Analysis Of The Movie 'The Last Samurai'

The definition of a hero varies from one person to another. Our society made people think that heroes are only the ones they see on television, and they have to have supernatural powers, but actually not all heroes wear capes. A hero is considered a hero by many aspects. A hero is someone who stands to make a difference, who is not afraid to make a stand, who is brave enough to fight for his/her beliefs, and who has a vision of change. Moreover, looking carefully at any movie from any century or even culture, a person finds out that it usually tells a story about a hero’s journey; therefore, almost every story out there follows a certain pattern and go through all the same stages. The famous writer, Joseph Campbell, had a theory in his book showing that almost every story follows a specific sequence (Campbell, 1972). For example, the famous movie “The Last Samurai” which is actually based on true events of Jules Brunet, who was a French army captain. The movie explains a journey of a warrior, called Nathan Algren, who was offered a job to train the Japanese army by a Japanese businessman named Omura, and one day, he had to fight against the samurai, and the result that he lost the war and was taken by the samurai, but he decided to spare him. After living with him for a while, the warrior became so close to them and learned a lot about their traditions, and the samurai was Nathan’s enemy, but after getting to know him more, he actually became his friend.