Word: samurai
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After spending the greater part of three years devoting himself wholeheartedly to the film as its co-writer, co-producer and director, Zwick knows quite a bit about the samurai...
...Last Samurai, set in the late 1870s, chronicles the fall of Japan’s revered samurai warrior class as the country modernized, wiping out lingering traces of its feudal past. Starring Tom Cruise as an American civil war veteran hired to train Japan’s first modern army and Ken Watanabe, it is a film intent on celebrating the samurai way of life, which is governed by the principles of its honor-based moral code, “bushido...
...bushido is just one of many aspects of the samurai that attracted Zwick to the film. His enthusiasm for Japanese history and culture blossomed from an academic interest to an personal one that included trips to museums—the feel of fabrics and swords and a slew of conversations with historians brought to life what had, until then, existed for him only in the abstract. Eventually, he says, his interest brought him to Japan...
...preoccupation with cultures and societies in the midst of a transformation. He says he found Japan’s route to modernity to be a “particularly wrenching transition,” and thus chose to zoom in on an aspect of it in The Last Samurai...
...voice-over narration device that guided the unfolding events of “My So-Called Life” is echoed in The Last Samurai, as well as in Glory. In the two films, however, the narrator is mostly reading from personal letters written about war’s hardships and rewards. Zwick believes that the voice-over technique is not just a narrative device, but also a vehicle for authenticity...