Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Yesterday, Stax Flixburg published his review of THE LAST SAMURAI, a script I gave our own Mr. Beaks to read when he was here in LA recently. He’s been mulling it over for a while, and finally has put his thoughts to paper. As always, it’s a delight when Beaks gets busy on something like this, so check this out...
Tom Cruise does not have an Oscar, but he does have Pat Kingsley, which means he has the PR machinery at his disposal to grant him this eternal Hollywood wish on some fortuitous Sunday night in February should the stars align to bless him with the right role, and since he has CAA to manipulate the cosmos for him, this gold statue should be a foregone conclusion, correct?
Should Hollywood logic follow, it should be, as he’s currently undergoing rigorous physical training for his next role in THE LAST SAMURAI, a bloody, rousing 19th century historical epic from GLADIATOR scribe John Logan to be directed by the able Ed Zwick. Slated to begin production in October, the script has been described as “Dances with Samurai”, a fitting moniker until the film heads off in a direction very similar to the director’s own GLORY. No matter. What better way to assure Tom’s Oscar success than with a melding of two popular Academy Award winners from the last fifteen years? And while Logan’s script may be strenuously straightforward and familiar, it’s also undeniably satisfying in the same broad-brushstroke manner as previous Oscar winners like BRAVEHEART, A BEAUTIFUL MIND and TITANIC.
Cruise will be playing the role of Captain Woodrow Algren, a retired U.S. Cavalry officer lured by wealthy Japanese industrialists, fronted by the cartoonishly insidious Prince Omura, to train the country’s first Imperial Army. Though he’s currently waging an internal scorched earth (a little opium and a whole lotta whiskey) battle over his role in a massacre of a small band of Sioux Indian during his post-Civil War frontier taming duty, the extravagant sum these men are willing to pay far exceeds the meager salary he’s currently pulling down as a Winchester spokesman; thus, he finds himself aboard a steamship headed for Japan.
Of course, Logan wisely turns this Pacific expedition into an instrument for historical exposition; ergo, we learn through Omura of the Japanese government’s centralization following the Shogun’s surrendering of their power, which has led provincial warlords to relinquish their authority in return for “economic incentives”. There have, however, been certain recalcitrant regimes; most notably, a band of displaced Samurai led by Mori Katsumoto, a magnificent warrior best described as something of a Japanese Geronimo. Despite his legendary status, the new Imperial government wants Katsumoto and his rebellious samurai put down; a task expected to be at once a practical defeat of rebellious elements and a symbolic transference of might from the old guard to the new Imperial Army.
Suddenly, it’s clear why Algren has been selected; this is to be a “policing hostiles” situation, as bluntly described by the Captain’s loyal compatriot, Sergeant Zebulon Gant – a role that would be fittingly essayed by Anthony Edwards, if you catch my meaning. In other words, Algren is to be thrust back into the same kind of morally precarious situation that caused his current meltdown in the first place; a questionable move, though his commanding officer, the steely, no-nonsense Colonel Benjamin Bagley, assures Prince Omura that Algren is “not one for causes… Just point him at the enemy, and off he goes. He was born for it”.
Finally, the party arrives in Yokohama, where Algren is introduced to his translator, a sickly Englishman named Simon Graham, through whom he will command his charges. As they ride a palanquin to the American Embassy, Graham assumes the exposition duties from Omura, illustrating how Japan has gone from sakoku – a closed country wherein all foreigners were considered barbarians – to a hotbed of modernization. As Graham informs us, chief among the country’s concerns is attaining most favored nation trading status with the United States. In other words, these nascent industrial concerns are running the show. This receives a visual elucidation in a subsequent scene at the Imperial Palace, where Prince Omura ominously whispers in the ear of the seventeen-year old Emperor before he delivers a brief oration on the benefits of modernization, in which the warlords, including Katsumoto, are described as an impediment to “a national harmony that embraces all castes”.
With the historical implications in place, Logan now thrusts us into the first echo of GLORY; a training montage where Algren’s leadership talents are put to the test by a woefully incompetent collection of soldiers. After fully assessing their shortcomings, Algren hits upon a unifying concept which he expresses to his counterpart, General Yoshitaka. “They need a flag.” This exchange occurs as the two men stand against a “majestic red sunset”. And if you’re expecting Zwick to steer this script toward subtlety, remember that he’s the director who had Matthew Broderick gallantly splitting watermelons with his saber in GLORY.
Logan follows this scene with our first glimpse of a samurai in action: as Algren and Graham walk and talk on a crowded Tokyo street, they bear witness to a middle-aged swordsman, UJIO, being disrespected by two Western-minded Japanese youth. Though most pedestrians on the street part for the warrior, these youngsters refuse to show deference, and, to Algren’s shock, Ujio beheads one of them for his disobedience. Algren’s horror quickly turns into fascination, and it is here that Graham explains the tragically paradoxical quandary of the samurai: they have vowed to serve the emperor to their death, but their death sentence has been issued by their liege himself.
As Algren struggles with his sobriety, a monumental challenge made doubly so with his introduction to sake, he is ordered by Bagley and Omura to take his unprepared troops into battle against Katsumoto in his own province to clear the way for the railroad. Algren protests, but his concerns are scoffed at by Bagley, who lights into the Captain for overestimating his rifle-less enemy, and, most importantly, for displaying a lack of American resolve when the Germans and British are waiting in the wings to disrupt the U.S. alliance with Japan. Such a turn of events would prove disastrous to the potential arms sales sought by Remington, Colt and Algren’s old employer, Winchester. The dilemma made explicit, Algren and Gant lead their green troops into a fog-drenched battlefield where their distinct firepower advantage is overwhelmed by a masterfully executed battle plan by Katsumoto and his samurai, who decimate Algren’s troops to a man, leaving only the Captain and his counterpart, Yoshitaka, to face their fate. To Algren’s surprise, he is spared for the time being, though Yoshitaka is not so fortunate; he is granted seppuku – the ritual form of samurai – which entails your opponent holding your blade still as you fall onto it.
Nearly dead from the brutal rout, Algren is taken back to the samurai village, where he is cared for by the warrior Yoritomo and his family, including his beautiful wife, Taka (whose interest in Algren becomes more than just simple cultural curiosity, though it’s never a real plot complication), and their two children. Thus begins the chapter of the film in which Algren endures a torturous drying out period (by Ray Miland, Academy voters love these), followed by his gradual humanization. He trains as a samurai – becoming quite proficient with the sword, of course – and discusses with Katsumoto the nature of war and the true reason for bringing the railroad into this rough mountainous region (there’s coal in them thar hills).
It’s at the midpoint of Logan’s script where he unloads what’s sure to be the raved-about, bravura sequence of the film: a samurai versus ninja battle royal that, considering Zwick’s proficiency with the combat scenes in GLORY, could well account for multiple viewings from the coveted young male audience. It all unfolds at an inn where the samurai have put down for the night on their way to negotiate with the Emperor and deliver Algren in Tokyo. For the most part, it’s relentlessly brutal close-quarters combat, but all manner of weaponry are employed: shuriken, chain knives, throwing stars, nun-chaka….. if staged correctly, it’ll be like a Golan-Globus/Sho Kosugi chopsocky spectacular with production values, but without Lucinda Dickey (or that old Lee Van Cleef television show, THE MASTER, but good and without Timothy Van Patten). Just reading (and re-reading) this six page explosion of violence left me breathless. I’m now of the opinion that more prestige pictures should feature hand-to-hand martial combat between samurai and ninjas; it certainly would’ve done wonders for I AM SAM.
Finally, the battle weary samurai reach Tokyo, and the script slowly builds toward their final betrayal and massacre. Having gleaned from the shellacking Algren’s troops received at the hands of the samurai that greater firepower will be required to “tame” the crafty warriors, the U.S. army ships over the latest in battlefield technology, the Gatling Gun, which, as fate would have it, was the same weapon that accounted for Algren’s savage success in the Sioux campaign. Meanwhile, the Emperor repeatedly entreats Katsumoto to surrender his weapons and embrace modernity, a request with which the honor-bound samurai can never comply. This leads to Katsumoto’s eventual imprisonment; a cruel fate for a great warrior and one that Algren, with his newfound purpose – the “cause” that always eluded him – takes it upon himself to alter.
It’s all wrapped up in a final battle that recalls the Fort Wagner siege from GLORY in many remarkably similar ways, from the samurai’s utter hopelessness to Algren imploring Graham to tell the true story of what is to happen on the battlefield that day. Luckily, Logan’s a sure enough hand at storytelling to guide the reader past these familiar flourishes, and, as he did with GLADIATOR, drive home the theme of honor in battle, showing how man can display his finest attributes while engaging in the most despicable business of which he is capable.
With Zwick at the helm, Logan’s script should be brought to rousing life with relative ease, thus ensuring a vigorous run at the box office even as it fences with the likes of the probable likes of THE RETURN OF THE KING and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS. Less clear, however, is whether the role of Woodrow Algren is pitched to Cruise’s wheelhouse. As written, it’s definitely his best chance for an Oscar since he played Ron Kovic in BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY. And there are similarities – an ex-soldier haunted by the demons of war who inadvertently stumbles into his own redemption – but whereas Kovic afforded Cruise the opportunity to turn his well-cultivated persona as a clean cut, all-American boy on its ear, Algren is a different animal: he’s already a jaded, shell-shocked veteran, meaning that Cruise will be required to project a world-weary maturity right off the bat. If Cruise is unconvincing in the film’s opening scene where a drunken Algren listlessly shills for Winchester at a trade show, his chances at an Oscar could die right there. This will be a tricky, potentially transformative moment for Cruise, and though I admire Zwick, he didn’t exactly coax the most natural performance out of Matthew Broderick in GLORY.
In the end, I really do think it’s going to come down to that one moment. If Cruise, as Algren, stumbles out onto that stage as a ruined man, the Oscar could well be his. If, on the other hand, it’s just Tom Cruise in a bad beard and mustache playing drunk with all the conviction of his work as Daniel Kaffee in A FEW GOOD MEN, then Pat Kingsley will have some unexpected vacation time through the 2004 Oscar season.
And the rest of us will have a blast watching samurai and ninjas cut each other to ribbons.
Faithfully submitted,
