Went and saw opening night. What a hoot. _Shogun_ meets _Dances with Wolves_? (Dunno, maybe some outtakes in the flashback scenes?) Paid full price - 18$US for two. And damn worth every penny - for the comedy. I'm sure intended as a serious film and I'm damn sure when opens in the Japanese market will be very popular - as an hilarious screamer. Probably intended as a serious drama with no japanese technical advisor and the japanese actors taking the american producers (including the leading man) for every penny if they thought about it at all. I'll try not to enter spoilers. The basic plot is our hero - a disipated american civil war vet - is hired along with his partner (who is let go early on in the film) by the 'meiji restoration' crew to train their modern army who are battling the 'old' traditional samurai. Bows and swords -vs- modern firearms (quite ignoring the fact that both the bakafu and the insurgentes purchased modern firearms from the same american sources). Our hero travels to nippon where he trains the 'modern' army of conscripts, is forced into battle -"they are not ready" - by the evil americans, and is captured by the 'noble savages' where he is enlightened and finally fights on the side of the "good guys" - with sword and bow against modern firearms including howitzers and gatling guns (despite the fact that such modern weapons of mass destruction would not have been provided by the Ami's and despite the fact the belt fed cartridge machine guns were offered to the opposing side of the hero the prior decade by the french). Observe cherry blossoms fall for weeks if not months. Observe our hero learn akido 70 or so years before it was invented. View a vast selection of traditional armor from centuries past all worn by the same clan in the same battle at the same time. See our hero learn enough kendo to draw a match with the daiymo's swordmaster in a matter of weeks. Titter as the samurai lady cowers while her pre-teen son defends against a ninja warrior - and see ninjas alive and well long after they had been long since eradicated. See the samurai lady dishonor herself - not just by the kiss of our hero especially after comments about him smelling like a pig earlier but from dressing him in the armor of her dead husband (whom he killed) minus the helmet and face mask (would have spoiled the hair and the face shots if our hero had worn those bits). Glory in the sendup to _Charge of the Light Brigade_ (note: I think it was the Heavy that did that charge then and rather elsewhere, but details). See a new sword made and then desecrated by its maker as a moto is enscribed on of all things the blade itself (the blade is the soul of bushido). See the daiymo without helmet and face mask as well (more face shots for the japanese soap opera star sans helmet and mask for similar reasons as our hero) and see the bakafu army bow instead of simply and as a matter of course killing the gaijin (who doesn't think of stomping cockroaches when seen?). Watch the Meiji Revolution be resolved in about a year instead of about a decade. Witness Emperor Meiji as a teenage idiot but in control. (Shudder at the probably unintentional tribute to japanese militarism that gave us Tojo and WW-II.) It is well worth the money. The final battle I think is second only to the hand grenades down the ventilator shafts scene from _The Dirty Dozen_ - Jim Brown (the american style football star not the Al Sharpton role model singer) - as a "red blooded american male tear jerker".25 responses total.
Guess I'll have to see this one. (Not that I'd catch all the details mentioned above.) BTW, it's my understanding that both the Heavy Brigade and the Light Brigade attacked the day, one after the other. Lord Tennyson wrote about both of them, too.
Methinks pvn thinks he knows japanese history, adn in fact he is just as muddled as the rest of us. You don't want any writing on the sword? We are talking 19th century here, not 16th . Things change. Styles and customs change, even among the Samurai. What was once prohibited is now customary. in other words, do not judge the time period int eh movie with a time period from 300 years earlier. Teh shigunate was gone, the emperor once morer had nominal control of teh country instead of being a captive. Sure there were mistakes, but remember, this was not supposed to be historically accurate, it is a mood peice designed to attach to your feelings. Could he become a sword master in a mtter of weeks? no, but as a cavalry officer, he already had some ability with the sword. Did the americans force him to battle with unready troops? No, the idiot political minister whose train was attacked did. Wahts wrong with the Gatling guns? Modern weaponry would not have been offered to the japanese? Why not? American arms dealers have always been willing to sell their weapons, and the government didn't really oppose it as much in the 19th century as they did in the 20th. And those belt fed French machine gunswere near worthless.
Wait, you're saying pvn doesn't know as much as he thinks he does??! Next you'll be telling me rcurl isn't actually omniscient!!!1!!1one!!
With all of the unintentionally-funny-because-they-got-the-little-things-wrong comedy the Japanese have given us over the years, isn't it about time we began returning the favor?
was godzilla in it?
This response has been erased.
Today perhaps, but up until some point in history, swordsmanship among cavalry officers was not just for show, it was the actual mode of combat.
This response has been erased.
I don't think that's quite right, tod. Up to the Civil War, cavalry was armed with swords and pistols. After the Civil War, they added rifles and started fighting as mounted infantry, riding horses to the battle and then dismounting to fight.
This response has been erased.
Theat doesn't mean it wasn't a required course at the academy. swordplay was very popular among most officers up until teh late 19th century. Was he a skilled swordsman? Probably not int he samer category as some of the samurai, but many samurai were not as skilled as you may think. It takes very little training to cut off the head of a peasant who is so scared to death of you that he shakes when holding a gun.
The samurai, around the time pictured, spent several hours a day practicing. Serious stuff, perhaps only matched by the best sword-fighting schools in Europe.
The Battle of the Little Big Horn was in the summer of 1876, twelve years after the Civil War, by which time the cavalry was really mounted infantry. If _The Last Samurai_ is placed before 1876, references to that battle are either an anachronism or another error. Take your pick. ;)
/listens to the SCA hearts going all a-twitter
This response has been erased.
Well, it worked in the context of the movie, whether or not it could have happened. (I mean, sheesh, I still think they gave him the special bullet-repelling armor or something -- either a lot more samurai should have lived through that charge, or he should have fallen over after his friend's big scene, dead as a doornail.) I didn't particularly *like* having to deal with his viewpoint character (as I mentioned above) but if he had to be there, you knew what the cliches would be.
This response has been erased.
In most period-piece historical dramas I never even get around to worrying about the technical details of swordplay or armor details if I can't get past the "WHERE does he get STYLING GEL in 19th-century Japan?" question..
reduced dog intestines.
processed by sensitive texans?
The saber was still a focus of training in the American Army until just before WWII. Patton even designed a new sword (for armor) between the WWI and WWII./
Guys and gals: GET A GRIP!!! For crying out loud, it's a movie. If you want authenticity, read some archaelogy and/or history. It's meant to be entertainment, not education.
True. :) Some might find http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/features/regimental/cavalry.cf m of interest, though.
This response has been erased.
"The Federal Volunteer cavalrymen were armed with sabers and revolvers. Initially, some carried carbines or rifles. But as the war progressed, the carbine became the standard issued weapon. A light, curved, cavalry saber eventually replaced the heavier, straight, Prussian type saber. Common models of revolvers carried were percussion Army or Navy model, or a Remington." I never claimed that cavalrymen were the equal of Cyrano or D'Artagnan, but they did know which end of the sabre to hold.
You have several choices: