| Release
Date: December 5, 2003
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Cast: Tom Cruise, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly,
Tony Goldwyn, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shun Sugata, Shin
Koyamada, Seizo Fukumoto, Schichinosuke Nakamura, Koyuki, Masato
Harada, Sosuke Ikematsu, Aoi Minato.
Official Site: Click HERE
Synopsis:
Captain Nathan Algren (TOM
CRUISE) is a man adrift. The battles he once fought now seem distant
and futile. Once he risked his life for honor and country, but,
in the years since the Civil War, the world has changed. Pragmatism
has replaced courage, self-interest has taken the place of sacrifice
and honor is nowhere to be found - especially out West where his
role in the Indian Campaigns ended in disillusionment and sorrow.
Somewhere on the unforgiving plains near the banks of the Washita
River, Algren lost his soul. A universe away, another soldier
sees his way of life about to disintegrate. He is Katsumoto (KEN
WATANABE), the last leader of an ancient line of warriors, the
venerated Samurai, who dedicated their lives to serving emperor
and country. Just as the modern way encroached upon the American
West, cornering and condemning the Native American, it also engulfed
traditional Japan. The telegraph lines and railroads that brought
progress now threaten those values and codes by which the Samurai
have lived and died for centuries. But Katsumoto will not go without
a fight. The paths of these two warriors converge when the young
Emperor of Japan, wooed by American interests who covet the growing
Japanese market, hires Algren to train Japan's first modern, conscript
army. But as the Emperor's advisors attempt to eradicate the Samurai
in preparation for a more Westernized and trade-friendly government,
Algren finds himself unexpectedly impressed and influenced by
his encounters with the Samurai. Their powerful convictions remind
him of the man he once was. Thrust now into harsh and unfamiliar
territory, with his life and perhaps more important, his soul,
in the balance, the troubled American soldier finds himself at
the center of a violent and epic struggle between two eras and
two worlds, with only his sense of honor to guide him.
Click
on the image for a larger view |
|
