BBB.5
(out of 5)
After participating in a number of Civil War battles (many of which helped decimate the populations of natives in North America), an embittered, drunken veteran (Tom Cruise) follows his superior officers to Japan in search of big money. He has been hired by the emperor to train the country’s army in the technology of gun battle and help bring the nation up to par with the rest of the “modern” world. The Japanese leader’s enemies are a small faction of samurai who have rebelled and insist on keeping to the old ways of sword-fighting and clinging to now-outdated codes of honour. After being captured by these warriors, Cruise ends up being trained by them in ancient arts of sword-wielding and growing to love their ways. When it comes time to fight in battle again, he fights for the first time not as a mercenary soldier but as someone who is following his heart onto the battlefield; unfortunately, his newfound purpose in life occurs at the very time that the idyllic world of tradition is being destroyed by the winds of change. This enjoyable battle epic features an excellent, charismatic lead performance by Cruise, and makes up in rich cultural and period detail what it lacks in character development and original storytelling. The plot basically follows the cookie-cutter development of life-changing period epics, but many of the themes are relevant and are at times quite powerful. The personalities of the performers (especially an outstanding Ken Watanabe as the leader of the samurai rebels) still allows for the action scenes and their results to be very emotionally involving.
USA, 2003
Directed by Edward Zwick
Story by John Logan, Screenplay by John Logan, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz
Cinematography by John Toll
Produced by Tom Cruise, Tom Engelman, Marshall Herskovitz, Scott Kroopf, Paula Wagner, Edward Zwick
Music by Hans Zimmer
Production Design by Lilly Kilvert
Costume Design by Ngila Dickson
Film Editing by Victor Du Bois, Steven Rosenblum
Cast Tags: Aoi Minato, Billy Connolly, Chad Lindberg, Hiroaki Amano, Hiroshi Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hisao Takeda, Jiro Wada, John Koyama, Ken Watanabe, Kenta Daibo, Koji Fujii, Kosaburo Nomura IV, Koyuki, Lee Murayama, Makoto Hashiba, Masashi Odate, Masato Harada, Mitsuyuki Oishi,Noguchi Takayuki, Ray Godshall Sr., Ryoichi Noguchi, Ryoichiro Yonekura, Satoshi Nikaido, Sôsuke Ikematsu, Scott Wilson, Seiji Mori, Seizô Fukumoto, Shane Kosugi, Shichinosuke Nakamura, Shimpei Horinouchi, Shin Koyamada, Shinji Suzuki, Shintaro Wada, Shoji Yoshihara, Shun Sugata, Sven Toorvald, Takashi Kora, Takashi Noguchi, Takeru Shimizu, Takeshi Maya, Timothy Spall, Togo Igawa, Tom Cruise, Tony Goldwyn,William Atherton, Yuki Matsuzaki, Yusuke Myochin
Academy Award Nominations
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ken Watanabe as “Katsumoto”)
Best Art Direction (art direction: Lilly Kilvert; set decoration: Gretchen Rau)
Best Costume Design (Ngila Dickson)
Best Sound Mixing (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Jeff Wexler)
Golden Globe Award Nominations
Best Performance By An Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama (Tom Cruise)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Ken Watanabe)
Best Original Score-Motion Picture (Hans Zimmer)
National Board Of Review Awards
Best Director (Edward Zwick)
Top Ten Films
Screen Actors Guild Award Nomination
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Ken Watanabe)
