A 2003 historical drama starring Tom Cruise and Timothy Spall has just been added to Netflix. Directed by Edward Zwick, The Last Samurai is an epic period drama inspired by real events and following Cruise’s character Captain Nathan Algren, who agrees to help Japan’s new Meji government train its first Western-style conscript army in 1876.
The film, co-written by Zwick with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz, is loosely based on the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, which took place nine years into the new Meji era.
Cruise and Spall, who plays photographer and Algren’s interpreter Simon Graham, star alongside Ken Watanabe as the titular Last Samurai, Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto, and Koyuki as Moritsugu’s sister Taka Katsumoto, Shin Koyamada as Nobutada Katsumoto, Tony Goldwyn as the ruthless Colonel Bagley, and Hiroyuki Sanada as master swordsman Ujio.
Warner Bros.
The film went on to be one of the highest-grossing movies of 2003 following its cinema release in December. It also received four Academy Awards nominations, including Best Supporting Actor to Watanabe, but received mixed reviews, currently sitting at a critics’ score of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes out of 216 reviews. The film also attracted some criticism for some of its portrayals and white saviour narrative.
CNN.com hailed the film as “a spectacular epic adventure”, adding that Cruise “is stunning as Captain Nathan Algren”, while the Arizona Republic called it “a splendid, robust historical drama”.
The New York Times called the film “uneven” and argued that The Last Samurai is “far more effective at communicating emotion in bigger scenes than in more intimate ones”.
Moviestore/Shutterstock
On The Last Samurai’s white saviour narrative, The Washington Post wrote: “Despite its intelligent agenda, swollen heart and fabulously epic surface, amounts to a didactic banality: a white guy’s politically correct lesson abroad.”
Alongside The Last Samurai, Netflix has just added some other recent classic films to its catalogue, including A History of Violence, starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and Maria Bello, and Ben Affleck’s 2012 political drama Argo.
Also on Netflix are Clint Eastwood’s biographical drama Sully, starring Tom Hanks as aircraft pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who performed the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in 2009, saving the lives of 155 passengers and crew.
The Last Samurai is streaming on Netflix.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).