Samurais and Knights: Analysis of "Kingom of Heaven" and "The Last Samurai"
A main goal of a filmmaker, be it the producer, director, writer, or anyone else involved in the creation of the story, is to entertain an audience. This is a very simple statement, but one that has many different variations in getting to the main goal. However, even though entertainment is the single most important aspect of filmmaking, or at least in today's high dollar film industry, those involved in the story also want to bring out specific ideas and historical perspectives, because the more the audience thinks while they are laughing, thinks when they are crying, and thinks long after the credits have rolled, the better for the creators to judge the level of entertainment they brought to their audience.
One of the most expensive and exposed types of movies would be the epic saga.' Usually these movies are historical in nature and revolve around developing a story around some sort of soldier who becomes the hero.' In studying the Japanese Samurai and the Medieval Knight, there are two movies that I watched to see how the creators of the movies brought out their stories from the historical times: The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, and Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom. First, I will give my own critique, then I will give a brief explanation from the directors of the film, then I will make a comparison of the two films.
Nobody living today was alive during the times that these two movies covered. It is hard pressed to say what it really was like, but we, as the viewers can look from the historical perspective to see how close these stories accurately depicted the warriors of the time and location. Even though both of these movies give a decent insight about the eras and warriors being covered, they are entertainment stories, not documentaries.
I feel that these movies are art forms, and stories to be told considering that they are loosely based on factual events. But in being loosely based on facts, one must consider what they are based on. We know that the character Kotsumoto in The Last Samurai is based on Takamori Saigo, a very powerful warrior and statesman who helped to overthrow the shogunate and give way to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Also, the young Emporer Mutsuhito was trying to modernize a country who, though used to have the best warriors in the world, was falling far behind. The United States Navy arrived in Japan in 1853, and the arms deals that were discussed in the movie are accommodations to the developments into modernization of weaponry that the United States and other western powers helped to usher in.1
In Kingdom of Heaven, the King of Jerusalem portrayed was in effect King Baldwin IV, and the great Saracen general Saladin was a portrayal of the same Saracen leader, who both lived at the same time and held great respect for each other, though they still looked out for the interests of their own nations. The different knights show the values of knighthood through Balian, the main character (representing Balian of Ibelin who defended Jerusalem at the end of the Christian rule), and the radical Knights Templar, who sought to destroy everyone in the name of Christianity.2
The stories are supremely dramatic and I feel they did a good job at entertainment; however, it is nearly impossible to consider every factor and develop every character in a two to three hour story. Both movies are bogged down by chunky moments' of clich epic dialogue and monologues, both are dragged into the choppy development of the reluctant hero who makes a statement far away from his own home, but in the effect of the roles as warriors, this can be the case. Even though both grossly oversimplifies the clashes of two different cultures (the old ways of Japan and modernization compared to Christian Europe and the Muslim dominated Holy Lands) the development for the individual understanding of the warrior code to the unknowing audience is done pretty well, be it chivalry for the knights or bushido for the samurai.
But what about the filmmakers? Even though the audience can critique the movie as much as possible, we must understand why they did these movies and what there motivation was.
Edward Zwick, the director of the movie The Last Samurai, said that famed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa was probably one of the main reasons he became a filmmaker. Also an avid student of history, his favorite part of Japanese history was the transitional period of the mid 19th century. "In every culture, that moment of change from the antique to the modern is especially poignant and dramatic. It is also wondrously visual. Each image, each landscape, each room tells the story, the juxtaposition of the old and new. A man in a bowler hat strolls beside a woman wearing a kimono. A man firing a repeating rifle faces a man wielding a sword.1"
