MovieChat Forums > The Last Samurai (2003) Discussion > Great movie but not really

Great movie but not really

posted 10 years ago by johnthedoe
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Great because its a top notch production. Technically- 10/10.
Even how the plot moves is good.

Ive watched this movie 10 years ago and got interested in Japan. First- all of the samurai films, then history, then 70-90s films and new films.

I loved it before. Now i must turn off my brain because of all the samurai way, etc *beep*
The only thing thats true about it is the name "Katsumoto".

If there's anyone out here that thinks that there was some samurai honor, some great guys fighting for whats best: you are wrong. Old Japan was way more rotten than Europe, way back when there was no America. Thats the truth.

There were a couple of guys from America that got assimilated. And there were dozens that got boiled alive because they were foreign. And keep in mind- japs hated foreigners and they hate them still in heart. Just keep in mind WW2. Thats the only reason they got a little open. Because Americans demilitarized them and stationed there.

Oh, and katana is not even near 3 best swords out there. I get it that you see it cuts bullets and iron table in half- thats carefully prepared test and cinema fiction.

My point is- this production is a beautiful lie.

[–] criztu 10 years ago

I loved it before. Now i must turn off my brain because of all the samurai way, etc *beep*

you're just a little bit lost.

All movies are fantasies. This movie is a great fantasy.

Now, what is the use of fantasy, why are people so drawn to fantasies, why don't they choose reality?

The answer is that reality is controlled by groups of people called The Oligarchy. These are the masters of the human communities. The Oligarchy owns and controls everything. The plains are theirs, the mountains are theirs, the lakes are theirs, the rivers, the beaches, the forests, everything that exists is theirs. Even the air, the moon and the sun are theirs.
How is the sun theirs, you may ask. Well, imagine that there are scientists who could expand the Solar Energy technology, but this would mean that pretty soon everybody would have access to cheap, infinite energy, eliminating the need to work until you die for the benefit of the Oligarchy, so that in exchange for your work in their service, the Oligarchy to give you the colored papers called money, so that you can buy from them food, so you can stay alive.

The Oligarchy owns Reality, and owns You.

So there's no place for you in Reality, except for the position of Slave.
But you are a Man.
The Oligarchy destroys you as a Man, turns you into Cattle.

So how do you restore yourself to the Human Condition? Through fantasy. Once the individual restores himself to Humanity in fantasy, he comes back into reality of his former masters, to destroy it.

This fantasy called "the way of the samurai" is essentially the restoration of Nathan Algren from the Animal Condition - a soldier who executes the plan of The Oligarchy to exterminate anybody who resists them - back to the Human Condition.

If you liked this movie the first time, it was because you were still able to feel this process.
If this fantasy "the way of the samurai" makes you feel uncomfortable now, it may be because, just as Algren, you have since numbed your mind with some addiction (workaholics are addicts too, so it's not only drugs or alcohol that you can use to turn off your brain)