The Last Samurai: Tom Cruise Stars in an Amazing Film About Japanese Samurai

The movie Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise and directed by Edward Zwick is a truly great film, a classic, and a must see for any movie go-er. The setting takes place in ancient Japan at a time when the samurai warriors controlled the country. 

However, the new Japanese leadership has taken over and instead want to introduce new customs and a naw way of life that go directly against the samurai way of life. The Japanese military hires American army men to help them fight the samurai and enlist the hep of Captain Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise. 

Cruise desperately needs the money and takes the role despite hating his commander, a man who gives him flashbacks to when his  army unit was forced by his commander to slaughter innocent women and children in the Indian wars. 

Tom Cruise trains Japanese men how to fight who have no idea how to use rifles in combat. Unprepared for battle but forced to go up agaisnt the samurai warriors who fight with swords and special battle gear, Tom Cruise's army is killed and his is taken as prisinor. THere Nathan Algren meets a man named Katsumoto, played by Ken Watanabe and is the leader of the samurai. He keeps Tom cruise alive to study the american way of life and to see how his enemy fights in combat. The two become deep friends and have much repect for each other. 

Tom Cruise learns the samurai way of life and how it is different from anything he has ever seen. He spends time with a samurai family and develops a romance with a widow, whose husband he killed in battle. Towards the end of the movie, the new Japanese army is well trained and battle tested this time, Their numbers of men are tens of thousands while the samurai are only five hundred men.