Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Last weekend, I saw the 2003 film ‘The Last Samurai’ starring Tom Cruise, which my Dad purchased on DVD recently. I heard many good things said about this film. So, I decided to satisfy my curiosity with seeing it myself. I really enjoyed checking out the film on DVD.

‘The Last Samurai’ is quite different compared to other films starring Tom Cruise, such as the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films and the ‘Top Gun’ films. I saw a trailer for the movie when I saw ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ at the cinema back in December 2003.

This could have easily been my first experience of Tom Cruise in a movie back then. But it wasn’t. It was the 2005 ‘War of the Worlds’ film instead. Not that I’m complaining, as I’ve enjoyed Tom Cruise in more films over the years, and that includes ‘The Last Samurai’.

The film is an epic period action drama inspired by the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion led by Saigō Takamori, and the Westernization of Japan by foreign powers. I’m not sure how historically accurate this film is, but it’s certainly a very compelling film regardless of that.

For your information, Tom Cruise isn’t the titular ‘last samurai’, I don’t think. I believe the titular ‘last samurai’ is Ken Watanabe’s character. Tom Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren, a Civil War and Indian War veteran who’s haunted by the previous battles he fought.

Ken Watanabe plays Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto. Tom Cruise’s character is captured when he got caught in a battle with samurai, led by Ken Watanabe’s character. Ken Watanabe gets to know who Tom Cruise is whilst he’s keeping him a prisoner in his village.

From watching this film, I did get a sense of ‘Dances with Wolves’ in terms of the storyline where Tom Cruise as Captain Algren gets to know the people of Lord Katsumoto’s village and their customs. Except that film is about 3 hours long whilst ‘The Last Samurai’ is about 2 hours.

4 hours if you’ve seen the extended version of ‘Dances with Wolves’ (which I have). There’s also a hint of a romance between Tom Cruise’s character and the widow of the samurai he killed in battle, Taka, played by Koyuki. It doesn’t quite go anywhere in the film.

At least, it doesn’t quite end with Tom Cruise as Captain Algren pursuing a relationship with Taka, since they just look at each other before we fade to black and the end credits roll up. Plus, Taka is rather anxious about Algren as a character, despite looking after him. 😐

I can’t claim to understand how the Japanese customs work in this film – especially by 19th century standards – but it was very fascinating to see whilst watching the film. The film is also very well-complimented by some gripping action scenes featured throughout.

This especially includes the climatic battle scenes where Tom Cruise as Algren joins Lord Katsumoto and his samurai warriors to protect their village from the Westernized Japanese soldiers. Algren had some samurai training while he was a prisoner in the village.

The film’s cast also include Timothy Spall as Simon Graham, a British photographer and scholar. There’s also Shin Koyamada as Nobutada Katsumoto, Tony Goldwyn as Colonel Bagley, Masato Harada as Matsue Omura, and Shichinosuke Nakamura as Emperor Meiji.

There’s Hiroyuki Sanada as Ujio, Seizo Fukumoto as ‘Bob’ ( 😀 ), Shun Sugata as Nakao, and Togo Igawa as General Hasegawa. Billy Conolly appears in the film, playing Sergeant Zebulon Gant. Sadly, Billy Connolly’s character gets killed off early in the story.

‘The Last Samurai’ has been a very fascinating film starring Tom Cruise. I wouldn’t say it’s in the same league as the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films nor the ‘Top Gun’ films, but it’s been intriguing to see this action film in a Japanese period setting and featuring a compelling plot.

It’s well-directed by Edward Zwick and I’m pleased the film maintained my interest with Tom Cruise driving the plot forward. After hearing so many good things said about ‘The Last Samurai’, it’s been well-worth seeing it after all these years from seeing the trailer for it in 2003.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂