The Last Samurai

“This movie is a thing of beauty, with the substance to match its style.”

Hollywood — and America’s — fascination with all things Asian continues in Edward Zwick’s “The Last Samurai,” a movie that successfully merges a Western with a samurai movie. Zwick triumphantly pulls off what sounds like the height of arrogance: a Yank directing a samurai movie and, worse, Tom Cruise playing the title role. Hewing close to historical accuracy, though, the film does a reasonable job of situating Cruise, playing an Indian fighter and Civil War veteran, in Japan during the 1876-77 Samurai Revolt to catch the final moments of samurai culture and its spirit of Bushido.