Dances with Samurai

I almost didn't get to see Last Samurai this weekend. But plans changed, and I was able to get to a screening of it. And boy am I glad I did.

I didn't schedule my life around the opportunity to see it because, frankly, Tom Cruise movies of late haven't particularly enthralled me. I can sum up the last few I remember pretty simply:

Magnolia: A lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Eyes Wide Shut: Just because Nicole does this stuff in real life, it doesn't mean that they should have made a movie about it.

Vanilla Sky: Cameron, I would have rather seen Almost Famous II: Revenge of the Groupies

And to make matters no better, I saw another guy-oriented film with a major star billed as an epic ("Master and Commander") and came away thoroughly disappointed. This film had the same "it's an epic; it's an Oscar film; ya gotta see it" kind of buzz, but I wasn't going to bite.

But I did.

Briefly, Last Samurai is set in 1876, when the Tokugawa Shogunate is broken up, Japan is slowly opening to the West, and the Emperor needs to suppress a rebellion among the Samurai in order to more fully embrace the West and the prosperity that trade relations will bring to Japan. This much is all historically accurate. The story itself, as the director relayed in a Q&A after the film tonight, is not.

The story is of a disaffected hero of the post-Civil War Indian campaigns, Captain Nathan Algren (Cruise) who is hired by his former C.O. Colornel Bagley (Tony Goldwyn, in another thoroughly unlikable role -- will he ever get to be the good guy, or is he always going to be roughly as sympathetic as the dude that Patrick Swayze killed in "Ghost?") to train a modern army in Japan.

Algren hates Bagley, but takes the job anyway -- the money is good, and he's an alcoholic in need of an income. However, the mutual resentment between the two doesn't dissipate with the kingly $500/month salary, and in fact makes for one the best lines in the film (delivered by Cruise), and helps drive the plot into the first major battle, after which Algren is taken prisoner by the Samurai that his ill-trained regiment was rushed into battle against.

Here starts the real movie, as Captain Algren and the Samurai village, including their leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), slowly bond. While the backdrop of the whole film is one of war -- or at least preparations for it -- the story develops during this section of the film.

Since the trailers, posters and billboards show Cruise in full Samurai get-up, I don't feel it'd be much of a giveaway to note that Algren develops a severe (and sincere) case of Stockholm Syndrome and joins the Samurai cause. From there, things swing back and forth a bit, culminating in a huge showdown on the field of battle.

Though not as large a cast of extras as, say, Zwick's earlier period war movie, "Glory," the complexity of the fighting (many, if not most of the 600+ extras were accomplished martial artists, imported from Japan to film the battle scenes that were shot in New Zealand) meant much more complex filming. Instead of the slightly more predictable shooting and bayoneting of the Civil War, a fair amount of tightly choreographed martial artistry characterized the close quarters battle in this film.

Add to that the elaborate and historically accurate costumes of the Samurai (provided by the same costumer that served Peter Jackson in the LOTR trilogy, who was backed up by consultants that included a fellow whose family designed clothing for the Imperial family for several generations and Kurosawa's chief costumer), and you had 31 days of shooting that... well, that worked.

But the artistry in this film doesn't stop there. (Where, you say? Interesting story, amazing battle sequences, fantastic costumes [Did someone say something about an Oscar for costumes? Bet on it -- Cold Mountain and LOTR III be damned.]) First, the script was such that the characters evoked strong emotions, without being too obvious. Well, except for one guy who gets beheaded late in the film -- that guy, I won't say who it was -- is unlikable from the moment he's introduced. But the rest of the guys (and there's really only one woman in the film) elicit emotions from the start, but that doesn't stop them from growing on you. Cruise's character, for instance... even though you know he's going to be the flawed hero from his first moment on camera, and he gets instant points for that, he still gets better and more complex during the approximately 2 1/2 film.

The Samurai, who start out as the enemy, and you know -- because Japan is now a Democracy with a ceremonial leader in the Emperor -- are going to lose eventually, come across first as angry savages, and then as sympathetic, graceful underdogs. They are not unlike Native Americans in Westerns of late -- where at least one tribe of "Injuns" are nice folks.

In a way, this film is "Dances With Wolves" in Japan (hence my review title). Disaffected cavalry officer unintentionally lives among a group of "noble savages" and joins them. Said officer learns the language, but is roused back to civilization. And that, like the Kevin Costner effort, is where the story gets interesting. There are, in fact, too many parallels to discuss without spoiling a great deal of the story.

Regardless, the film moves quickly, even during the slow scenes. When it's released in a couple weeks, it will be an enjoyably way for anyone (including women -- this is by no means just a guy's movie like "Master and Commander") to spend an evening.