Comment

Jul 21, 2016
This is a 2003 period drama directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick. Tom Cruise portrays a formerly retired officer of the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment, whose personal and emotional conflicts bring him into contact with samurai warriors in the wake of the Meiji Restoration in 19th Century Japan. Although its plot was inspired by the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion led by Saigō Takamori (西郷隆盛), the events in the film are mostly fiction. To a lesser extent it is also influenced by the story of Jules Brunet, a French army captain who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki (榎本武揚) in the earlier Boshin War. In the movie, the anti-government soldiers wear the traditional Japanese armor, but in the real rebellion they also wore Westernized uniforms. When Omura sends Ninjas to attack the village, I almost laugh to death because it looks like the 16th-century fighting scene---anachronistic! The historical roles of the British Empire, the Netherlands and France in Japanese westernization are largely attributed to the United States in the film, for American audiences. Saigō fought for a moral revolution, not a material one, and he described his revolt as a check on the declining morality of a new, Westernizing materialism. This theme is well depicted in the film. It is a gripping semi-historical drama with superbly-choreographed bloody fighting scenes.