sure, this movie came out quite some time ago, but we borrowed it from our friend becky (sanger girls volleyball...serving up fire water!). i watched it this afternoon.
here's my review:
Today I watched, Dances with Samurai, err, I mean, The Last Samurai
Parallels to Dances with wolves:
Loved the Indians, drew pictures in his journal
Woman (love interest) is wife of dead brother of main enemy. Okay, in dances with wolves it was the wife of his best friend.
The American faded off into the distance….
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thoughts:
Really weak moment, tom fighting guy in the rain, won’t stay down. Very, very cliché. See, tom has honor too. Feel bad for tom. Win the respect of the people tom, win it.
Tom learns to clear his mind. Despite just having it handed to him on 3 and 5 moves, tom now beats sword instructor. earn respect tom, earn it.
Action: good. Sword fight scene with the ninjas was top notch. I even enjoyed tom kicking a table at some guy Jackie chan style.
“after living with those savages I can only imagine” &”what is it about your own people you hate so much?” – come on, you don’t even try to present the bad military guy as human. Just make him such a stereotype that no one will agree. Bad form.
see tom kill bad military guy in final battle. Fulfill cliché tom, fulfill.
See Japanese military guys feel bad for shooting. See them stop. See samurai die with honor.
Concluding thoughts:
Interesting parallels to today: the struggle of westernization and the rest of the world. Really, on many fronts this is what islam is struggling with within itself, as well as with the Western world.
Were we supposed to cheer when the emperor turned down the treaty? It seemed like it was set up as that sort of moment.
I’m glad tom never got with the love interest. Well, it’s sort of alluded to at the end, but at least we didn’t have to endure it. I really do think it would have been dishonoring.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It had it’s bad moments, but was generally enjoyable. The battle scenes were well done, and moving.
1 comment:
Precisely... it was too close... plagarism? Do you remember at the end of Dances With Wolvesm that it faded out with a lament of the passing of the Plains Indians and their horse culture? My friend turned to me and said, "Right! And, who brought the horses to America in the first place?"
Great Review.
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