The Last Samurai (2003)
In 1876, former Army Captain Nathan Algren, a highly skilled soldier but bitter alcoholic traumatized by the atrocities he committed during the American Indian Wars, accepts an offer from his former commander Colonel Bagley to help train the newly created Imperial Japanese Army. Omura, a wealthy Japanese businessman and politician, intends to use the army to suppress a rebellion of discontented samurai against Japan’s new emperor. Despite his hatred of Bagley, the impoverished Algren takes the job for the money; his old comrade in arms Sergeant Zebulon Gant accompanies him to Japan. There, Algren meets Simon Graham, a British translator and photographer with extensive knowledge of the samurai.
The Imperial soldiers are conscripted peasants with no battlefield experience or proper training. Before Algren can properly prepare his men, Omura and Bagley order the battalion to deploy in response to a samurai attack on a railroad. Dismissing Algren’s protests that the men are not ready, the battle is a disaster, as the undisciplined conscripts flee in terror when the samurai charge. Gant is killed, and Algren fights viciously, suffering numerous injuries. Finally collapsing, he expects the samurai to kill him, but instead, the enemy commander, Katsumoto, who had a vision earlier of a White Tiger defending itself from several samurai, believed that Algren was the White Tiger from his vision. Katsumoto decided to spare him and take him prisoner.
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
Cast: |
In 1876, former Army Captain Nathan Algren, a highly skilled soldier but bitter alcoholic traumatized by the atrocities he committed during the American Indian Wars, accepts an offer from his former commander Colonel Bagley to help train the newly created Imperial Japanese Army. Omura, a wealthy Japanese businessman and politician, intends to use the army to suppress a rebellion of discontented samurai against Japan’s new emperor. Despite his hatred of Bagley, the impoverished Algren takes the job for the money; his old comrade in arms Sergeant Zebulon Gant accompanies him to Japan. There, Algren meets Simon Graham, a British translator and photographer with extensive knowledge of the samurai.
The Imperial soldiers are conscripted peasants with no battlefield experience or proper training. Before Algren can properly prepare his men, Omura and Bagley order the battalion to deploy in response to a samurai attack on a railroad. Dismissing Algren’s protests that the men are not ready, the battle is a disaster, as the undisciplined conscripts flee in terror when the samurai charge. Gant is killed, and Algren fights viciously, suffering numerous injuries. Finally collapsing, he expects the samurai to kill him, but instead, the enemy commander, Katsumoto, who had a vision earlier of a White Tiger defending itself from several samurai, believed that Algren was the White Tiger from his vision. Katsumoto decided to spare him and take him prisoner.