(rated R)
If Japan was made by a sword, then Tom Cruise is its Samurai. In a movie about honor, Cruise stars as a 19th century Civil War Veteran who journeys to Japan on assignment, but instead learns a thing or two on the dying breed of samurai. Cruise is to be paid three years salary in three months if he can teach peasants to become Japanese warriors. When Cruise is taken hostage himself, he befriends Katsumato the Samurai (Ken Watanabe, Japan’s real life superstar version of Cruise). Soon Cruise is torn between his love for the Emperor’s values and the Samurai. The Emperor by the way, has a long Japanese name that will be meaningless, though his character is shy and gentle — sort of a Michael Jackson meets Prince. While there is a love story with a beautiful woman, it is a love story of a different kind that will have you choked up during the final show down. Fearless cinematography accompanies heart pounding dramatization and battle scenes that will earn this Ed Zwick directed western epic, all kinds of Oscar nominations. Zwick afterall, knows this stuff. He did “Glory” and “Legends Of The Fall”. As for Cruise, he has certainly helped enable the careers of many Oscar winning co-stars (Rain Man’s Dustin Hoffman and Jerry Maguire’s Cuba Gooding). This time it could be his turn. He’s knows war. Remember “Born On The Fourth Of July”?
If Japan was made by a sword, then Tom Cruise is its Samurai. In a movie about honor, Cruise stars as a 19th century Civil War Veteran who journeys to Japan on assignment, but instead learns a thing or two on the dying breed of samurai. Cruise is to be paid three years salary in three months if he can teach peasants to become Japanese warriors. When Cruise is taken hostage himself, he befriends Katsumato the Samurai (Ken Watanabe, Japan’s real life superstar version of Cruise). Soon Cruise is torn between his love for the Emperor’s values and the Samurai. The Emperor by the way, has a long Japanese name that will be meaningless, though his character is shy and gentle — sort of a Michael Jackson meets Prince. While there is a love story with a beautiful woman, it is a love story of a different kind that will have you choked up during the final show down. Fearless cinematography accompanies heart pounding dramatization and battle scenes that will earn this Ed Zwick directed western epic, all kinds of Oscar nominations. Zwick afterall, knows this stuff. He did “Glory” and “Legends Of The Fall”. As for Cruise, he has certainly helped enable the careers of many Oscar winning co-stars (Rain Man’s Dustin Hoffman and Jerry Maguire’s Cuba Gooding). This time it could be his turn. He’s knows war. Remember “Born On The Fourth Of July”?