The Last Samurai: review

Ken Watanabe as Katsumoto; Tom Cruise as Algren 

2003's The Last Samurai, directed by Edward Zwick (Legends of the Fall, Shakespeare in Love, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back) and starring Tom Cruise, Timothy Spall, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly, Tony Goldwyn, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Koyuki Kato. It attracted much the same praise and criticism that 1990's Dances with Wolves did, along with all the often-contradictory accusations of being a "white-savior narrative" and an example of Japanophilia gone wild. With Cruise being featured on all of the movie posters, despite Watanabe's character being the main focus, it's easy to see where much of the criticism is coming from.

The story is told through the eyes of war veteran Nathan Algren (Cruise), who had fought in the Civil War as well as in the American Indian Wars. Now a drunkard who is part of a traveling festival touting, among other things, firearms, Algren is depressed, suffering from war-related nightmares, and on his last legs. An old friend and sergeant of his, Zebulon Gant (Connolly), persuades Algren to hear out an offer from Algren's old commanding officer, the ruthless and unethical Colonel Bagley (Goldwyn, master of smarmy-villain roles), who had more than once ordered the murder of innocent American Indians during military campaigns. Algren reluctantly meets Bagley who, along with a Japanese businessman named Omura (Masato Harada), offers Algren a large sum of money to go to Japan and help the pro-modernization Meiji government to put down a samurai rebellion (the story is partly based on the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion). Algren, who is destitute, can't say no; he and Gant depart with Bagley for Japan. Though a drunkard, Algren quietly records his thoughts in a journal.

Landing at Yokohama, Algren is met by British writer, scholar, photographer, translator, and interpreter Simon Graham (Spall), who fills Algren in on Japan's recent history: the country is opening up to Western powers, wanting to be exposed to various aspects of Western culture, and from the Americans, Japan wants modern weapons technology both for national self-defense and to help put down rebellions like the one currently being led by Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto (Watanabe). Algren and Gant are given troops to train in rifles, formations, and battle tactics, but as Algren quickly discovers, the Japanese trainees are far from ready to see battle. Bagley, once again Algren's commander, nevertheless orders Algren to take the troops into the field to defeat a group of samurai who are impeding the operation of Mr. Omura's new, modern trains. Algren takes the untested troops into a forest where the samurai were last seen; the samurai attack and, predictably, the troops break ranks and prove unable to fight. They are slaughtered, and even Sergeant Gant is killed. Algren is the lone survivor, viciously fighting despite several serious injuries. Algren kills several samurai, including one who thinks he's gotten the better of Algren. The samurai leader turns out to be Katsumoto himself; he's impressed by Algren's ferocity and grit, and he orders Algren spared and taken prisoner. Algren is brought back to Katsumoto's home village, where he convalesces and slowly recovers from his alcoholism. He is allowed to wander the village, always with a minder (whom he humorously calls "Bob"), and he begins to learn about (and write in his journal about) Japanese culture. Algren is awed by the fanatical dedication to perfection that he sees around him. He begins to learn the Japanese language, as well as some of its fighting arts as taught by the stern and initially scornful Ujio (Sanada). He also learns that he is housed with Taka (Koyuki), the wife of the samurai he had killed, along with her children.

The rest of the movie is devoted to Algren's education as he learns more about Japanese culture and the family he is housed with. At the same time, he knows that Omura, ostensibly acting on behalf of the emperor (a young, impressionable man who has become Omura's puppet), has plans to eradicate the rebellious samurai led by Katsumoto, who sees himself as being loyal to the emperor (he was the emperor's former teacher), and loyal to feudal tradition. As you might imagine, this cannot end well, but Katsumoto has Algren at his side—formerly a prisoner, but now Katsumoto's trusted friend, and a veteran who understands the modern tactics that will be used against the samurai.

Is The Last Samurai in fact a white-savior narrative? I'd say no: The samurai aren't saved by the end, and neither is Japanese culture (an issue that is relevant even today). Does the movie fetishize Japanese culture? I'm not educated enough about Japan to say, but the movie certainly takes a positive attitude toward the society and makes the potential loss of Japanese identity through Westernization a central issue. Algren, who is our lens through which to see late-1800s Japan, proves to be tough but also smart, and he begins to learn the bushido philosophy as he's learning the language; he also engages in what Katsumoto likes to call "conversations": Katsumoto wants to understand Algren's culture, initially for "know thine enemy" reasons. (While Algren is recovering from his wounds and his alcoholism, Katsumoto, who speaks, reads, and writes in fluent English, flips carefully through Algren's journal, learning of Algren's thoughts on war and his encounters with American Indians.) The dialogue we hear between these two men, and the developing friendship we see, are at the core of what this movie is all about.

On the level of politics, The Last Samurai can be read in both a left-leaning and a right-leaning way. On the left side, we see the corruption of a culture through Western influence (West = bad), but paradoxically, since the left is also currently pro-globalization, Japan's acceptance of foreign trade and foreign values as it "joins the civilized world" can be interpreted as consistent with the globalizing spirit. Algren's partial rejection of his own culture and his admiration for Japanese culture can also be viewed as appropriately anti-Western. The villain Omura can be seen as a plump, well-fed symbol of the rapacity of businessmen who care only for comfort and nothing for their own culture, so willing are they to become Judases for the sake of modern conveniences. A modern, right-leaning interpretation would focus on the Japanese emphasis—especially at the end of the film—on retaining national and cultural identity, not because the West is inherently bad but because nationalism and cultural integrity are net goods that should not be lightly thrown away. Algren's openness to Japanese culture also reflects the currently in-vogue idea that foreigners who enter a different culture should respect that culture and not expect to be accommodated by it in the spirit of what many conservatives call "suicidal empathy." The flip side of The Last Samurai is that a Japanese person who spends a long time in the United States should acquire the language as well as a level of respect for American values. So all in all, I think the movie is fairly balanced in how it can be interpreted.

All of which makes the political discussion surrounding the movie irrelevant to me. Was it a good story? It was: it was well written, well acted (except for Tom Cruise's annoying, buck-toothed mouth-breathing in almost every scene), and thrumming with profound emotion—almost melodramatic in the way of so many East Asian films, with plenty of flowing tears. At the end of the final, bloody battle, with Algren and Katsumoto lying together on the battlefield, Algren tells Katsumoto that he will miss their "conversations," which were the verbal exchanged bonds of friendship between two men who understood war and therefore understood each other.

Other aspects of the movie were good as well. Hiroyuki Sanada as Ujio the fighting master was perfectly cast for the part. Koyuki, as the wife of a samurai killed by Algren who at first wants revenge, then later develops mixed feelings for him, plays her role soulfully and well. The film's beautiful cinematography evokes old Japan, with images ranging from busy streets to Buddha statues to blossoms. This was also one of the smarter screenplays I've encountered in recent memory, with plenty of satisfying setups and payoffs.

I can only imagine, though, that The Last Samurai was mocked, when it came out, for being a Japan-inflected version of Dances with Wolves. The parallels are obvious: former US soldier goes native, keeps a journal, then turns against his own people, etc. Even in recent years, this trope appears in films like the Avatar series of movies or the Shōgun streaming series. Maybe it's a trope thats destined to appear and reappear in modern, industrialized cultures that deal with their own guilt. Or maybe it's destined to reappear in a specifically American context given America's unique historical circumstances.

What I can say for sure is that "the last samurai" is not Tom Cruise even though he's prominent on the movie posters. Online critic Chris Stuckmann offers up the idea that samurai is being used in the plural here: The samurai whom Cruise meets are the last of their kind as new laws forbid the carrying of swords and the wearing of topknots. In fact, some Japanese viewers apparently felt the movie glossed over how corrupt and selfish the samurai had become by that time. In other words, some modern Japanese think that what truly motived the real-life Satsuma Rebellion was not the passing of a noble age but rather the loss of power and influence for a certain class of people as Western notions of egalitarianism began to filter into Japanese society. Then again, how's that battle of the values going, really? How successful has the infiltration of new values been? Is Japan now totally egalitarian? Is societal hierarchy no longer a thing? Anyone who believes that about today's Japan is woefully naive. Many of the old societal structures and concepts still exist in Japan, just as they exist in China and Korea. Modernization can't change everything. Old values persist.

Regarding those old values: Just this year, Japanese conservatives recently won a sweeping parliamentary victory in their lower house. In the future, we may see a Japan that is stricter about the presence of foreigners, foreign culture, and globalization in general. This new Japan may decide to rearm itself more fully against the looming threats of China and North Korea, and the influx of conservatives into the Japanese parliament may have been at least partially inspired by the heretofore-tolerated proliferation of obnoxious streamers like Johnny Somali, who wreaked havoc while he was in Japan and is now trapped in South Korea as his trial plods slowly onward. The Last Samurai is, if nothing else, both a heartfelt meditation on cross-cultural friendship, the clash of civilizational values, and the tension between old and new. For a 2003 film, it remains remarkably relevant, a reflection of the times we live in. See it with my enthusiastic blessing.