Just wanted to say that i watched this film last night and thougth it was very good.

If you are into Martial Arts, expecially the JApanese MA's you will love this film. I was very surprised by the inclusion of Ninja's as well. Excellent stuff.

Tom Cruise was supposed to have trained for 10 months before the film began shooting. It definately shows. He was excellent in his role as he never looked uncomfortable with a sword in his hand.

There are a few bits in the film where you will be like "aye right" but you will make exceptions to these as the film is throughly entertaining.

Big Bear

Yup a good movie. I think though I would like to see see a documentry, or read a book regarding the true events the flick was baised on.

hey get the dvd it has a warrior within segment that goes into the historical stuff.

I love that movie!

I can tell you somewhat the events that this movie was based on.Once the Meiji empire had begin to "westernize" or modernize Japan a samurai,Saigo Takamori(Katsumoto is the subsitute in the movie) revolts and tries to rid the government of modernazation.At one point Takamori had actually aided the Meiji reign. Anyways fighting between Saigo and his samurai and the government lasted for about 6 months. At one of the final battles Takamori asked a close freind(Tom Cruise is the subsitute in the movie) to cut off his head, which he does. The death of Saigo marked the end of official samurai status in Japan.

yes the movie was excellent i watched it at the cinema when it first came out.I seen it at least another six times since.All the fighting in the movie is brilliant.Tom cruise must have really worked hard to become that good with a sword.Definitely one to watch.
best wishes
e.m.b

By far my favorite martial arts film ever, just due to the fact that it shows the focus and dedication it takes to master whatever it is you strive to do, physicaly and spiritualy. it's a great movie, i recomend it to everyone especialy MA practicioners, (it'll make you want to go train when you are done watching it!)

When I first saw the previews to this movie, I thought "DEAR GOD NO!! TOM CRUISE IS GOING TO DESICRATE WHAT THE SAMURAI STANDS FOR!!!" I went to see the movie just out of curiosity...and by the end I was weeping T_T Katsumoto died a good death! BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!

I wanted to like the movie but I just couldn't due to the presence of Tom Cruise. In my opinion it just seemed like the whole Captain role was just introduced as an excuse to have a white main character in a samurai movie...

Also, the fact that EVERY single asian good guy died was sort of depressing. I know some asians who were a little peeved about that.

These are all just my opinions of course.