Dixon Carter Lee
Headliner
- Joined
- Nov 22, 1999
- Posts
- 48,682
Spoilers.
The Last Samurai is a good film. Nicely written, acted, shot, etc. I enjoyed it. But...
It's a Tarzan movie. White guy (Son of an English Lord, American Captain) learns the ways of a more earthy and violent paradise (Africa, Japan) and bests his lessers (apes, samurai). It's a wee, er, and I'm uncomfrotable using the word "racist", becasue it's really not that, but it's, let's say, "whitecentric", which isn't such a bad thing, but why do we have to witness Japan's struggle with its soul through the eyes of a Tom Cruise? It's a legitimate point of view, and I went with it, right until the moment at the end when Cruise tells the Emperor he's gone so completely native that he'd gladly kill himself, if the Emperor so wished. Is it really a good thing that the Last Samarui is a white dude from America who mastered a lifetime of meditation and swordplay one winter while waiting for the pass to open? Plus, he also masters the ability to be hit by fewer bullets than anyone else during an attack. Damn, them white folks is goooooood.
These kinds of stories are valid, have merit, and should be done -- but there are just so many of them. When they're good (Lawrence of Arabia) they're damn good. When they're bad they're insulting, and ludicrous.
The Last Samurai isn't damn good (too much layered music insisting that I feel a certain way right now, and, honestly, do you think any screenwriter pictures Tom Cruise as his hero?), but it is very good, and I don't really have a problem with it. But I do think, maybe, we've grown a bit beyond the Tarzan stories.
I think I'll go rent "The Seven Samurai".
The Last Samurai is a good film. Nicely written, acted, shot, etc. I enjoyed it. But...
It's a Tarzan movie. White guy (Son of an English Lord, American Captain) learns the ways of a more earthy and violent paradise (Africa, Japan) and bests his lessers (apes, samurai). It's a wee, er, and I'm uncomfrotable using the word "racist", becasue it's really not that, but it's, let's say, "whitecentric", which isn't such a bad thing, but why do we have to witness Japan's struggle with its soul through the eyes of a Tom Cruise? It's a legitimate point of view, and I went with it, right until the moment at the end when Cruise tells the Emperor he's gone so completely native that he'd gladly kill himself, if the Emperor so wished. Is it really a good thing that the Last Samarui is a white dude from America who mastered a lifetime of meditation and swordplay one winter while waiting for the pass to open? Plus, he also masters the ability to be hit by fewer bullets than anyone else during an attack. Damn, them white folks is goooooood.
These kinds of stories are valid, have merit, and should be done -- but there are just so many of them. When they're good (Lawrence of Arabia) they're damn good. When they're bad they're insulting, and ludicrous.
The Last Samurai isn't damn good (too much layered music insisting that I feel a certain way right now, and, honestly, do you think any screenwriter pictures Tom Cruise as his hero?), but it is very good, and I don't really have a problem with it. But I do think, maybe, we've grown a bit beyond the Tarzan stories.
I think I'll go rent "The Seven Samurai".
