The Last Samurai

Ok, who cares what day it is now. There are movies to be mused over.

Come with me and muuusseee. Muse away.

There isn't any point to what I do except to make roughly 3 people happy...and I regard you haggled bunch as the persons who fulfill the roll of parents who coo and act like my doodles on paper are on rank with what hangs in the Louvre.

For the blockbuster nuts out there, you will be happy to know that there is a reason to leave your house now and spend money to see a movie.

That is, there is the Last Samurai.

Before the last Samurai, there was Dances With Wolves.

Both are nearly the same movie. Even in the beginning, there is a fascination with what the "savages" (Indians to you and me) are like...so think of the movie as picking up where Lt. John J. Dunbar had come rolling back East after he had lost his purpose in life once again.

He hates himself. He drinks endlessly. However, there is a good way to make some cash and slip off to sip some sake, and he's quickly on the next boat over to train the Japanese how to fight like whitey….to riddle them with as many bullets as you've got from a safe distance.

It has to go horribly wrong. There would be no sense in putting Tom Cruise on a boat with the hated Lt. Colonel of his command if it meant they were going to be fighting on the same team at the end.

Its not really a steady film. After a good beginning, there are periods of time where nothing really happens. Do we need 20 minutes of Tom lying around with wounds and getting the alcoholic shakes?

That part of the film is reminiscent of the Matrix and the part where they snag Keanu from his happy dream state, take him up to the ship, and stick him with loads of needles to make him look like a porcupine.

Like themes. Well, at least they didn't try to slip in Leonardo DiCaprio into the plot, but the Samurai leader fits into the Morpheus roll just fine.