A Tribute to Film Posters

The Last Samurai

After witnessing countless atrocities committed by American soldiers against the Native Indians during the US Civil War, The Last Samurai finds decorated war hero Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) in a state of disbelief about the horrors he has seen. Disillusioned by his country’s disregard for the deaths of thousands of innocents, Algren staggers through the ranks in a drunken stupor unable to forget the inhumanity of the war. Wracked by personal demons, he is propositioned by a Japanese entrepreneur to go to Japan and teach the Japanese army all the latest military and combat techniques of the day. Eager to leave his past behind him, the disenchanted American soldier takes the job and heads out to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Upon his arrival to Japan, Algren soon discovers that the enemy he is about to face is a group of samurai led by Katsumoto (played by Ken Watanabe) whose job it is to protect the Emperor. Well-trained in ancient Japanese combat, the samurai are a disciplined group of warriors who adhere to a strict code of honor against the new Japanese army in a contest between tradition and modernity. As fate would have it, Algren is captured by the samurai during their first confrontation and is taken to live with them in the Japanese countryside.

In somewhat typical East-meets-West movie-making fashion, Algren learns to appreciate the traditional ways of the samurai and their code of honor, eventually becoming one of the last of their kind. An epic tale that chronicles the end of a romanticized era of Japanese history, the former Civil War veteran assembles the samurai in one last charge against the new, more modern Japanese army during the film’s climax. Directed by Edward Zwick (The Siege, Legends of the Fall, Glory), The Last Samurai is another triumph for the critically acclaimed director.