The Last Samurai Reflection Essay PDF

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Julia Ainbinder 02/18/ The Last Samurai ReflectionThe Last Samurai was a powerful, intense, violent, and heartfelt film. Tom Cruise reports as Captain Nathan Algren, a military officer working for the Emperor of Japan in training the country’s army in modern warfare. The army is set on putting an en...

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Julia Ainbinder 02/18/15 The Last Samurai Reflection The Last Samurai was a powerful, intense, violent, and heartfelt film. Tom Cruise reports as Captain Nathan Algren, a military officer working for the Emperor of Japan in training the country’s army in modern warfare. The army is set on putting an end to samurai culture because they have rejected Westernizing government policy. An attack by the samurais leaves Algren to be captured by the samurai leader, Katsumoto, and taken as a prisoner of war. Amongst the samurais, Algren’s perspective of the dying culture is changed. For someone who is fairly unfamiliar with the samurai culture, I found the film to be a nice entry-way into their world. Though I know the film was not entirely historically accurate in terms of the plot, the samurai culture was well-portrayed. Algren is exposed to the Japanese culture and is surprised by the amount of honor and bravery the samurais possess. This new experience is very different from his past of working with American soldiers. The film did a nice job of comparing and contrasting the two cultures. While the attitude of the Japanese is different than that of American soldiers, the film brought me to draw a parallel between my feelings for those affected in both battles. I felt empathy for the Native Americans earlier in the film as well as the samurai later on. After building relationships with the characters emotionally, Algren, as well as the audience, is forced to choose between the up and coming Westernized civilization in Japan and the fading group of samurai. There was a lot of emotion in the film, which helped me to understand the history better. In terms of acting, the fight scenes were magnificent. They were engaging and realistic. The wooden sword fight in the rain was especially well-done. Algren’s performance was so brutal that I could really feel the pain his character was going through, not just during the fight but with the entire experience in general. Overall, I found the film to be very engaging and a good look at the cultures of several groups of people.

Captain Nathan Algren, a respected American military officer hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the art of modern warfare finds himself unexpectedly impressed and influenced by his encounters with the Samurai samurai reject the Westernizing policy and even refuse firearms Katsumoto samurai leader mixed reviews great film but not historically accurate the samurais are victimized… really just trying to force king to go to war just so they had something to do great fight scenes, wooden sword fight in the rain tom cruise did a good job, gets the pain the character goes through samurai culture.. different than american, honor interactions between tom cruise and Katsumoto talk about general custer.. tom thinks hes a fool, kats thinks hes an unbelievably brave person last fight scene. great. but not historically accurate. really just got slaughtered. title. suggests tom is the last samurai.. wrong. but it’s plural so its okay japanese culture

tom becomes prisoner of war in japan amongst samurais in 1800s dying culture/species about a white guy that learns how the samurai culture is. been a soldier his whole life and learns he has a heart...