The Last Samurai (2003) 7/10

Starring : Tom Cruise, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Tony Goldwyn, Ken Watanabe
Director : Edward Zwick
Running Time : 147 mins

US captain Nathan Algren (Cruise) is hired by the young and naive Japanese emperor to help to train his army, but after their first battle campaign ends in disaster, Algren is captured by the enemy Samurai warriors who are not the savages he had been lead to believe they were. He forms something of a bond with them, a bond which makes him reconsider his opinion on the military, so when he is finally returned to his own people he starts to question the orders of those in charge.

This movie may be overly long, but it passes quite swiftly, with the story slowly leading Cruise's character to re-evaluate his lot in life, though the transformation is a little far fetched and overly idealistic. There's some beautifully shot cinematography and some great battle scenes which surprisingly leave a lot of the bloodshed to the imagination.

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