Tom Cruise was on Oprah last week promoting his latest movie,
[a few spoilers ahead, don't read if you don't want to know]
I have to say that this is the best movie I have seen in a long, long time. Seriously. It's a rare movie in which you can forget who the actors are, and just become totally involved in the characters and their story. That is what happened for me in this movie. You forget about Tom Cruise, and become involved with Nathan Algren and his evolution into an honorable and courageous man. The word samurai means "to serve" and this is what Algren is learning throughout the movie -- and eventually he must choose who it is that he will serve.
Director Edward Zwick has proven that movies don't need curse words or tasteless sex scenes to be a stunning epic masterpiece. The tenderness in the scene between Algren and Taka (Koyuki) when she is dressing him for battle is beautiful. We see mutual respect and admiration grow between Algren and Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) as Katsumoto helps Algren see that he can BE more than who he was.
The final battle scene between the Emperor's army and the Samurai is so incredibly moving. Ending with the japanese army on their knees bowing to the bodies of the samurai who lay dead on the battle field, the japanese soldiers finally recognize the courage and honor of the men they were sent to kill.
When Algren appears before the emperor at the end of the film, to present him with Katsumoto's sword, I am so fully enveloped in the characters involved that my heart breaks for Algrens character as he pleads with the emperor to realize that in his advisors striving for modernization, he cannot lose sight of his country's history and heritage. It is the past that has made them what they are today.
[end of spoilers]
What more can I say ... this movie was stunning and kept me engrossed for more than two hours. I'd recommend it to anyone. Excellent storytelling, gorgeous cinematography, and superb acting all around. I see several Oscars in this movie's future!
I saw this on Saturday. I didn't like it as much as you, but I had pretty high expectations. In my mind, all movies like this wind up getting compared to Braveheart, which is too harsh a measuring stick to use, but I can't help it. I liked some aspects - the lack of a sex scene between Tom Cruise and the girl was a nice touch. I fully expected them to start going at it, and I was pleasantly surprised when they only hinted at the budding romance. It was a little long for my taste, and a bit heavy-handed with the messages (taking off the top-knot comparison to scalping? Okay, we already drew the parallels between the samurai and the indians, don't treat us like morons). But overall worth a viewing. Much better than most of the movies of its kind.
Ah Braveheart ... that is a high standard!
I'm just thinking that there are so many crappy movies out there these days. Hardly any of them go the extra mile -- to make an interesting story with good characters. This movie did that. No it's not the greatest movie of all time. But its certainly the best thing out so far this year. (Thankfully, we have a LOTR coming out in a few days ... that will give us the other great movie of 2003!)
Oooh, I love the holiday layout Lacy. :) Very pretty.