The Last Samurai

So I'm all doped up and flipping through the channels last night when I stumble upon Cinemax (a/k/a Skinamax). As usual there was a horribly produced soft core porno on about some cow girl ghost and two lesbians who have sex with every man they can find.
There was 20 minutes of it left, so I checked to see what was on next. The movie on deck was 'The Last Samurai'. I assumed it was another penatrationless porno till I saw the description. It had Tom Cruise and Ken Wantanabe in it. Not really B flick actors. So I watched the rest of the LesboGhostSlutWestern and then watched The Last Samurai.

Holy shit was that a good movie. (The Last Samurai, not the porno.)

Here's the story from the official website:

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.

The movie went really well with the book I am reading, called 'Flyboys', about fighter pilots from WWII, including George Bush (not Dubya). It was an interesting look into the true history of Japan, prior to the 'civilized' nations turning Japan into the monster they became in WWII.

Sometimes I think that I was alive in the wrong time period. I think that I would have made a pretty good samurai. I have the will of the warrior deep within me, but I can't unleash it, thanks to like laws and stuff...

Anyway, if you're wanting to see a good action flick with lots of blood and people, outnumbered, with swords whooping the shit out of people with guns, this is your movie. It's also good if you like samurais and stuff as well.