A satisfying war epic
It’s been quite long since I watched a proper war film and even if I did, got satisfied with it. ‘The Last Samurai’ fit the bill perfectly. It in fact exceeded my expectations. This along with ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ was in my wish list for quite a long time. As ‘Seven Years in Tibet’, I thought this movie which features a white man in foreign land, would be of same type too. But there were some really great moments which had me hooked to the film for the entire duration.
Don’t know why, but throughout the movie I was reminded of ‘Blood Diamond’ but only after watching the movie I got to know that ‘Blood Diamond’ too is by same director. I guess the director is really good at making films with a white western guy in non-western world. Even though I don’t exactly remember ‘Blood Diamond’, that too was fine film. A proper commercial film which involves brains too. Just like how ‘The Last Samurai’ was. But if I’ve scrutinize and pick one, I guess I’ll go with ‘Blood Diamond’. Even though ‘The Last Samurai’ too was equally good and entertaining.
The topmost trio consisting of Brad Pitt, Di Caprio and Tom Cruise, seem to have done a film each with this concept and its difficult to choose who emerges the winner because every time I see their hit films, I don’t get irritated by its mindlessness unlike top heroes masala flicks in Indian cinema, but only look at in awe of it, to see how well its crafted. This movie would have been even more lovely if one hasn’t been exposed to much art films, it’d have been a truly emotional epic. Wish I had watched it back in my college days. It’d have been lovely.
The best part about the film is that it doesn’t overdo and keeps it simple. Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) who repents because of the war atrocities which he committed is a man who’s resorted to alcohol. He goes to Japan for money and while trying to fight against Samurai’s, get brutally defeated and taken as a Prisoner of War to their village. He gets to know about their culture and way of life which changes his persona. Any film which takes this route, where we see rising of a man, this is the best part. It was so pleasant, as if a day in hill station without any plans. We feel as if it’d extend forever. Even though it doesn’t, the film doesn’t lose its tempo and makes us eager to know what’s next.
We have to be appreciative of the fact that Tom Cruise played second fiddle in the film. Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu (Ken Watanabe) is undeniably the hero of the film. Ken Watanabe is terrific. And thanks to the way we’re used to Nolan films. As soon as we see Ken Watanabe, it feels like a Nolan film. Such a sincere actor who gets overlooked so often. I feel like watching Nambiar when seeing him act. So mature and so calm.
There has been criticism about historical inaccuracy of the film. But that’s not really a point here because whatever we see is convincing and the screenplay is gripping. Action sequences were superbly choreographed. Guess one of it was an inspiration for the transformation fight in ‘Viswaroopam’. It works better in ‘Viswaroopam’ than here but original is original anyways. Tom Cruise too is convincing but that mainly has to do with slick editing and terrific cinematography techniques. Music needless to say would always be terrific, especially when you give this much canvas to a man like Hans Zimmer. All in all, it was a truly satisfying film.
constantscribbles 