Burnett Tylor, Religion and Culture

Paul-Francois Tremlett

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Book

Through revisiting and challenging what we think we know about the work of Edward Burnett Tylor, a...

Manhunt: Unabomber

8.1 (17 Ratings) Rate It

TV Show Watch

Manhunt: UNABOMBER tells the dramatic and gripping true story of the FBI's hunt for the Unabomber,...

drama crime biography

The Hydrogen Sonata

Iain M. Banks

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Book

The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilisation. An...

David McK (3425 KP) rated The Last Samurai (2003) in Movies

Feb 6, 2021

The Last Samurai (2003)

2003 | Action, Drama, War

7.2

(33 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Who is The Last Samurai?

In the early noughties, following the success of Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator', there was a rash of historical epic films - 'Alexander', 'Troy', 'Kingdom of Heaven'.

And this.

Which is a strong contender for one of the best of those films.

The film stars Tom Cruise (who, for once, is not playing Tom Cruise) and Ken Wattanabe, with the former a world weary US Civil War veteran (suffering from PTSD?) who is hired to train the modernising Japanese army, and the latter a Samurai leader who thinks Japan is losing its identity; moving too fast into the future.

Captured by that Samurai leader following an early battle, Algren (Cruise's character) soon finds himself beginning to wonder is he fighting in the right side...

Yes, the plot is somewhat akin to 'Dances with Wolves' (or even 'Avatar'), and I've heard the charge of the film being a White Saviour story - a charge, I have to say, that I do NOT find any merit in: indeed, I would argue the opposite (that Cruise's character is saved rather than the one doing the saving) is more true.