Director
Edward Zwick
Leading Actors/Actresses
Tom Cruise
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Ken Watanabe, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly
Genre
Historical Drama, Epic
Language
English, Japanese
Awards
Four Academy Award nominations, Three Golden Globe Award nominations, National Board of Review Best Director (Edward Zwick) Outstanding Foreign Language Film, Japanese Academy Awards
Date of Release
November 5, 2003
Producer
Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskowitz, Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner, Scott Kroopf, To Enelman
Setting and Context
The movie is set in Japan in the late 1870s.
Narrator and Point of View
The point of view is that of the Samurai who are resisting Westernization and the change brought to their culture and status.
Tone and Mood
The film is both very philosophical and also alternately threatening and inspiring.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The Samurai are the protagonists, while the Imperial Japanese Army the antagonists.
Major Conflict
There is conflict between the Samurai and the Imperial Japanese Army who want to suppress them and the rebellion that they are orchestrating against Japan's new Emperor.
Climax
The Emperor realizes that although Japan needs to be modernized he cannot forget his ancestral heritage and history. He rejects Omura's offer of a trade deal and quells their protest.
Foreshadowing
When Algren presents the Emperor with Katsumoto's sword, it foreshadows the Emperor's epiphany and his rejection of Omura's offer, with a new-found intent to remember his country's and his own personal history.
Understatement
N/A
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
N/A
Allusions
The film alludes to the French army captain Jules Brunet who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki in the Boshin War.
Paradox
Algren hates Bagley for his role in the Indian Wars, which Algren believed were unethical in their westernization of another culture, but he decides to work for him and force westernization on Japan, because he needs the money.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the way in which Bagley ignores Algren's advice and the way in which his mission fails due to an inexperienced and untrained Imperial Army.
