This is a movie review of The Last Samurai.
The Last Samurai is a movie starring Tom Cruise. I’d describe it as a period action movie with a touch of drama.
The back story is that Tom Cruise’s character is hired to help the Emperor of Japan put down a samurai uprising. The samurai are protesting the move to modernization of the Japanese society. Cruise is a battle hardened civil war and Indian war veteran with many, many demons. He drinks too much, feels guilt about his killings and cannot believe he has survived.
There are many things to love about this movie:
The cinematography. The locations, shooting and camera work is amazing. You feel like you’re in 1800s Japan and the landscape adds to the emotion of the fields.
Battle scenes. Whether it is army vs. army or man vs. man, the fight scenes are well choreographed and feature fantastic acting and camera work. In the final battle scene you can literally feel the bullets and horses.
Ken Watanabe – Playing Katsumoto, the main samurai, Watanabe turns in one of the better acting performances you’ll ever see.
There was nothing bad about this movie. It’s a movie you can enjoy on a long weekend where you can absorb not only the action, but the acting.