The Last Samurai Differences In Japanese Culture

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We’ve all seen the movies where a minority culture or group is beginning to struggle because of the majority and it takes just one man to save them all. Movies like “Dances With Wolves”, “Avatar”, and, of course, “The Last Samurai”. All are considered to be pretty good movies by most people’s standards but there is just one problem. That savior I was talking about, is always white. This is especially obvious in the “The Last Samurai”. Although it seems like the movie is simply showing respect to Japanese culture, it really just shows that it just can’t survive without the help from the white man. “The Last Samurai”, directed by Edward Zwick, is about a retired army general, Nathan Algren played by Tom Cruise, who fought in the American Indian War. He is hired by his former commanding officer to train the Imperial Japanese Army and simply takes the job …show more content…

He trains the army to fight the samurai, whom have been the people and culture that has inhabited Japan for many years. After training them for a while, they have their first battle with the Samurai. The battle seems to be completely unfair as the Imperial Japanese are terribly under trained and the soldiers have no battle experience what so ever. The samurai dominate the opposition and send them in retreat in a matter of seconds, killing them as they run away. Algren is left in the midst of the battle and is circled by about 5 samurai warriors defending himself with only a spear. One knocks him down and stands over him preparing to put a sword through his chest but before he can do so Algren grabs the spear and shoves it through the samurai’s neck. The other samurai move in to kill him but are stopped by their leader, Katsumoto played by Ken Watanabe. He is finally apprehended but

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