In the 1870's, an American Army captain is recruited by the Japanese government to go to the Far East and teach Japanese soldiers how to fight off a resurgent Samurai army. He gets captured by the Samurai and lives among them for a season where he begins to doubt what side he should be fighting for.

Exciting action sequences combine with a compelling story to make a very good film. Cruise does a fine job and Ken Watanabe excels in a fine script even if the political end of the story gets a bit convoluted. I would have liked to have seen Cruise’s character fleshed out a bit more. There are references to his days in the Army, but nothing really good enough to base a lead character around. Similarly, his drinking problem wasn't handled well either. But at an already lengthy 144 minutes, The Last Samurai would have needed to be 10 or so minutes longer to satisfy these criticisms.

Not entirely engaging, you could easily get up in the middle for a bathroom break and not miss much, but largely an excellent film.

Directed by Edward Zwick.