This article is about the film. For the unrelated novel, see The Last Samurai (novel). For other uses, see The Last Samurai (disambiguation).
The Last Samurai
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Edward Zwick
Screenplay by
John Logan
Edward Zwick
Marshall Herskovitz
Story by
John Logan
Produced by
Marshall Herskovitz
Edward Zwick
Tom Cruise
Paula Wagner
Scott Kroopf
Tom Engelman
Starring
Tom Cruise
Timothy Spall
Ken Watanabe
Billy Connolly
Cinematography
John Toll
Edited by
Steven Rosenblum
Victor Dubois
Music by
Hans Zimmer
Production companies
Warner Bros. Pictures[1]
Radar Pictures[2]
The Bedford Falls Company[2]
Cruise/Wagner Productions[2]
Samurai Pictures, LLC[2]
Distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates
November 20, 2003 (2003-11-20) (Tokyo)
December 5, 2003 (2003-12-05) (United States)
Running time
154 minutes[3]
Countries
United States
Japan[4]
New Zealand[4]
Languages
English
Japanese
Budget
$140 million[5]
Box office
$456.8 million[5]
The Last Samurai is a 2003 epic period action drama film directed and produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz from a story devised by Logan. The film stars Ken Watanabe in the title role, with Tom Cruise, who also produced, as a soldier-turned-samurai who befriends him, and Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Tony Goldwyn, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Koyuki in supporting roles.
Cruise portrays Nathan Algren, an American captain of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, whose personal and emotional conflicts bring him into contact with samurai warriors in the wake of the Meiji Restoration in 19th century Japan. The film's plot was inspired by the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, led by Saigō Takamori, and the Westernization of Japan by foreign powers.[a] The character of Algren is based on Eugène Collache and Jules Brunet, both French Imperial Guard officers who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki in the earlier Boshin War.[6]
The Last Samurai grossed a total of $456 million[5] at the box office and became the 6th-highest-grossing film of 2003. It received praise for the acting, visuals, cinematography and Zimmer's score but criticism for some of its portrayals. It was nominated for several awards, including four Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two National Board of Review Awards.
^"The Last Samurai". New Zealand Film Commission. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
^ abcd"The Last Samurai - AFI|Catalog". American Film Institute. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
^"The Last Samurai". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
^ ab"The Last Samurai". Lumiere. European Audiovisual Observatory. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
^ abc"The Last Samurai (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
^Loudcher, Jean-François; Faurillon, Christian (2017). "The influence of French gymnastics and military French boxing on the creation of modern karate (1867-1914)". Martial Arts Studies. 11 (11): 80–11. doi:10.18573/mas.135. ISSN 2057-5696.
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