The Last Samurai (movie): Loyalty through sword or a way of living?

Directed by: Edward Zwick
Release date: December, 2003

Service, Loyalty, duty, commitment, faith, trust and bravery …. I am short of words in order to describe what all I felt after watching the movie. It was explained in the movie that Samurai means – to serve. Samurai’s were the protectors of the KING. Their ancestors had been doing this for hundreds of years. The same emotion was everywhere in the movie. Every scene, dialogue and conversation in the movie is filled with these not so common emotions. Every word they said or the act they performed is filled with loyalty. It is a slow paced movie but I believe it’s required to make sure that audience understand the depth and the true meaning of the film. Every small aspect related to life, war and duty is explained in a very detailed manner.

About the Story – Tom Cruise is a well known personality in US due to his unbelievable victories in wars. He works for money and has good experience in fighting with tribes. He is hired by a Japanese man to fight with their enemy: THE SAMURAI - Katsumoto! Tom Cruise come down to Japan and trained the army with new equipments. They went to war; however the army was not ready for it. As a result Tom gets captured by the Samurai group and they bring him to their village. Tom was wounded, Katsumoto’s sister take care of him though she was aware that Tom killed her husband. Tom has to spend a whole year there so that he can recover from his present situation. While staying there he finds some special things which he had forgotten long back – discipline and honor. He decides to help them against their king but later he understands that the fight is not against the king, it’s against the corrupt system and bureaucrats around the king. In the final fight sequences all the Samurai’s die but Tom manages to survive. Tom returns to the Samurai village.



It’s very difficult for my generation to understand/believe that someone's  wish/command is more than enough for a person to give away his life. I remember this dialogue when Tom Cruise asks Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe): kaya raja aapko maarna nahi chahenge? Katsumoto replies: muhje maarne ke liye unko itna sab karne ki zaroorat nahi hai, unka aadesh hi kaafi hai. Since childhood they were trained to protect their king and obey his every command. They live and die with this very simple but hard to digest (for us) belief.

We are living in a world where personal interest is everything we can think of. There is no value of promises or commitments. People are ready to hurt anyone for small things. We are not ready to listen to our parents because we think we are a cool/new generation and they are old/narrow minded. We don’t think that going out somewhere late is bad. Lying is no crime. Breaking trust is in the fashion. Duty – what’s that? Honor – never heard of it. We run away from responsibility like it’s our birth right. We don’t feel shy or ashamed in doing anything which is in our interest. We can spread bad mouth about our country over corruption/growth but we never think of doing anything to change it.

When we see people dying for their country, for their fellow men, for duty ... we think they are nuts/stupid. We are not able to relate/understand this feeling because we never felt or even tried to feel the same. We do not want to come out of our comfort zone. I believe Edward tried to shake our world of dreams through this movie and has shown us the real meaning of being alive.

Edward Zwick (director) presented it in a very simple yet heart touching manner. You will not find the movie interesting if you are not in a mood to understand it. It’s not very entertaining for everyone but a masterpiece for some of us. But once you start watching/feeling it, you will fall in love with it. It will take you through a journey of the most special feeling (service, Loyalty, duty, commitment, faith, trust and bravery) which most of the movies are not capable of.

It’s a slow poison guys!!!!