The Last Samurai (2003)

The Last Samurai rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.8/10· 499K votes

Rotten Tomatoes65%

Metacritic55%

TMDb7.605/10· 8K votes

With 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.8/10 on IMDb and 55/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been mixed.

About The Last Samurai

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

Cast of The Last Samurai

• 

  Tom Cruise

  as Nathan Algren

• 

  Ken Watanabe

  as Moritsugu Katsumoto

• 

  Timothy Spall

  as Simon Graham

• 

  Tony Goldwyn

  as Col. Benjamin Bagley

• 

  Hiroyuki Sanada

  as Ujio

• 

  Koyuki

  as Taka

• 

  Shin Koyamada

  as Nobutada

• 

  Billy Connolly

  as Zebulon Gant

• 

  Togo Igawa

  as General Hasegawa

• 

  Shichinosuke Nakamura

  as Emperor Meiji

• 

  Masato Harada

  as Omura

• 

  William Atherton

  as Winchester Rep

The Last Samurai facts

Budget

$140M

Box office

$456.8M

Our take on The Last Samurai

Edward Zwick's 2003 war drama follows Nathan Algren, a disillusioned American soldier hired to train Japan's imperial army in modern warfare as the country pushes toward rapid modernization. Confronting the samurai he is meant to help crush, Algren instead comes to respect their discipline and honor, and ultimately takes up their cause against the forces erasing their way of life. Expect sweeping battlefield spectacle, handsome period craft and a story of cross-cultural transformation and redemption. It suits viewers drawn to epic historical drama, martial-arts action with emotional weight, and themes of honor and belonging. Those wary of the outsider-embraces-another-culture arc should know it leans fully into that romantic framing.