Plot
An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle.
Release Year: 2003
Rating: 7.7/10 (153,166 voted)
Critic's Score: 55/100
Director:
Edward Zwick
Stars: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly
Storyline In the 1870s, Captain Nathan Algren, a cynical veteran of the American Civil war who will work for anyone, is hired by Americans who want lucrative contracts with the Emperor of Japan to train the peasant conscripts for the first standing imperial army in modern warfare using firearms. The imperial Omura cabinet's first priority is to repress a rebellion of traditionalist Samurai -hereditary warriors- who remain devoted to the sacred dynasty but reject the Westernizing policy and even refuse firearms. Yet when his ill-prepared superior force sets out too soon, their panic allows the sword-wielding samurai to crush them. Badly wounded Algren's courageous stand makes the samurai leader Katsumoto spare his life; once nursed to health he learns to know and respect the old Japanese way, and participates as advisor in Katsumoto's failed attempt to save the Bushido tradition, but...
Writers: John Logan, John Logan
Cast: Ken Watanabe
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Katsumoto
Tom Cruise
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Nathan Algren
William Atherton
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Winchester Rep
Chad Lindberg
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Winchester Rep Assistant
Ray Godshall Sr.
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Convention Hall Attendee
Billy Connolly
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Zebulon Gant
Tony Goldwyn
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Colonel Bagley
Masato Harada
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Omura
Masashi Odate
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Omura's Companion
John Koyama
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Omura's Bodyguard
Timothy Spall
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Simon Graham
Shichinosuke Nakamura
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Emperor Meiji
Togo Igawa
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General Hasegawa
Satoshi Nikaido
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N.C.O.
Shintaro Wada
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Young Recruit
Taglines:
In the face of an enemy, in the Heart of One Man, Lies the Soul of a Warrior.
Opening Weekend: $24,271,354
(USA)
(7 December 2003)
(2908 Screens)
Gross: $456,758,981
(Worldwide)
(8 April 2004)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
This film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward. Ward became executive producer on the film - working in development on it for nearly four years and after approaching several directors (Coppola, Weir), he interested Edward Zwick. The film went ahead with Zwick and was shot in Ward's native New Zealand.
Goofs:
Continuity:
When the son is killed, a soldier turns the corner, and rips the wall with the butt of his gun. In the next shot, the wall is not ripped.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Simon Graham:
[narrating]
They say Japan was made by a sword. They say the old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean, and when they pulled it out four perfect drops fell back into the sea, and those drops became the islands of Japan. I say, Japan was made by a handful of brave men. Warriors, willing to give their lives for what seems to have become a forgotten word: honor.
User Review
Beautiful
Rating: 10/10
After my third viewing, I can finally admit that this film has me. I
enjoyed it during its theatrical run, enjoyed it more the second time
around, and now, I can only say that I love it. The cast is exemplary.
Tom Cruise is so good in this film that it is very often easy to forget
he is Tom Cruise. Easily his most powerful role and best performance
since Jerry Maguire. Ken Watanabe, however, is incredible in every
scene - acting with a rare sensitivity and intensity and breathing life
into a character much larger and more human than the grand story of
which he is a part. Though the entire cast is excellent, I feel that I
must also single out Koyuki and Shichinosuke Nakamura for,
respectively, the female lead and the emperor, for the subtle strength
and believability they each give their very challenging roles.
The story takes place during the early modernization of Japan, in the
1870s and 1880s. The Emperor's power has been weakened by the political
and economic power of his cabinet, by his young age, and by the
political influence of the United States and other western powers
pulling the strings of his cabinet and supplying modern weaponry and
tactics to the modernizing Japanese army. Cruise plays Captain Allgren,
an alcoholic veteran who has seen and participated in too many
massacres of innocent people, and is offered an opportunity to reclaim
some of his honor by helping to train the Japanese military in the use
of firearms. When he arrives in Japan, we learn that the first test of
the Japanese army and its new weapons will be against a rebellious
group of samurai who believe themselves to be in the service of the
Emperor and Japan, but resist the Emperor's cabinet and the influence
of western nations. In the power void left by a passive emperor, Japan
seems poised to enter into a civil war against its own values, faith
and honor. During the first attack on the Samurai, Allgren is captured
by the Samurai and begins a spiritual, physical and philosophical
journey which will bring him a level of self-respect his own culture
could never supply.
My interpretation of this journey is that Allgren has found a place and
people that offer him redemption, where, in his own world, he can find
none. But Allgren's is only a small part of the story - which
ultimately revolves around what is right for Japan, for the
subjectivity of a whole nation, and how to portray such a subject from
its own perspective. Traditional Japan is treated with empathy here,
not aggrandizing exaggeration, as some of the film's critics seem to
suggest. This is not a film about what is objectively right and wrong,
but a film about struggling to understand and empower tradition as a
means to control and benefit from change. I find no grand moral
statement here, but rather an intense, sympathetic, human drama with a
strong sense of honor and sacrifice.
Edward Zwick has made a film which operates well at every level,
carrying simple but profound philosophical ideas, but avoiding the
mistake of making these ideas and the characters that express them
super-heroic. Ultimately, this beautifully shot film conveys powerful
messages about war, tradition, ethics, honor and culture, which, though
not particularly original, are sensitively and intelligently brought
forward. There is a lot of action, including some remarkably well-acted
sword fighting and martial artistry, but none of it seems unnecessary
and the whole film is truly tightly woven. My highest recommendation.
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