I loved this film. Maybe it's because I practiced Asian martial arts for over a decade in my youth. Maybe it's because I saw in Bushido the same Spartan values and virtues that many of us now see in the SS. Maybe it's because the movie was a good depiction of the conflict of traditional vs modern that the Japanese felt so acutely, which remains with us. Maybe it's because we're not unlike the samurai or the men of Gondor-- a waning caste or breed facing long odds and extinction.

Or maybe I just like anything I've ever read about or based on Saigo Takamori, who was one bad motherfucker.

Anybody see this?

I enjoyed this film too. It was really a "nationalist" statement. Even though there is race treachery (on the part of Cruise), the message of the movie is strongly nationalist....keep your national heritage and traditions and do not allow traitors to sell your nation out from under you.

Most of the braindead lemmings will probably miss this and come away simply with the notion that "hey those samurai dudes were cool....", and go and get some stupid and inappropriate Japanese writing tatoos. :rolleyes:

Rob Roy-- absolutely great flick.


I enjoyed this film too. It was really a "nationalist" statement. Even though there is race treachery (on the part of Cruise), the message of the movie is strongly nationalist....keep your national heritage and traditions and do not allow traitors to sell your nation out from under you.

Most of the braindead lemmings will probably miss this and come away simply with the notion that "hey those samurai dudes were cool....", and go and get some stupid and inappropriate Japanese writing tatoos. :rolleyes:

Yes lemmings are clueless. You see karate schools full of people aping Jap culture ways. Often however if you scratch the surface, you will find a White person ignorant of our own cultural traditions.

In my case I practiced martial arts near daily for over a decade. (that kind of stopped when I got out of school and embarked on "life") I also studied Jap culture and history at length in college. I remember reading about Saigo Takamori and studying fascist Japan. I was strongly drawn to these things, and like a thunderbolt-- a moment of "satori" if you will-- I realized I had these things in my own racial-cultural traditions awaiting discovery. A few years of aikido post this insight just honed my sentiments in that regard.

Now look where I am. No accident.

Anyways, a good book on bushido is the one by Inazo Nitobe. It's regularly reprinted in paperback. Pick it up if you want a good introduction to warrior ethics. Or anybody who has read it please comment here on your impressions.

I can see Troy Southgate enjoyed this film as well:

http://www.rosenoire.org/reviews/last-samurai.php

I HAD very mixed feelings about this film. Indeed, Hollywood 'superstar' Tom Cruise hardly fills me with enthusiasm, but I must admit that this particular blockbuster left me reeling.

Set in nineteenth-century Japan and directed by Edward Zwick, the film revolves around an American Civil War veteran, Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), who is hired to turn an army of untrained peasants into a modern imperial force capable of putting down the samurai rebellion led by the indomitable Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe). When Algren finds himself captured by Katsumoto's men, however, his initial dislike of samurai culture eventually subsides and he falls in love with the whole warrior ethos that surrounds Japan's most legendary and enigmatic figures. Gradually, he learns how to fight and how to speak Japanese. Katsumoto, meanwhile, is loyal to the weak and indecisive emperor, Meiji, a man who lusts after modernisation and a closer relationship with his American allies.

But when he is invited to sit on a regional council to decide the future of Japan, a defiant Katsumoto is banned from the chamber after refusing to remove his sword. Thus begins the central theme of the film, a struggle between the old and the new Japan. Eventually, Algren helps the samurai leader escape from the city and to organise a final stand against the Emperor's own determination to squeeze the last breath from the upholders of Japan's traditional past. Katsumoto is inspired by Algren's tale of the 300 Spartans at Thermopalae who stood firm against over 5,000 Persians, and together they lead the samurai into a final battle against the imperial troops. The latter, with their new howlitzer cannon and machine guns, soon find themselves being slaughtered by the strategic prowess of their adversaries. But the samurai are finally overcome by a combination of numerical strength and modern technology, provoking a very moving scene in which Katsumoto takes his own life (seppuku) according to the ancient ways of the samurai. Algren, the sole survivor, later presents Katsumoto's sword to the Emperor, causing him to rethink his actions and ultimately reject the demands of the Americans. To summarise, then, this film is absolutely superb and brilliantly epitomises the ongoing war between Tradition and Modernity. It should be seen by anyone with an interest in the ancient and spiritual ways of humanity.

Its a great movie. And yeah, Saigo was definitely a bad motherfucker. :D

Very, very nationalistic and traditionalist message.

I loved this film. Maybe it's because I practiced Asian martial arts for over a decade in my youth. Maybe it's because I saw in Bushido the same Spartan values and virtues that many of us now see in the SS. Maybe it's because the movie was a good depiction of the conflict of traditional vs modern that the Japanese felt so acutely, which remains with us. Maybe it's because we're not unlike the samurai or the men of Gondor-- a waning caste or breed facing long odds and extinction.

Or maybe I just like anything I've ever read about or based on Saigo Takamori, who was one bad motherfucker.

Anybody see this?

I have this book of translated SS papers and they tell the story of Saigo in them. Yamato Tamashii, the Yamato spirit. Yamato is the ancient word for Japan. Thats what he had. Inspiring true story.

I can see Troy Southgate enjoyed this film as well:

.

I thought the movie was kinda lame. White guy Cruise is portrayed as a drunken loser and only until he is captured and initiated into gook Samurai culture does he straighten up. Also, I always find poofter Cruise a little laughable playing macho roles. Hell, the guy looks like a chick!

Dude, haven't seen the flick but I'll betcha the Japs would kinda like to believe the last Samurai was one of their fellow Japs, not some North American homo. :p

I thought the movie was kinda lame. White guy Cruise is portrayed as a drunken loser and only until he is captured and initiated into gook Samurai culture does he straighten up. Also, I always find poofter Cruise a little laughable playing macho roles. Hell, the guy looks like a chick!


well that was a weak part of the movie. to boot, he is all dicked up because he had to off a bunch of Injuns and he feels guilty. The parallel is between the "noble red man" myth and the "noble swordfighting samurai vs modern conscript army."

but, we have our own version of that theme dont we? The Noble Aryan vs the Colored Hordes? The Ostfrontsoldaten vs the Red Army shock troops? The Confederate soldier vs the teeming masses of Union soldiers?

That is why I think people will enjoy this film.