Pros And Cons Of The Last Samurai

In this essay, the contents will be discussing the samurai in two different situations. One is geared for a western audience while the other is geared towards the eastern. The western will portray the pros of while the eastern will depict its cons. Living as a samurai all depends on everyone’s specific situation, and because of that it is easy to manipulate people’s feelings into thinking a certain way about the samurai.

The Last Samurai (Zwick, 2003) begins its tale in the year of 1876 in which the samurai and the soldiers of Japan (henceforth referenced to as soldiers) are fighting for two separate things. The soldiers fight because they are ordered to. While the samurai under direct control of Katsumoto who is the chief samurai still fights

onto the samurai code as well as fighting change that the westerners bring such as clothing, weaponry, and political changes as well. Through the movie Nathan Algren experiences both sides of conflicting ways of thought. He has to help out the soldiers in the first place because he was ordered to by a higher ranking person than he. In these scenarios he is sad, gloomy, and drunk, one could go as far as to say that he was depressed. While a prisoner of war for the samurai, Algren is able to see the way of life the samurai are trying to uphold. He then goes on to train, live with, and eat with the samurai in the encampment. While there he is happy, calm and serene in part to being denied given any alcohol. In this respect The Last Samurai contrasts the two sides of new versus old principles and sympathizes with the samurai. The film leans toward the samurai way of thinking and can understand and respect what they have to offer. Because this is a film the way in which this idea is presented is exaggerated in order to make this more obvious.
Katsumoto is very well respected, in this manner the movie does an excellent job in adhering to the way of the warrior and its customs. Since Katsumoto and his men all fight for the same cause, which are to deny the conflicting thoughts against the samurai, they are a force that not even greater fire power nor can a greater force stop so easily. Early on it is made apparent that Katsumoto and the soldiers fight two distinct styles in part due to the change that the westerners are bringing. While Katsumoto’s men fight with pride and for honor the same cannot be said of the soldiers. The soldiers fight as a system of people, but not for each other. The main issue with the soldiers is that they do not, unlike the samurai, fight for the same cause. There is a distinct line between ranks in the soldiers like generals, captains, regiment leaders, but the samurai has two distinctions which are Katsumoto and his samurai. These soldiers are mainly a gathering of peasants who have never held a gun and in consequence do not fight in equal force. The soldiers fight for money or because it is the only place that will accept a hungry body. What is the last comment you ask? Well it is to say/contrast that the army is willing to accept bodies if not only to increase their numbers against the enemy while a samurai has to be trained in the sword as well as mannerisms and only then will the samurai accept such a person into their ranks just like how Nathan was accepted by Katsumoto. Thus the soldiers enlisted into the ranks may not give their all because they are trying to live battle to battle. In contrast the samurai would be honored to die in battle and in consequence give their all in a fight to bring honor to their family.
A whole versus the individual. As I have stated the samurai fight as a whole and the soldiers fight as an individual. In the beginning of the movie the soldiers suffered a great defeat in the woods because they were unprepared, unmotivated, and scared to their bones. One bit of camaraderie that the soldiers do display is when Nathan ordered Sergeant Grant to retreat but S. Grant refused, so that he may fight in the front lines. Something that would be expected on the samurai side was shown to also be possible for the soldiers. Not only was were the soldiers unprepared, but the samurai were very prepared. The samurai came in as an intimidating force overwhelming the soldiers and had prepared a plan beforehand in order to also flank the soldiers so that they may gain the total win that they attained. The film does have a preference for the group instead of the individual. Subordination to the group (displayed by the soldiers) is an inferior way to fight against individuals who come together to complete a goal (displayed by the samurai). But there always comes a time when people must adapt. The overwhelming advantage that the soldiers had allowed them to defeat the samurai in the final battle, but Nathan and Katsumoto didn’t go down so easily. The film suggests two things in the final battle scene in which the soldiers bowed to the harmed samurai; first is that the samurai is a dying practice, but; second is that the way of samurai should be a respected way of life that has the capabilities to survive in the new world if it can adapt. If the thought of the samurai (i.e. serve the lord, respect for elders, act respectfully) can be transferred over to the new regiment then it is still possible to be a samurai not by practice but by title.
The Twilight Samurai on the other hand takes a different route that of The Last Samurai because unlike The Last Samurai the Twilight Samurai seems to delve into the argument that the individual matters within the whole of the clan whereas The Last Samurai preferred the collection of the individuals. There were moments throughout the movie that led us to infer of Seibei as the most sympathetic character. The movie set Seibei in these horrible conditions (e.g. 50-kon commission, dead wife, sick grandmother, and two children) while at the same time had the surrounding characters deploring Seibei. Seibei’s acquaintances all want him to act like a proper samurai even though they know of his current conditions. In this aspect the movie sticks true to how a samurai should act and uphold themselves. A samurai must be clean, composed yet under such conditions Seibei has a hard time doing so. In the beginning of the movie the samurai are now the enemy while our “hero” is the person our enemy hate. So it would occur to our viewers from the beginning of the film that the way of the samurai is a harsh unforgiving lifestyle to take place and stay in.
Fortunately the movie does stay true to the samurai code. There was a moment in the film in which the lord of the samurai shows up to assess his assets. In this scene all of the regular samurai bow and do not create eye contact to the lord because they must respect their leader. In the same scene the lord manages to take scent of Seibei’s odor and comments that such pungent odor should not be one of a samurai, someone who is an example to the common folk. Strangely the lord says such things with a smile across his face. The film trying to unfold the Lords emotion to his retainers are important. If the samurai is a hard working samurai then he must also look the part. Unfortunately this does not spread across to the rest of his retainers. Due to the samurai undying loyalty to their lord, Seibei is punished by a separate samurai who had a near panic attack, almost crying for the disgrace that Seibei brought their lord. The film does a great job of portraying the samurai’s loyalty yet unfortunately also solidifies Seibeis’s sad situation. “Maybe if he wasn’t a samurai then his hard work would not go unnoticed, maybe his hard work would be praised”. This is a stray though that is has the possibility of going through one’s mind while watching the film, and yet again the film successfully portaged the samurai as the villains of the movie.
But through Seibei’s unyielding samurai life he leads his life with pride for his hard work with his daughters to his side helping him along his path. There are times when the film takes the samurai way of life and amplifies it to extremes (this is a movie) so that the audience may sympathize with Seibei. Inconsequently while sympathizing with Seibei we (the audience) also start to neglect the samurai way of life. Although the film accurately portrayed the samurai, it took the negative aspects of it and amplified it.
In these two films we were fortunately able to see two sides of the same story told from two different points of view.

We were able to see the positive side i.e. the pride, the loyalty, the determination that comes from being a samurai from the view point of a westerner who knew nothing of the samurai, who even regarded them as savages. Then we were also able to see some of the negative aspects of being a samurai i.e. the long work, the demanding upper ranked men, and the low pay. While one movie glorified the samurai the opposite one condemned it. Also the two films took the idea of the individual and used them in two different tones within the movie. The Last Samurai takes the individual (Nathan) and uses him as our point of view. In this film the individual must be able to connect with the group in order to accomplish their goal. We (the movie was most likely seen by a western audience) like Nathan did not know much about the samurai and through the movie we learn (just like Nathan) and end up understanding them eventually rooting against the soldiers of Japan. While the individual (Seibei) in The Twilight Samurai in order to make us condemn the samurai. In this the individual must force himself to do as the group says in order to live his life well (for his daughters of

course).