Storyline
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
Directors
Cast
Tom Cruise, Togo Igawa, Billy Connolly, Hiroyuki Sanada, John Koyama, Shun Sugata, William Atherton, Chad Lindberg, Tony Goldwyn, Timothy Spall, Ray Godshall Sr., Yuki Matsuzaki, Ken Watanabe, Masato Harada, Scott Wilson, Hiroshi Watanabe, Masashi Odate, Shane Kosugi, Shichinosuke Nakamura, Koyuki, Shin Koyamada, Satoshi Nikaido, Shintaro Wada, Sosuke Ikematsu, Aoi Minato, Shoji Yoshihara, Seizô Fukumoto, Kosaburo Nomura IV, Takashi Noguchi, Noguchi Takayuki, Sven Toorvald, Mitsuyuki Oishi, Jiro Wada, Yusuke Myochin, Hiroaki Amano, Kenta Daibo, Koji Fujii, Makoto Hashiba, Shimpei Horinouchi, Takashi Kora, Takeshi Maya, Seiji Morita, Lee Murayama, Takeru Shimizu, Shinji Suzuki, Hisao Takeda, Ryoichiro Yonekura
Trailer
Reviews
90
A movie that demands our surrender -- to its energy, to its bold-stroke moviemaking, to its acting (particularly by Cruise and Watanabe, who blend musing and graceful muscularity) and, above all, to its romantic vision of a lost world.
88
ReelViews
A rousing tale that combines high adventure with emotional effectiveness. This movie works because it never loses sight of the characters no matter how epic the scope becomes.
80
Hugely satisfying entertainment that will attract a broad spectrum of audiences around the world. Zwick fully exploits the star power at his disposal, pairing off Cruise and Japanese star Ken Watanabe as two larger-than-life warriors.
75
Entertainment Weekly
A handsome epic, a brave-hearted 19th-century man-saga from the director who made the period piece man-sagas ''Glory'' and ''Legends of the Fall.''
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The Last Samurai is an idyll in which the savageries of existence are transcended by spiritual devotion. That’s a beautiful dream, and it gives the film a deep pleasingness, but the fullness of life and its blackest ambiguities are sacrificed.
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