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.
Tom Cruise
Nathan Algren
Ken Watanabe
Moritsugu Katsumoto
Timothy Spall
Simon Graham
Tony Goldwyn
Col. Benjamin Bagley
Hiroyuki Sanada
Ujio
Koyuki
Taka
Shin Koyamada
Nobutada
Billy Connolly
Zebulon Gant
Togo Igawa
General Hasegawa
Shichinosuke Nakamura
Emperor Meiji
Masato Harada
Omura
William Atherton
Winchester Rep
Chad Lindberg
Winchester Rep Assistant
Scott Wilson
Ambassador Swanbeck
Ray Godshall Sr.
Convention Hall Attendee
Masashi Odate
Omura's Companion
John Koyama
Omura's Bodyguard
Satoshi Nikaido
N.C.O.
Shintaro Wada
Young Recruit
Shun Sugata
Nakao
Sosuke Ikematsu
Higen
Aoi Minato
Magojiro
Seizō Fukumoto
Silent Samurai
Shoji Yoshihara
Sword Master
Kosaburo Nomura IV
Kyogen Player #1
Takashi Noguchi
Kyogen Player #2
Noguchi Takayuki
Kyogen Player #3
Sven Toorvald
Omura's Secretary
Yuki Matsuzaki
Soldier in Street #1
Mitsuyuki Oishi
Soldier in Street #2
Jiro Wada
Soldier in Street #3
Hiroshi Watanabe
Guard
Yusuke Myochin
Sword Master's Assistant
Hiroaki Amano
Samurai Ensemble
Kenta Daibo
Samurai Ensemble
Koji Fujii
Samurai Ensemble
Makoto Hashiba
Samurai Ensemble
Shimpei Horinouchi
Samurai Ensemble
Takashi Kora
Samurai Ensemble
Shane Kosugi
Samurai Ensemble
Takeshi Maya
Samurai Ensemble
Seiji Morita
Samurai Ensemble
Lee Murayama
Samurai Ensemble
Takeru Shimizu
Samurai Ensemble
Shinji Suzuki
Samurai Ensemble
Hisao Takeda
Samurai Ensemble
Ryoichiro Yonekura
Samurai Ensemble
Ryoichi Noguchi
Samurai Ensemble
Director, Screenplay
Edward Zwick
Screenplay
Marshall Herskovitz
Screenplay, Story
John Logan
November 10, 2016
Edward Zwick's "The Last Samurai" is about two warriors whose cultures make them aliens, but whose values make them comrades. The battle scenes are stirring and elegantly mounted, but they are less about who wins than about what can be proven by dying. Beautifully designed, intelligently written, acted with conviction, it's an uncommonly thoughtful epic. Its power is compromised only by an ending that sheepishly backs away from what the film is really about.
Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe co-star, as a shabby Civil War veteran and a proud samurai warrior. Cruise plays Nathan Algren, a war hero who now drifts and drinks too much, with no purpose in life. He's hired by Americans who are supplying mercenaries to train an army for the Japanese emperor, who wants to move his country into the modern world and is faced with a samurai rebellion.
The role of the samurai leader Katsumoto (Watanabe) is complex; he is fighting against the emperor's men, but out of loyalty to the tradition the emperor represents, he would sacrifice his life in an instant, he says, if the emperor requested it. But Japan has been seized with a fever to shake off its medieval ways and copy the West, and the West sees money to be made in the transition: Representatives from the Remington arms company are filling big contracts for weapons, and the U.S. Embassy is a clearinghouse for lucrative trade arrangements.
Into this cauldron Algren descends as a cynic. He is told the samurai are "savages with bows and arrows," but sees that the American advisers have done a poor job of training the modernized Japanese army to fight them. Leading his untried troops into battle, he is captured and faces death -- but is spared by a word from Katsumoto, who returns him as a prisoner to the village of his son.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$140,000,000.00
Revenue:
$456,800,000.00