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talonz51
Reviews
The Last Samurai (2003)
Shoddy and unfaithful star 'vehicle'
My wife and I could barely stand to watch this shoddy film. If we hadn't paid good money already, I'm sure we wouldn've walked out. I alternated between gritting our teeth during the movie, laughing at parts there were supposed to be dramatic, and otherwise being bored and disappointed to tears.
In short, I was angry to see what they did with one of my favorite theatrical genres in this movie.
There are multiple reasons for that. 1) This movie was an obvious star vehicle for Tom Cruise. Don't get me wrong, I generally like Cruise and his movies, but you can't sacrifice story and authentic historical research just to showcase one actor. Well you can, but it doesn't make for a good movie imo. The movie spent way too much time on Cruise and not enough on making an actual movie. Some people have compared this movie to "Dances with wolves", a good movie, but Last Samurai didn't have time to deal with both a similar story and the actual rebellion/westernization of Japan. Obviouslly Cruise's screen time won out.
2) Complete disregard for history. Certainly Commodore Perry opened Japan to international trade and western technology, but at no point were American forces on Japanese soil in any significant numbers after Perry. And they most certainly did not train Japanese soldiers.
3) Story. There is a wealth of background available on the Satsuma rebellion that could have been utilized in this film. I was hoping that the film would have delved into this as a central theme, but nothing more than the bare essentials (samurai rebel against westernizing!) was used. Pathetic.
So we have a camera perpetually focused on Cruise, a trashing of history, and little to zero story. Now add in some completely unbelievable characterizations and stereotyping of certain portions of Japanese culture and behaviour without regard to the whole society and you have a film unworthy of the money and acclaim it has garnered. Go rent "Seven Samurai", or nearly anything by Kurosawa for that matter, and see a real Samurai movie.
I gave this movie 3/10 only because of Ken Watanabe's acting and some of the cinematography. Even the battles and use of extras or supporting characters was so pitiful because of poor writing.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
horrible, horrible film
You know what really bothered me? The fact that they advertised this film as one thing (the attack on pearl harbor) and actually gave us another (love triangle drama before, after, and during pearl harbor).
So little time was spent on the actual battle and the memorable instances within it that one wondered if they had even bothered to research it. Heck, they couldn't even bother to take out the modern US navy destroyers still at the harbor during filming (with cgi)!
Don't bother with this film, it was horrible. Go rent Tora,Tora,Tora. An excellent and faithful reproduction of BOTH sides of the battle via a joint directorial effort and 2 production teams, melded into one strong movie.
El Cid (1961)
Sweeping medieval drama at its best
I was debating how to vote on this one as it is one of my favorite movies of all time, and only if I felt something was missing would I not give it a 10.
Well I couldn't think of a single thing missing or that could've been done better in this movie, so this is the first 10/10 or 5/5 I have given. Seriouslly, its that good.
I am very particular about my movies. There has to be good story, characters, action, cinematography and attention to detail and authenticity.
El Cid has all this and more. The characters are compelling and real, both noble and craven. The story is based on a real person and real location and events, although I am sure some liberties have been taken to dramatize things during this Spanish/moorish conflict. Costumes seem authentic, and there is plenty of action for all so long as you don't mind the long periods of drama between them. And frankly, I give this movie a capitol D for drama!
This is the kind of classic epic that moves you emotionally and draws you in, you feel for the characters and are awed by the events. If you like historical/medieval drama, watch El Cid. It is a classic.