The Last Samurai

Undoubtedly one of the favourites for Best Film at the upcoming Oscars get-together – with Return Of The King, Mystic River, Master And Commander, Seabiscuit and the thrilling Cold Mountain its likeliest rivals – the hugely grandiose Last Samurai, though differing very little in format from any previous amount of huge Hollywood warfare epics, also has the added edge of Oriental exoticism, and may well take the ultimate prize (though Movie House suspects that Cold Mountain, rightly or wrongly, will grab the glory).
At any rate, it should rectify the state of affairs whereby Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, the world’s most bankable and recognisable actor, has yet to win Best Actor – Samurai is the kind of one-man-showcase role much beloved of the Academy establishment, and could fairly be described as his best leading performance since Born On The Fourth Of July.
Directed by acknowledged war-flick maestro Ed Zwick (Glory, Courage Under Fire, Legends Of The Fall), the movie – set in late 19th-century Japan around the time of the Meiji Restoration – stars the Cruiser as Captain Nathan Algren, a Civil War hero haunted by horrific memories of his involvement in the Indian wars, whose mighty wealth of experience ensures that he’s headhunted by the Japanese Emporer for samurai-suppressing purposes.
What unfolds is impressive enough in terms of spectacle, but also predictable and formulaic in the extreme. Two gigantic battle set-pieces are certainly as accomplished as anything seen in Gladiator or Braveheart, but many of the scenes surrounding then have a tendency to drag, and with the exception of Ken Watanabe, none of the supporting cast (Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall) are granted enough time to make any but the most perfunctory impression.
All that said, The Last Samurai is very difficult to fault in pure battle-epic terms, and certainly worth backing for two or three golden statues.