The Last Samurai: History vs. Hollywood

1. The Last Samurai:History vs. Hollywood Dan Moran Adam Romani Kevin Stewart

2. Hired Consultants • In the The Last Samurai the Americans are hired to train the Japanese army. • In real life though Japan modeled its army after Germany's, Britain’s navy, Germany’s constitution, America's education system, and the French trained their soldiers.

3. Altered History • The Last Samurai producers knew that the audience would mostly be Americans so they altered the story to appeal to audience and American people.

4. Jules Brunet • In The Last Samurai Captain Algren was the American who went and joined the samurai. • His character was slightly based off of Jules Brunet who was a French officer sent to Japan to modernize the Shogun’s army. He remained in Japan and went North to join the samurai and created his own army to rebel against Imperial forces. • After fighting for the Japanese he went north and captured one of Japans islands and created his own army and set up a government system.

5. Aspects of Japan • Westerners that went to Japan and stayed there adopted the dress, language, and culture of the normal Japanese life. • In The Last Samurai, Captain Algren was captured, but decided to stay. • He could have done this mainly because of the simplicity of their culture. • Hollywood properly portrayed Japanese culture by basing it mainly on honor and each other, rather than money and selfishness.

6. Lack of Respect • A British traveler once said, “Japan offers as much novelty as, perhaps, an excursion to another planet.” • This means that westerners didn’t have respect for Japan in the late 1800’s. • This is accurately shown in The Last Samurai when the westerners refer to the Japanese as savages, and expect Captain Algren to be miserable after he was captured. • The westerners were very stereotypical.

7. Impossible Relations • In The Last Samurai, Taka and Algren end up apparently falling in love. • Since the end result most likely would have been marriage, this makes the situation highly unlikely to happen. • In historical Japanese culture, marriage is not based on love. The marriages are arranged by the bride and grooms parents and they barely have a say in what they get to do.

8. Negotiation with Emperor • In the movie, the emperor refuses to sign a treaty with westerners. • In all reality, after all the westerners did for Japan, Japan would have been obligated to sign the treaty. • If the emperor would have refused they probably would have went to war. • The reason why the movie ended this way was Hollywood wanted to create a happy ending.

9. Accessing the Emperor • In the movie westerners walked in and just talked to the emperor like he was just another man. • The level of respect westerners had for the emperor was nowhere near the Japanese citizens respect for the emperor. • In reality, the westerners would have had to go through a long line of people just to get their ideas to the emperor. • If Algren would have went up and talked to the emperor like that in the 1870’s he most likely would have been killed.

10. Hollywood History Lessons • People with no background knowledge of early Japanese history would have a distorted view of the events that occurred in the late 1870’s. • Events that happen behind the “magic” of Hollywood are not historically correct. • The battle or climax of the movie lasted a day in the film, but truly the rebellion lasted three months. • Also the film portrayed a downsized army for both sides.