The Times They Are a Changin’

Last Samurai is probably one of the better movies that tom cruise has done in the recent past – a well etched out tale of an american soldier in japan, which is trying hard to modernise, teaching the japanese to be warriors, meeting an warrior from an ancient warrior class and learning to respect the land for its history.. of course, the movie has its stereotypical americans and japanese, but the main characters of captain aldgren (cruise) and katsumoto (ken watanabe) are well written out and complement each other well..watanbe especially as the samurai chief in war against the japanese army brings out well the conflict he feels on taking on the armies of his emperor – he makes it clear to the boy emperor that it is not him that he is fighting but the others – his attempts to make the emperor assert himself are brilliant.. his interactions with cruise are equally good – especially since aldgren kills his brother in law and he makes him stay at his sister’s place in his son’s village.. the interactions between aldgren and katsumoto are great – especially initially when aldgren repeatedly asks him what he is doing there.. Katsumoto’s response is learn and we can talk and i will practise my english with you.. the way aldgren slowly learns to appreciate the wonderful people around is brought out well, the way the samurais who treat aldgren initially with disgust slowly start respecting him is also brought out well.. the subtle love between aldgren and katsumoto’s sister is also well played out by cruise and michiko.. the japanese cast is above par and acts quite well to bring out the characters.. aldgren’s character especially comes out as someone who cant recover from the horrors of what he had done in the past and as one who is searching for redemption..

The war sequences are well directed – especially the initial battle sequence in the woods and later thed climactic battle sequence.. I liked the movie enough to watch it more than a couple of times – you read a lot more into the movie with repeated watches.. one of course wonders who the last samurai is – aldgren or katsumoto?? In some ways, the movie plays out to the stereotype – but the execution has been good..