When an American military officer is hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the 1870s, he is unexpectedly impressed by the Imperial Samurai warriors and their way of life.
Around 1877, the Emperor and government of Japan felt the need to modernise their army and, oddly, decided to hunt for the man capable of the job in a hokey Wild West show in San Francisco. This slightly implausible decision could easily have led to the film concentrating on the role of the Americans rather than the actual happenings of the Samurai revolt, indeed the Hollywoodisation of history seemed complete when Colonel Bagley declared that "Japan has got it in mind to be a civilised country". However, this comment actually marked a turning point in the tone of the film as director Edward Zwick takes the unusual step of swiping at American imperialism and clearly favouring the traditional way of life of the samurai.
Tom Cruise stars as Nathan Algren, a washed up drunk of a US Cavelry officer, traumatised by his role in the slaughter of innocent Native Americans, who now makes a living entertaining crowds at gun rallies [an early forerunner of the NRA - it's a surprise Micheal Moore didn't pop up somewhere]. Algren is persauded to leave this life behind and go to Japan (accompanied by Billy Connelly as Zebulon Gant and Tony Goldwyn as Colonel Bagley) to help train their army in western fighting methods. After a few months of training it becomes clear to Algren that the army is not ready but the weedy Emperor, heavily influenced by his money hungry advisors, sends them to fight the samurai anyway. Algren is captured but his life is spared by the samurai leader Katsumoto, who then has the dubious idea of imprisoning Algren in his sister's house despite the fact that Algren has just killed her husband. Algren spends the winter with the samurai, becoming increasingly drawn to their culture and (being the Hollywood star that he is) mastering their fighting techniques and impressing everyone with his fine nature.
Nathan Algren is a departure from the usual all-American characters that Tom Cruise plays and he throws himself whole-heartedly into the role. Kudos Tom, kudos. As a drunk he is slightly questionable but he pulls off the fighting scenes and rampant philosophizing surprisingly well, only resorting to gazing off purposefully into space and flicking his hair from his eyes on a couple of occasions. The true star of the film is Ken Watanabe as Katsumoto, the leader of the samurai, who brilliantly captures the difficult situation Katsumoto faces as he must choose between loyalty to the Emperor and loyalty to the traditions he cares deeply about.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle.
The Japanese monarchy has decided to replace the hired samurai warriors, who have been relied upon for centuries for defending the nation, with a more contemporary military. A U.S. Civil War veteran (Tom Cruise) is hired by the Emperor to train a group of Japanese conscripts to replace the samurai warriors. But when he is captured by the samurai, he comes to respect them and finds himself torn over who he should be fighting for.
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