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Migration, Culture Conflict and Crime

Joshua D. Freilich, Moshe Addad and Graeme Newman

7.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

This title was first published in 2002: The issue of immigration and crime in all of its many...

David McK (3562 KP) rated The Last Samurai (2003) in Movies

Feb 6, 2021

The Last Samurai (2003)

2003 | Action, Drama, War

7.2

(33 Ratings)

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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.