'Last Samurai' lives up to the code of stirring war epic

Back in 1985, the producer of "Ran" -- the last great Akira Kurosawa samurai epic -- reportedly told a press conference that he was generally happy with the U.S. response to the film, but was sure "it would have done much better had it starred Tom Cruise."

MOVIE REVIEW

THE LAST SAMURAI

DIRECTOR: Edward Zwick

CAST: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Tony Goldwyn

RUNNING TIME: 144 minutes

RATING: R for battlefield violence

WHERE: Alderwood 7, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, Everett 9, Factoria, Galaxy Tacoma 6, Galleria 11, Gateway 8, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema 14, Meridian 16, Metro, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza 12, Redmond Town Center, Renton Village, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B+

See images from the movie.

He was, of course, making a joke. But that joke has come to life all these years later in "The Last Samurai" -- with Cruise at the center of a "Ran"-like, faux-Kurosawa samurai movie -- and the surprise is that it's not such a joke at all.

It over-romanticizes the samurai ethic and is likely to raise the ire of historians with its many contrivances, but it's a rousing epic that fills the screen with ritualized battle and an engagingly offbeat vehicle for America's biggest movie star.

Cruise plays an ex-U.S. 7th Cavalry officer -- alcoholic and tortured by the part he played in helping Gen. Custer commit his atrocities against the Indians -- who, in the year 1876, takes a job helping the Meiji Court of Japan build and train a modern army.

The emperor's main adversary is the samurai or warrior class, which has been officially banned but has instigated a rebellion in the countryside. Soon after arriving in Japan, the officer is captured by the rebels and spends the winter as their prisoner.

In the course of his confinement, this first American POW in Asia learns Japanese, becomes pals with the English-fluent rebel leader (Ken Watanabe), and is attracted to the Zen-simple lifestyle, the martial art of kendo and the samurai code of bushido -- to the point that he switches sides.

If the thrust of this plot sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because it's very close to the landmark 1980 TV mini-series of James Clavell's "Shogun." In his yukata robe and longish hair and beard, Cruise even looks like Richard Chamberlain in that famous role.

And, to its detriment, "The Last Samurai" lacks "Shogun's" tough-minded historical accuracy and more openminded view of its East-West culture clash: its willingness to see what was noble and sublime in Japanese feudalism, but also what was narrow and ugly.

As a grand visual epic, the film also lets us down in several of its more obviously computer-generated scenes -- the Yokohama harbor, Edo skyline and several battlefield panoramas -- which often look as phony as the worst studio matte shots of the '30s and '40s.

But, otherwise, the film is hard to fault. John Logan's script captures the sweep of the Meiji Restoration and its capitulation to Western ways; and Lilly Kilvert's art direction, John Toll's camerawork and Hans Zimmer's gangaku-esque score wrap us in the poignant pageantry of a dying civilization.

If not quite up to the standard of 1989's "Glory" -- director Edward Zwick's last historical war epic -- the film is nonetheless filled with exhilarating, gruesomely beautiful battle sequences and stylish nods to the great Kurosawa films, especially "Seven Samurai," "Yojimbo" and "Ran."

In his first role since turning 40, Cruise displays a likable new maturity, and an unexpected willingness to look weak and foolish. He's no Toshiro Mifune, but he's painfully convincing as a fallen man who gets a second chance, and strangely compelling as the unlikely centerpiece of the samurai last stand.

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.