The Last Samurai

Started by MacGuffin, May 12, 2003, 11:13:16 AM

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Ghostboy

While watching this movie, I noticed the ultimate Kurosawa homage. The climactic battle takes place on May 25, 1877 -- exactly 100 years to the day before Star Wars opened!

It was a whole lot better than I expected. A good old Hollywood epic. Not too deep, but very engaging with some rousing action scenes. In the same class as Gladiator and Braveheart, pretty much. Tom Cruise is really good, although there's no escaping the fact that he embodies a 20th Century Boy and never completely fits into a Civil War era setting.

The best thing about this movie is that it is has a very very strong anti-gun message. That alone makes me recommend it.

Fernando

From Latino Review.

An Interview With Tom Cruise.

"The Last Samurai" is an epic adventure that will leave you breathless one moment, cheering the next, and admiring the enduring effect a powerful narrative with brilliant performances can have on the senses. It's beautiful to once again experience Tom Cruise in a role that makes him shine, a role that uses his acting skills to a depth we have not seen until now. Cruise is absolutely, positively, outstanding as Captain Nathan Algren.

A few weeks ago during a press conference in Los Angeles Cruise talked about the commitment he has made in the past to films and now to Samurai, "I put a lot of time into everything I do, interestingly enough. 'Rain Man' and 'Born on the Fourth' was years prepping that film. This film is different in that it took me almost a year to physically be able to make this picture. I love what I do. I take great pride in what I do. And I can't do something halfway, three-quarters, nine-tenths. If I'm going to do something, I go all the way and I didn't know if I could do it, honestly. If I could find that kind of physical elegance and movement that the Samurai have. I look at Hiro [Hiroyuki Sanada] and Ken [Watanabe] and the natural grace of these actors. It was a year preparing not only physically but it was developing the character, because the transition that the character makes--I kept copious amounts of notes so I could remember, you know, for the training sequences, where Algren starts and where we end up. And it's one of those films...when I saw 'Lawrence of Arabia,' here I am, I haven't really found or made an epic film. And I knew what Ed [director Edward Zwick] was going for with this picture, and it was very ambitious on many levels, because here we want to deliver--we both love adventure films, and yet you're looking at this time period and his particular dedication to that history. Yet in the spirit of adventure and epic films, we're imbuing it with this wonderful story...how's this all going to work out? It took that amount of time to prepare. I don't make a film unless I feel that I have that kind of time. Even 'Jerry Maguire' before I started, every film I do there's a lot of preparation. And this one in particular because I had to study the American Indian War. I'm an American. I thought I knew about the American-Indian wars and that time period in our history, but I was blown away by how little I knew. Also, the Japanese history during that time period and a little earlier, how the country came to this moment, and also I revisited the Civil War again for myself, just because Algren had lived through that time period and I had collected a small library. So I needed that kind of time to absorb the film and to work with Ed and Marshall [Herskovitz] and I enjoyed it. I loved working with Ed Zwick...Bright, sensitive artist. So it was pleasurable for me. When I work on something I'm in that fortunate position--I remember as a young actor, I thought, 'I'm used to hard work, I can bus tables, I can wait, I can wait on tables.' And I've never made a film that I didn't believe in...however the picture turns out, I've always given everything to it. That's kind of how I approach life. I can't help it. There's no part-way with me on anything in any area of my life." His hard work and philosophy is apparent in the details of this film.

Cruise goes on to say this about his fascination with the Japanese culture: "When I go to Japan, it's so enigmatic to me. It's different. The culture is different. I don't think anyone who has been to Japan or seen pictures of Japan, when I was a child, we didn't have the internet...I've just been absolutely fascinated and in awe of the culture. I find it aesthetic and the people fascinating. I wanted to know more, more about their history, how they lived, how they got to where they are today. That small island, and when you study the Sword, that is the greatest sword ever made in the history of this world, and the art of it. It is both a powerful weapon yet it's aesthetically superb. The balance, the engineering, they didn't have thermodynamics then, so when they were forging it, they would hold it up, heat up to the rising sun or the setting sun for temperature. And they knew at that point it was ready to pound and they'd fold it over and over. It's an amazing culture, but I've always been fascinated by that. One of the great things about being an actor is that I get to travel to these places. I get to learn about the people and that is the most enjoyable thing for me. To learn about the history of people and how people live and their daily lives. Also, you find a common ground. Even though the language is different and the culture is different - you find that common ground of joy, happiness, pain. And the humanity, and it really gives you a sense of hope. We're all in this thing together here, you know. So we've got to help each other out and I really enjoy that." There's also the Japanese Bushido philosophy that involves loyalty, fortitude, courage, and sacrifice that Cruise feels close to: "Those values are very important to me, very important to me. I think it's important to have in life. I look at the Samurai because they were the artists of their time. They were educated. Their main focus and they were actually, they were educated to be leaders and to lead and actually help people. And what I think struck me when I read Bushido is compassion . . . If there's no one there to help go out and find someone, to help--that hit me, because I try to lead my life like that. I think it's important. Helping someone and seeing them do better in life is the most gratifying thing in the world. And having a film where that's the value, that's what the movie's about, I connect in a very compassionate and deep way to the code of Samurai." Is there anything that surprised Cruise about the Japanese culture? Cruise: I always suspected that 'hai' did not always mean yes. You know, when they say hai, it does not always mean yes. It was an acknowledgement, but it didn't necessarily mean they agreed with me. I think that I was fascinated by the Samurai sword. There were just so many things that surprised me and engaged me. When I went to Japan, I used to go walking in the rain at night when we landed because I was jetlagged. And all the lights at night, and I saw the businessmen coming out of their meals at 2:00 in the morning. And I just felt that I wanted to get inside the culture and I feel like I really had a very good, a greater understanding from studying their history and where they are now. But I think that--I wouldn't say I was surprised. I was excited and pleased to see how much we had in common."

When recommending "The Last Samurai" what do you want audiences to know? Cruise: "Well, what I'd like them to know, that each audience walks away with an experience from the movie, whether it's a thrill ride or an epic or a romance or a thriller. I'd like them to have that feeling. They're gonna go see a different world in the same way that I did as a kid. When I go to a picture, I'm a great audience because I love movies and this movie is going to take you to a different place, a different time. Yet it's still, you realize, what I realized when I was reading not so much the history, but when I was reading diaries from people, because history books sometimes are just nice fiction. It's just good fiction, but when you start reading diaries of the Civil War or during the American Indian wars, people who had been to Japan, their personal diaries that weren't altered for social benefit. You can't help but connect. You can see yourself at times, what it's like--seeing it through their eyes. And I want them to know that that's available to them. That that's available and they're going to go to a time and it is authentic, even though the story is fiction. But the time frame in which it takes place and the humanity in the picture is real."

Cruise had to get in excellent shape for his role, and said this about the changes his body underwent: "I couldn't touch my toes when I started out. I bent down and I couldn't get my hands past my knees--with all the training and stunts that I'd done before, and I've done quite a bit of stunts. I knew that the way that I would have to move, just carrying the armor. You have to think, 50 pounds of armor doesn't seem so much but when you start lowering your center of gravity and bending your knees, it's a tremendous amount of pressure on the knees, the groin, the hamstrings. So I put on 25 pounds for the picture. I was 25 pounds of muscle heavier than I am right now. I worked with a great stunt coordinator, Nick Powell who built me up very slowly; he did all kinds of, actually Chinese sword work to build up my forearms and my shoulders in order to make that movement [rotates his arms around], the rotation. A lot of stretching and just training, doing the sequences, building it up and learning moves and working, working, working, working on it, the same Algren did in the training. I spent a year being able to do that. Now the Kata, there's a sunset shot in the movie where I do the Kata and it looks so easy. You're going: 'Oh, I can do that.' I mean the balance. I would do it and I'd be moving around. The balance was something. It took a lot of time for me to be able to do that and to move. There are certain things. When I'm working on a character and just start finding how a character moves, the amount of emotional weight he had at the beginning of the picture, and then as the film goes on, how he just moves differently. The first time when he moves in the village, and then by the end of the movie there's a grace that I was going for, where I was able to move in a different way. It took a lot of training and there was a lot of help I received and the guys that I worked with were excellent. I'm more concerned about not hurting someone else because when you're moving those swords, even though at times they weren't razor sharp but they could still cut your finger off at the speed we were traveling and those swords coming in the way they were. And I have to say that the guys I worked with were excellent. The beating that I get in the rain from Hiro, just a thrashing, you can't really tell, but it was very unstable ground, rain. He was extraordinary in that because he was bringing that sword just right there. He was very nervous about hurting me. So I said: 'Look, don't worry, don't worry. I'm okay.' He never hit me with that sword." It's shocking to hear that there weren't any injures when you see the complexity of the sword fighting. The swords are like works of moving art. Cruise later mentioned he kept one of them but has it lock away because it's so sharp.

He then went on to talk about the process in which he selects roles and how that process has evolved over the course of his career. Cruise: "In the beginning, when I started out, you know, you just want to work in the beginning. And you don't know if you are going to work. But really, after T.A.P.S., I had an extraordinary experience...But what I do is I just take my time and look at the material that is available, because I want to work. I love what I do. I have always really just thought...I read something and I just have an immediate response to it as an audience. Something I go, 'Wow, this is a great story.' Or 'This is a great character. I want to play; I want to go on that journey.' And I look for something that I feel is going to be challenging to me and an experience that I can learn from, that I can contribute to. And I look at the group that I am working with...That's really how I choose it, and what I personally respond to. And then I just jump from there. I don't take a lot of time deciding if I am going to do something...I know pretty quickly and I make very quick decisions when I read something. When I work, I work very hard. So I look to work with people who have that level of dedication, and I depend on that from everyone, from the director, to my crews that I work with. I work with, a lot of times, the same crews. And I depend on that because they help create that kind of environment that I need to work in. That I think is an ideal scene for an artist and for a film to get made. I always look, you know, when I decide to do something. I say 'Okay, what is the ideal scene? How can we best accomplish what we all want to accomplish with this film?' and then I kind of work backwards from there. As a producer I do that, but also as an actor."

When asked how he feels about the obligation of promoting films and the Oscar buzz "The Last Samurai" is receiving, he responds with, "I always feel a responsibility to promote a film, and I am just going to promote this film. I haven't opened any shopping malls...but I may. [Laughs] I do believe, like a record album, that every film has its audience. And I have made very diverse films, from 'Born on the 4th of July,' to 'Interview with The Vampire,' because as an audience I enjoy different types of movies. 'Magnolia,' even 'Rain Man,' when we were making that...you look at this movie now, and I'm very, very proud of this film, [but] you never know how a movie is going to turn out. But I'll travel around and I'll talk about the movie and do what I can to support it. So much of my life has gone into my films and I want people who want to see the movie to go see the movie. I know what it takes to make a film, and the responsibility. When I make a film, I feel responsible. The studio allows me the freedoms that I have because they know I take full responsibility for what I do. I decided to make this film. They have given me the room to make it and I've made it within certain boundaries. They allow me some breathing room. If I need extra days sometimes, we'll go through it, but they know I am very tough on myself and as a producer, I'm tough on the films, but you know when you need something you need it. And because of that, I feel a responsible to get the studio their money back, hopefully. But even more than that, I want people to see the movies. I don't make movies so they will sit on shelves. I'm very proud of what I do. Do I have any limitations? I don't know. Things that I won't do? I guess yeah, there are some things. Nothing really comes to mind at this moment but I'm sure there are some things."

Currently Cruise is filming with Michael Mann, and said this about the so called "Collateral" title: "It's Michael Mann Untitled. We're not sure about Collateral. So I don't know if it's going to be Collateral, I don't know what it's going to be. Michael is going to decide. Michael Mann, you know, I've been so fortunate to go from Ed Zwick to Michael Mann, he's a great guy and he's a great filmmaker. He's a great filmmaker. Going from Ed, who is a great filmmaker, to Michael Mann, who is a great filmmaker, both, you know, these gentlemen are on top of their game, they have total command of what they do and these two pictures couldn't be more different and unique in their characters, so I, you know when I start out I was thinking--you're thinking you're never going to work again or will I work and what's going to happen and I'm having a blast. I'm really having a blast." Are you a villain in this film? Cruise responds, "He's a contract hitman. That's pretty bad."

When Cruise is asked if there will be another installment of Mission Impossible he says, "We're still working on the script...Mission is always tough to do. It's just...That's the challenge of it. And if I don't feel I can do it...No. I hope I can because I like producing it. They are just fun to produce."

At the end of the press conference everyone rushed the stage to get tape recorders and a chance for an autograph. Out of all the press days I've attended this was the craziest I've ever seen. Tom Cruise brings out the frenzy even in journalists.

Gold Trumpet

I'm not surprised I was indifferent to most of it. The film is quite romantic in objectivity to the east, but for the first half of the movie, I was able to enjoy some scenes, lightly get involved in others and even find one scene to be magnificent. The magnificent scene was where Cruise tests the hardness of a soldier to being threatened with death by shooting at him. The scene was personally shocking for me because of the casualness that began the scene and the scary realism that ended it. Thing is, a scene in great realism like that never came again. The rest was a slow decline through the rigurs of the unbearable romance novel where very little logic was evident (likely Cruise's character would go to Japan? Be accepted into the life of the samuari that way?) and drama was cheap and easy (Japanese cultural understanding in such easy dialogue? Cruise given so many scenes of glory?). By the end, the movie was just unbearable in how far it was straying from all grounds so that it could give Cruise so much acclaim. I ended up angry. The director of this film also directed Legends of the Fall, a movie that actually went twenty miles further into the same disaster. A minor relief for this film, I guess.

But, to Cruise. I don't think he was good at all. The writing certainly undermined any chance for him to really explore the character, but his approach seemed to fit the writing. His level of physical transformation is that he grew a beard but his outbursts, talk and mannerisms are him in any other starring role requiring the same things. He never becomes the emotionally crippled soldier. He is the movie star in this role where he plays every situation to how it best suits how he wants to be perceived as a star. For the pre Japan scenes in which he is to convey drunkeness, he merely acts as drunk and obnoxious as he can. When he is training the soldiers, he becomes quite hard and disciplined but still supposebly the same crippled man. When he goes to the village, he is quiet, observant, and very relaxed in standing up to others, but again the same crippled man before transformation. For none of these situations, does he feel to be carrying the same person with him. He is the movie star wanting to make the audience feel every emotion they can for him. The rule is by the end of the picture, the audience must love him and want see his next movie. 'Collateral' comes out in 2004. See ya then.

modage

i was really looking forward to this.  and today in the washington post i read a review that just fucking slammed it, and now not so much.

'The Last Samurai' Rides Lamely Into the Sunrise
"...That doesn't stop Zwick. Nothing stops Zwick. He's like General MacArthur returning. He marches through everything, immune to subtlety, nuance, sense of appropriateness. So he's got Tom Cruise, as earnest and hopeless as the day is long, as both Toshiro Mifune and Kevin Costner. And to make this travesty worse, you can feel the handsome little guy "acting" with every fiber of his being. It's kind of unsettling. He resembles Sean Penn in "I Am Sam," except he seems to be shouting "I am Samurai." His face is a perpetual mask of scorn, his body a knot of anxiety, his eyes cranked down to laser glare. He's a poster boy for the concept of "trying too hard." He's not a hero, he's the guy at the party who's so intense you want him to stay away."


that shit is harsh.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Banky

i thought this movie rocked

Ebert said that the ending swayed from the movies direction but i thought that it stayed in line and was really good,  I wonder what he would rather have?

Gamblour.

Quote from: The Gold TrumpetThe magnificent scene was where Cruise tests the hardness of a soldier to being threatened with death by shooting at him. The scene was personally shocking for me because of the casualness that began the scene and the scary realism that ended it.
Well, the thing about this scene is that it is basically a vamped up version of the one in Glory, where Matthew Broderick fires in the air next to a soldier as he tries to frantically reload his weapon, but can't, to ultimately prove the point that the soldiers aren't ready, like in the Last Samurai. So, I thought it was still a good scene, but the director needs to learn to write new material.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet
But, to Cruise. I don't think he was good at all. The writing certainly undermined any chance for him to really explore the character, but his approach seemed to fit the writing. His level of physical transformation is that he grew a beard but his outbursts, talk and mannerisms are him in any other starring role requiring the same things. He never becomes the emotionally crippled soldier. He is the movie star in this role where he plays every situation to how it best suits how he wants to be perceived as a star. For the pre Japan scenes in which he is to convey drunkeness, he merely acts as drunk and obnoxious as he can. When he is training the soldiers, he becomes quite hard and disciplined but still supposebly the same crippled man. When he goes to the village, he is quiet, observant, and very relaxed in standing up to others, but again the same crippled man before transformation. For none of these situations, does he feel to be carrying the same person with him. He is the movie star wanting to make the audience feel every emotion they can for him. The rule is by the end of the picture, the audience must love him and want see his next movie. 'Collateral' comes out in 2004. See ya then.
Very insightful stuff, I really agree with you on this. The movie was really lacking, I don't see why critics eat this stuff up. Although, I do think the action scenes were really amazing, especially Cruise's first encounter with the samurai, very incredible, I liked see Katsumoto's reaction to this injured man fighting off his best warriors.
WWPTAD?

Pas

I tought the movie was lame. It was Braveheart without the drama and the care for any character whatsoever. It was long yet nothing happened for the most part. The fight scenes weren't even cool for the most part. And the Samurais talked and acted like americans pretending to be japanese. Weak.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: Gamblor: PrinceofDarkness
Quote from: The Gold TrumpetThe magnificent scene was where Cruise tests the hardness of a soldier to being threatened with death by shooting at him. The scene was personally shocking for me because of the casualness that began the scene and the scary realism that ended it.

Well, the thing about this scene is that it is basically a vamped up version of the one in Glory, where Matthew Broderick fires in the air next to a soldier as he tries to frantically reload his weapon, but can't, to ultimately prove the point that the soldiers aren't ready, like in the Last Samurai. So, I thought it was still a good scene, but the director needs to learn to write new material.

I didn't realize that. Its been around 6 years since I've seen Glory. I think the writer of the film was the guy who wrote Gladiator, but a borrowed scene nonetheless.

Finn

I wasn't too impressed with it myself. I thought it went on too long and it just reminded me of a typical, big hollywood movie. Cruise is good here, but not great. I thought the last 30 minutes was the best thing out of the whole movie.
Typical US Mother: "Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words."

Gamblour.

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet
I didn't realize that. Its been around 6 years since I've seen Glory. I think the writer of the film was the guy who wrote Gladiator, but a borrowed scene nonetheless.

Just to clarify, Zwick is credited with writing the script too.
WWPTAD?

NEON MERCURY

Quote from: NEON MERCURY..after carefull atention/reasonong/experience with films ..anfd such ..NEON MERCURY has deemed this film a bust..watch it will be as much as i think it's col to see tom cruise dress and samuri gear and prance around in battle scenes the more redicualous this seems ..iat first i thought it wqas col but now   it LOOKS ABSOLUTELY SILLY...i hope bvased on the trailer i have seen this film doesm't receive well b/c it shouldn't its really cheesy looking..watch the trailer again and HONESLTLYn try not to laugh at it....I mean come on.. :roll: .tom cruise as a samuria?>>>

.damn...i am  so right on about this.....

*****NNOTE TO BOARDMENNMBERS:.......if you are curious as to wether or nno tto spennnd your hard earned money on a film  that you desperately wannted to see by raking your grannndmothers's yard and excitedly walking down the muliplex in hopes of seeing a "good" film......STOP......NOW and PM me annnd i will let you know if you should see the ffilm in questioonnn.....save that hard earnewd money for......(thsi wonnn't cost you for this info).....SAVE IT FOR 21 GRAMS....even thoough it doesnnn't seem to "actiony"...i think you kids will enjoy it.....ta ta .... :wink:

picolas

you must be the first person in internet history to purposefully develop a stutter.

NEON MERCURY

Quote from: picolasyou must be the first person in internet history to purposefully develop a stutter.

.hahahhaa.....good point ......

here's the real scoup.....on my keyboard the "nnnn" and the "Ooo" buttonns are phucked up...if i tap it once it keeps acting like i hit it more than onnce ..but i am to lazy to go back and correct it

Cecil

that VO at the end was really dumb "and so, blah blah blah"

i swear when the camera was pulling back, i was thinking "and so, tom cruise and that oriental fella agreed to be friends..." and the the narrator actually said "and so..." sigh

Banky

man people are saying some kinda harsh shit about this film