kickingbird
candle lighter
Just wondering if anyone has seen The Last Samurai yet and what you think. I hope to view it soon, and of course Lord Of The Rings coming up soon too ... 
The Last Samurai
- Thread starter kickingbird
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Disciple
come get some
kickingbird said:Just wondering if anyone has seen The Last Samurai yet and what you think. I hope to view it soon, and of course Lord Of The Rings coming up soon too ...
I have no interest in Tom Cruise movies but someone I know told me that there's a character in this movie who could have been perfectly played by Seagal. Like an older Samurai teacher or something.
Still not going to see this movie though.
Sleeping Fox
Banned
You shouldn't judge a movie just because you don't like the actor who's in it. It's just not cinema smart...lol
The problem is steven couldn't play a samurai elder, HE IS WHITE!
If I had the cash at the moment I would so go see it, it's helping give new life to my old interest in Japan, and the Ways of Budo.
The problem is steven couldn't play a samurai elder, HE IS WHITE!
If I had the cash at the moment I would so go see it, it's helping give new life to my old interest in Japan, and the Ways of Budo.
Sleeping Fox
Banned
It's the last stand between Fuedal Japan and Imperial Japan.
Nassau Mike
Member
I saw it on Friday past and in my opinion its the best epic since Gladiator and better than Braveheart..The final battle is awesome and well filmed..Tom may get the oscar nod for this one..It was definately better than Master and Commander which was a little slow even thought the battle scenes in that was pretty realistic as well..
The Japanese Samurai guy in The Last Samurai put on a great performance.
The Japanese Samurai guy in The Last Samurai put on a great performance.
There were things I liked about the movie - the final battle scene was awesome, and I'd give Edward Zwick, the director, the nod for Ghenghis Khan rather than Kenneth Annakin who on the best day he ever had couldn't direct an epic, but....
SPOILERS FOLLOW - read no further if you want to see the film without knowing any of the details.
Tom Cruise was just wrong for the role. He's way too pretty for the character he was portraying. His teeth were too perfect, his hair was always perfect, his wardrobe was perfect - he didn't look like he smelled bad at all (in spite of the fact one character does mention "he smells like a pig", Tom in that scene looked more like he smelled of good clean soap and lemon-scented laundry detergent). There was one scene where he was fighting in the rain and ended up in the mud. The next day he's wearing the same clothes as he had the day before, and there's not a speck of mud on them.... no. Too perfect.
Tom Cruise simply did not convince me in the least that he was the tortured individual he was supposed to be portraying.
I also kept thinking of Dances With Wolves all the way through. The story is parallel to an astonishing degree. I kept thinking it was Dances With Wolves, Part Deux.
And I have to wonder at why it is that it is always the white man/Westerner who saves the day for the poor dumb savages (well, there was no saving here, but that was the situation leading up to the last battle). It was as subtle a piece of propaganda as I've ever seen - essentially, that only an American with less than twenty years of experience with war, even one displaced into an alien culture, has the knowledge and the smarts to save the day (no offense to my American friends here, I'm just commenting on a trend I've often seen in such movies) while the poor dumb savages who were warriors with a thousand years of experience behind them knew nothing at all.
"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs," was a phrase that kept going through my mind.
Yes, I know: this was a confrontation between traditional warriors and an army with new technology, and the advantage was definitely with the new. And maybe the American in this case was in fact the better one for coming up with the strategy to hold back the forces of the new army. I just found it, I don't know, arrogant.
I think I would have bought Algren saving the day if it had been handled differently - if the bit about the Persians and the Greeks at Thermopylae had come in more of the "conversations" than as a last minute hail mary defense strategy. The movie would have worked on a much higher plane if Katsumoto and Algren had spent more time together in such "conversations", overall. A meeting, if you will, between the thousand years of tradition and the new kind of war, on a personal level as well as the epic level. There just wasn't enough of that, and as a result, I came away with a bad taste in my mouth.
They did underplay the romance and sexual tension between Algren and Taka; that was very well done, I thought. The battle scenes were awesome. I couldn't figure out what was going on with the ninjas - it was never explained where they actually came from, although we are told it was Omura's doing. Omura was wonderfully slimy, I thought. And I loved Billy Connolly - he was a hoot.
The Last Samurai was better than I thought it would be, but not as good as it should have been, and I put that all down to Tom Cruise and his interpretation (he was, after all, a producer on this film as well as starring in it).
SPOILERS FOLLOW - read no further if you want to see the film without knowing any of the details.
Tom Cruise was just wrong for the role. He's way too pretty for the character he was portraying. His teeth were too perfect, his hair was always perfect, his wardrobe was perfect - he didn't look like he smelled bad at all (in spite of the fact one character does mention "he smells like a pig", Tom in that scene looked more like he smelled of good clean soap and lemon-scented laundry detergent). There was one scene where he was fighting in the rain and ended up in the mud. The next day he's wearing the same clothes as he had the day before, and there's not a speck of mud on them.... no. Too perfect.
Tom Cruise simply did not convince me in the least that he was the tortured individual he was supposed to be portraying.
I also kept thinking of Dances With Wolves all the way through. The story is parallel to an astonishing degree. I kept thinking it was Dances With Wolves, Part Deux.
And I have to wonder at why it is that it is always the white man/Westerner who saves the day for the poor dumb savages (well, there was no saving here, but that was the situation leading up to the last battle). It was as subtle a piece of propaganda as I've ever seen - essentially, that only an American with less than twenty years of experience with war, even one displaced into an alien culture, has the knowledge and the smarts to save the day (no offense to my American friends here, I'm just commenting on a trend I've often seen in such movies) while the poor dumb savages who were warriors with a thousand years of experience behind them knew nothing at all.
"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs," was a phrase that kept going through my mind.
Yes, I know: this was a confrontation between traditional warriors and an army with new technology, and the advantage was definitely with the new. And maybe the American in this case was in fact the better one for coming up with the strategy to hold back the forces of the new army. I just found it, I don't know, arrogant.
I think I would have bought Algren saving the day if it had been handled differently - if the bit about the Persians and the Greeks at Thermopylae had come in more of the "conversations" than as a last minute hail mary defense strategy. The movie would have worked on a much higher plane if Katsumoto and Algren had spent more time together in such "conversations", overall. A meeting, if you will, between the thousand years of tradition and the new kind of war, on a personal level as well as the epic level. There just wasn't enough of that, and as a result, I came away with a bad taste in my mouth.
They did underplay the romance and sexual tension between Algren and Taka; that was very well done, I thought. The battle scenes were awesome. I couldn't figure out what was going on with the ninjas - it was never explained where they actually came from, although we are told it was Omura's doing. Omura was wonderfully slimy, I thought. And I loved Billy Connolly - he was a hoot.
The Last Samurai was better than I thought it would be, but not as good as it should have been, and I put that all down to Tom Cruise and his interpretation (he was, after all, a producer on this film as well as starring in it).
Nassau Mike
Member
Storm said:
Its in the mid 70's Farenheit here and tourists are hitting the beaches and the casino. It gets down to the 60's in the night and thats cold for us locals..Very sunny and blue skies though in the day..
Hope you like The Last Samurai..
I dont mind cold weather when i go away but damm, -5C is pretty cold uhh..
Nassau Mike
Member
cookie said:
I'm not a big Tom Cruise fan either but I liked this movie along with the Japanese Samurai theme and the lead Japanese actor..The battle scenes were very well done.
Sleeping Fox
Banned
thanks for telling us what you're not gonna see and who you're not a fan of.
Very....enlightening....as enlightening as being hit by lightening.
Very....enlightening....as enlightening as being hit by lightening.
Storm
Smile dammit!
As good as it sounds i prefer that fresh feeling on the back of my throat(as much as i can anyway).It's a bit milder at the mo.I don't know what it is about Cruise that doesn't convince on an action level,but his acting's ok.Actually, he was good as the moral-free bloodsucker in Interview With The Vampire. I didn't know they could cop it from a croc,lol.Nassau Mike said:
I think Interview with the Vampire was the only film I've seen Cruise in where he was half decent in the role. Generally, he plays the same character over and over again, because his range is astonishingly limited - and he canNOT play a drunk convincingly (ref: The Last Samurai).
Cruise ruined the film as a whole - but the fight scenes/battle scenes and the aspects of bushido were worth seeing, at least at matinee prices.
Cruise ruined the film as a whole - but the fight scenes/battle scenes and the aspects of bushido were worth seeing, at least at matinee prices.
Nassau Mike
Member
Storm said:
Yep, I guess I liked him best in Interview with the Vampire, Born on the Fourth Of July and now The Last Samurai..I did'nt like his Mission Impossible movies that much..Top Gun was pretty good as well and a very good dvd movie to buy with all the jets..
Sleeping Fox
Banned
Well I saw the movie Last night, went in with no Bias towards any of the actors or anything and rather well enjoyed the film. aside from the fact of a baka Kami in the back of the theatre I know from school, he was disapointed the film had a plot...God of all idiots indeed.
TD, you riped the film apart as zelously as a film critic, go you!
TD, you riped the film apart as zelously as a film critic, go you!