When I come to this garden created by my ancestors, I remember how and these flowers, all of us die. Feel life in every breath, in every cup of tea, in every life we take away.
Samurai theme has always fascinated me. I love Kurosawa’s movies, and not just him. My friends gave a very good assessment of this film. So I decided to take a look, even though it was long. I don’t like movies for two and a half hours or more. But I definitely liked this one.
The action takes place in Japan 70-ies of the nineteenth century. Captain Nathan Algren, a respected American military officer, is hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the first army of the Land of the Rising Sun in the modern art of warfare. The emperor is trying to eradicate the ancient samurai warriors, preparing for a more pro-Western government policy.
After this film, I finally realized that in the cinema began to develop quite a successful genre. Films about enslaved peoples. So far, the most successful of what I saw was “Dancing with Wolves”, well, of the latter, the much acclaimed “Avatar”.
Only I understood that the samurai are Indians, only with the only difference that they were exterminated by the same natives of the country, only pursuing Western politics, and not the Yankees. Whatever the country, whatever its development, there are always eternal ideals and values, and it is easier to say, folk traditions are faced with modernization. This process was shown very well by Charles Chaplin in the film “New Times”.
So I have to say that the film is quite relevant. After all, humanity has faced, is facing and will face the problem of remembering its history. And in the film, I think it is very well shown. And it’s still pretty beautiful.
But still, I have to admit that the final battle I did not like much, although I was counting on it. I like more tactical fights, like the third Lord of the Rings. What's the matter here? Everything is mixed up on the battlefield, people, horses. Everything.
I would also like to say that, in my opinion, the character of the Japanese people is not very correctly shown. They are more violent than shown in this film. For them, honor is above all, and here they showed somehow not clear. And the Emperor himself does not cause any sense of sublimity.
While watching, he caught himself thinking that it was the Japanese equivalent of Seven Years in Tibet, only instead of Pitt Cruz, and instead of Tibet, Japan. All the motives are similar, and both films belong to a cohort of films about the enslavement of weaker peoples.
"The Last Samurai", the same Western, the same time, only other scenery. And it must be said, more beautiful than the desert cities of America of that time. I like pistol duels a lot more than samurai swords. Maybe that’s why I like “For a Pump of Dollars” more than “Bodyguard.” Here you can still draw a lot of parallels, comparing genres and styles, but still have to admit that Civic chose an unusual location for his film, although, judging by his work, he always liked this theme.
I also liked the way Tom Cruise played. I really liked the episode when the spiritual elevation of his hero was shown. Rebirth from an ordinary drunkard into a spiritually saturated samurai. He demonstrated everything very well. Although, after all, from the beginning I did not like his character very much, but in the end he caused only respect, as in most similar films. Summary: the film is very spectacular, somewhat confused, especially at the end of the film, but, nevertheless, very significant. Especially on the subject. But all these sophisticated special effects do not prevent you from catching the main meaning of the film – all nations, no matter what progress, always need to honor their history, by all means, but also not forget about modernization. Although it sounds a little silly, all peoples have traditions without exception, and we must remember them.
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