Essay Example on The Last Samurai: A Historical Disaster?

The Last Samurai movie is based on a true story of Saigo Takemori, who was the leader of the Satsuma rebellion of 1877 in japan. The film was produced in 2003 by Edward Zick. The Samurai can be described as a historical disaster from how it starts to the end (Mark, 2011). The representation of the historical circumstances of the era was not very represented in the movie because instead of showing the real adventures and the drama that was known to be in Japan during the nineteenth century the movie focused more in imitating the dances and karate instead of bringing out more power and representation of the culture (Mark, 2011).

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According to the review of the movie that was done by Jonathan Dresner who is a teacher of East Asian history in the Pittsburg University of Kansas, there was nothing original about the movie (Jonathan, 2004). He says that the plot and the characters were not either original nor surprising, this is because Nathan Algren who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was hired by a politician by the Name Omura to train the recruits of the japan military to fight the rebellion of the Samurai who do not in any want their ways to be modernized (Jonathan, 2004). The movie had a great reception in Japan though it raised mixed feeling, in America It did not hit well. Nathan in the early stages of the battle he gets injured which leads to him being captured, he later gets well and recovers at the camp in the mountains after snow separates them from the outside world during the period of snow and winter (Jonathan, 2004). This moment leads to the beginning of the wolves' dances. In this period, the captain from the United States of America is seen to be conversant with the rebellious people language and also Katsumoto the rebellion leader is seen to speak fluent English (Jonathan, 2004).

In my opinion, I support Jonathan Dresner that the movie did not showcase the originality that was there in the seventeenth century in Japan. The samurai people had not yet mingled with the outside world during the period of the war, and it was unoriginal for the leader to be speaking fluent English, their culture was still untampered with, they had lived on their own without interacting with other people (Jonathan, 2004). The role of Nathan was supposed to be played by a native, who would show the ancient ways in which the people went to war instead of the use of technology and new methods and techniques of war that was used in the movie (Jonathan, 2004). The rebels go into conflict with the imperial forces who have modern technology of the war and advanced weapons. However, they all had the same thinking about the war because Algren helps Katsumoto to fight the royal forces having have trained together with the commander. The war had been technologies instead of letting the two enemies execute and portray the original, ancient ways of how the war happened in that age and day (Jonathan, 2004).

In some way, the culture has been portrayed, though not deeply, and some of the backgrounds to the story has some truth that is shown in the movie (Jonathan, 2004). During the nineteenth century, specifically, the 1870s japan was going through some political and radical social changes as well the country was going through the struggles of industrialization, the process which can be lumped up as modernization (Jonathan, 2004). Samurai is seen to object to the changes that were affecting them directly and leading the rebellion. There was even a plan that had been laid off to kill the analogue history of Katsumoto.in 1876 the people from the western countries saw the Japanese as people who were not civilized and also inferior to them in al kind of ways may it be culture, character or even the levels of intelligence (Jonathan, 2004). The government of Japan was known to pay high salaries to different experts from the western countries who would teach the knowledge to the people of Japan. This was illustrated in the movie where the captain from the United States of America is hired to teach the federal army, which is supposed to handle the rebellion (Jonathan, 2004). Some of these experts went back to their countries, but others stayed in the country and became absorbed by the culture. Like the captain, after some time, he could speak in the native language and had learned most of their culture (Jonathan, 2004).

In my opinion, the movie might have hurt the understanding of the viewer because it did not show much of the deep culture of the people of Japan. The movie dwelt mostly on the westernized ways of war, the shogun and Kagemusha, the karate kid and the dances with the beast (Mark, 2011). A person with no information about the culture of Japan at that specific period might have got just a little information. Those who know about the culture might think that the movie was shallow. Either way in japan the mostly was received well and sold many copies that mean the people loved and appreciated it (Mark, 2011).

Works cited

Dresner, Jonathan. "How True to History is Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai?<<." History News Network 1 (2004).

Ravina, Mark. The Last Samurai: The life and battles of Saigo Takamori. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.