Last Samurai bears the signature of Tom Cruise rather than his director, Zwick, who confirms to be a fairly good one: his is a direction without ups and downs, predictable but extremely enjoyable. Overall the film is very nice and the meticulous representation of a culture so far away from us keeps our attention high until the end, despite the two and a half hours in total. Visually precious, unfortunately three faults too common in today's Hollywood cinema stand out: the moral "a la Rocky Balboa" excessively pervasive and at the limit of nausea; the cumbersome dialogues and never a flicker; Why is the moral greatness of others (in this case the samurai) recognized, is there always an American who is a little bit bigger?
Directed by Edward Zwick
Subject John Logan
Screenplay John Logan, Marshall Herskovitz, Edward Zwick
Producer Marshall Herskovitz, Edward Zwick, Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner, Scott Kroopf, Tom Engelman
Radar Pictures production house, The Bedford Falls Company, Cruise / Wagner Productions
Distribution in Italian Warner Bros. Pictures
Photography John Toll
Editing Victor Du Bois, Steven Rosenblum
Music by Hans Zimmer
Set design Lilly Kilvert, Gretchen Rau
Ngila Dickson costumes