The Last Samurai Review:
Set in 1876, The Last Samurai is about American mercenary Nathan Algren (played by Tom Cruise) who goes to Japan to help train and modernise their army. Along the way, Algren is taken in by the very samurai rebels he had been sent to help destroy. Algren adopts traditional Japanese ways and is soon fighting alongside his former enemy against the imperial forces.
The film's samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) and his rebellion against the Japanese government are clearly based on the Satsuma rebellion. The film is relatively accurate in terms of the Satsuma rebellion and the modernisation of Japan. On a field outside Kagoshima on September 25, 1877, the feudal system that had dominated Japan for 700 years stopped, with a last triumphant fight from Samurai warriors. The remaining warriors of the last traditional samurai army in Japanese history drew their swords and charged into the guns of the 30,000 man army. This exact scene was depicted in The Last Samurai which proves that the film has a significant amount of accuracy in terms of the Satsuma rebellion.
The Meiji Restoration was a chain of events that restored practical, industrialised imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. This was depicted accurately in the film …show more content…
Before the Meiji restoration, Japanese society was a rigidly controlled feudal pyramid, with the peasants at the bottom. The people that held that structure together were the samurai. In 1854, Japanese leaders decided that they needed a modern army equipped with modern weapons. 46,000 conscripts from each social class were enlisted in the army, which left the samurai without jobs. This part of Japanese history was looked upon when Nathan Algren teaches the Japanese army how to use modern weapons. However, The Last Samurai didn't really explain or show much of Feudal Life or the structure of Japan at the
Set in 1876, The Last Samurai is about American mercenary Nathan Algren (played by Tom Cruise) who goes to Japan to help train and modernise their army. Along the way, Algren is taken in by the very samurai rebels he had been sent to help destroy. Algren adopts traditional Japanese ways and is soon fighting alongside his former enemy against the imperial forces.
The film's samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) and his rebellion against the Japanese government are clearly based on the Satsuma rebellion. The film is relatively accurate in terms of the Satsuma rebellion and the modernisation of Japan. On a field outside Kagoshima on September 25, 1877, the feudal system that had dominated Japan for 700 years stopped, with a last triumphant fight from Samurai warriors. The remaining warriors of the last traditional samurai army in Japanese history drew their swords and charged into the guns of the 30,000 man army. This exact scene was depicted in The Last Samurai which proves that the film has a significant amount of accuracy in terms of the Satsuma rebellion.
The Meiji Restoration was a chain of events that restored practical, industrialised imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. This was depicted accurately in the film …show more content…
Before the Meiji restoration, Japanese society was a rigidly controlled feudal pyramid, with the peasants at the bottom. The people that held that structure together were the samurai. In 1854, Japanese leaders decided that they needed a modern army equipped with modern weapons. 46,000 conscripts from each social class were enlisted in the army, which left the samurai without jobs. This part of Japanese history was looked upon when Nathan Algren teaches the Japanese army how to use modern weapons. However, The Last Samurai didn't really explain or show much of Feudal Life or the structure of Japan at the