The Last Samurai (2003) on Netflix
Captain Nathan Algren, a veteran of the American Indian Wars, is hired in 1876 to train Japan's new army against a samurai rebellion. Wounded in battle, he is taken to Katsumoto's village.
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- IMDb7.8/10510,233 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes65%
Trailer
Plot summary
A former U.S. Army captain haunted by his part in the American Indian Wars, Nathan Algren drinks heavily in 1876 and takes whatever work pays. Colonel Bagley, his old commanding officer, offers him a contract to train the new Imperial Japanese Army for the businessman Omura, who wants the samurai rebellion against Emperor Meiji put down. Algren accepts for the money, and Sergeant Zebulon Gant, an old friend of his, comes with him. In Japan he meets Simon Graham, a British translator who knows the samurai. The conscripts are undisciplined, and when word comes of a rebel attack on one of Omura's railroads, Algren is ordered to lead troops he considers unready into battle.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Last Samurai (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The character of Algren is very loosely based on Eugène Collache and Jules Brunet, both French Imperial Guard officers who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki in the earlier Boshin War.
- Katsumoto is based on the real-life samurai Saigō Takamori, who led the Satsuma Rebellion, but the film reverses his politics: Takamori supported modernizing Japan in general and used firearms, unlike the far more reactionary Katsumoto.
- The production shot in the Taranaki region because Egmont/Mount Taranaki resembles Mount Fuji and the area has a lot of forest and farmland; American location manager Charlie Harrington had seen the mountain in a travel book and pushed the producers to send him to scout it.
- The project was first developed in 1992 and originally written by Michael Alan Eddy, who sued the film's producers in 2004, claiming the WGA and Warner Bros. refused to give him credit.
