| | | "HD-DVD, The Look and Sound of Perfect."
Features: HD DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), Commentary, English, French, Spanish Subtitled
Tom Cruise plays Civil War hero Capt. Nathan Algren, who comes to Japan to fight the Samurai and ends up pledging himself to their cause. Ken Watanabe (Academy Award nominee) plays Katsumoto, a Samurai leader facing a vanishing way of life, whose destiny becomes intertwined with that of the American captain. Edward Zwick (winner of the National Board of Review's Best Director Award) directs this sweeping and emotional epic tale of the birth of modern Japan.
"Ken Watanabe - what a powerful presence! What a beautiful film." Joel Siegel, Good Morning America
"Tom Cruise is truly magnificent." Paul Clinton, CNN
"Cruise plays the role with fierce energy and swings a Bushido blade like a pro." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Editor's Note
Edward Zwick directs this sumptuously designed, action-packed period epic that stars Tom Cruise as Captain Nathan Algren. Algren, a former Civil War hero, is adrift in 1870s San Francisco after the war, a lost soul struggling to stay afloat in a booze-soaked stupor. When he is recruited by the Japanese government to train the Emperor's army, he departs for the unknown shores of Japan and begins training the soldiers in American military tactics. But these skills are useless against a band of samurai rebels led by the proud warrior Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), and Algren is easily defeated. He is taken to a remote samurai village where he learns samurai warrior codes and ways of life, developing a deep bond with Katsumoto and sharing philosophical conversations with him. Caught between the feudal culture of the ancient samurai warriors and the encroachment of modern society, Algren is forced to choose between his own culture or Katsumoto's. THE LAST SAMURAI is lavish in its dramatic period costumes and intense performances, and will thrill fans of both historical drama and action films.
| Features | The History Channel Documentary History Vs. Hollywood | | Audio Commentary By Director Edward Zwick | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital Stereo | | Deleted Scenes | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Featurettes: Edward Zwick - Director's Video Journal, Tom Cruise - A Warrior's Journey, Making An Epic - A Conversation With Edward Zwick & Tom Cruise, A World Of Detail - Production Design With Lilly Kilvert, Silk & Armor - Costume Design With Ngila Dickson, From Soldier To Samurai - The Weapons, & Imperial Army Basic Training | | Interactive Menus | | Japan Premieres | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | This Is An HD-DVD Made For HD-DVD Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 4/18/2006 |
| Running Time: 154 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2003 | | Catalog ID: 80934 | | UPC: 00012569809345 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Japanese | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed, Japanese, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.40:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2004) | | | Golden Globe, Tom Cruise, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama | | | Golden Globe, Ken Watanabe, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture | | | Oscar, Ken Watanabe, Best Actor in a Supporting Role | | | Oscar, Lilly Kilvert, Gretchen Rau, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration | | | Oscar, Ngila Dickson, Best Costume Design | | | Oscar, Andy Nelson, et. al., Best Sound |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"...[A] rousing, smoothly assembled historical fantasia....A handsome epic..." 12/05/2003 p.63Rolling Stone
"...Cruise plays the role with fierce energy and swings a Bushido blade like a pro..." 12/25/2003 p.118 Sight and Sound
"[With] some of the most impressively realised battles this side of Middle Earth." 02/01/2004 p.50 New York Times
"Mr. Zwick has absorbed the lethal agility of Akira Kurosawa; what registers just as powerfully as the sureness of the combatants is the ugly futility of the battles themselves." 12/05/2003 p.E1 Los Angeles Times
"THE LAST SAMURAI affords the sort of fizzy enjoyment that can come with epic movie endeavors, including a meticulously detailed world unlike our own, an excellent supporting cast and some pulse-pounding fights." 12/05/2003 p.C1 Chicago Sun-Times
"Beautifully designed, intelligently written, acted with conviction, it's an uncommonly thoughtful epic." 12/05/2003 p.39 Widescreen Review
"THE LAST SAMURAI is another stirring Civil War-era epic directed by Edward Zwick." 06/01/2006 p.61 The Guardian 7 of 10
It's a workmanlike tale told with almost enough gusto to distract you from the batsqueak of silliness audible throughout, and the final battle scene easily trumps the one currently on offer in, say, Cold Mountain. But, as with so many Cruise films, the producer-star has such a great deal of adoring camerawork lavished on those delectable chops, adorned with manly face-fungus that can never quite conceal his eerily boyish prettiness, undimmed over decades. The narcissism and self- congratulation is never far from the surface. - Peter Bradshaw
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
The Last Samurai breaks with the convention that the Western hero is always superior to the local culture he immerses in. It has been compared to Lawrence of Arabia and Dances With Wolves, films in which Westerners learn to respect Arabs and Indians, but this film goes a step further, clearly believing that Katsumoto's traditional society is superior to the modernism being unloaded by the Americans. Katsumoto is the teacher and Algren is the student, and the film wonderfully re-creates the patterns and textures of the Japanese past; its production design, sets and costumes are astonishing. - Roger Ebert
|
| |
|
|
|
