Zwick's movies have often been about honor, such as The Last Samurai and its dealings with the bushido code of the samurai. "First in college and then for years after, I read a great deal of Japanese history," Zwick said. "I was deeply moved by Ivan Morris's The Nobility of Failure, which tells the story of Saigo Takamori, one of Japan's most famous figures, who first helped create and then rebelled against the new government. His beautiful and tragic life became the point of departure for our fictional tale.1"
Just like Edward Zwick, the fascination for the stories that developed into the movies started early, whether it was is fascination with trebuchet's and other medieval siege weapons to the battles of the times that are still important today.
"You might do a magnificent job of creating an unfamiliar world a far place, a far-off time, or both with the most skilled filmmakers and the best technology available. But at the end of the day, you have to make sure that world is inhabited by people whose lives and fates we care about and whose story has something to say to us. The Crusades were a sometimes glorious, often tragic, and world-shaping series of events that are still having an impact on events today. I hope that in opening a cinematic window on that time, we're doing the job that good drama is meant to do: to excite our emotions, stir our souls, and make us think, all at one We set out to tell a terrific story from a supremely dramatic age not to make a documentary or a piece that aims to moralize or propagandize.2"
Both directors seemed to hold enough interest in the time periods they covered to understand the historical perspective, but also understood the entertainment factor: People that go to see samurais want to see samurais fighting, and those who go to see knights expect to see some good battle scenes.
The best way to compare the two films would be to discuss the codes for the warriors in each movie. In Kingdom of Heaven, it does not discuss chivalry, because in essence, chivalry is still 200 years removed from the knighthood.' There is no system of heraldry to identify knight clans and any knight can dub another man a knight. The closest we have to the accuracy of a pre-chivalrous code would be when Balian is knighted by his father, based from the 12th century source L'Ordene de chevalerie, describing the procedure as this. "The candidate was first bathed, the bath symbolizing the washing away of his sins. Then he was clothed in a white robe symbolizing his determination to defend God's law.In the church he was invested with his accoutrements: the gilded spur, to give him courage to serve God; the sword, to fight the enemy and protect the poor people from the rich.' Finally, he received the colee, a blow of the hand on the shoulder or head, in remembrance of Him who ordained you and dubbed you knight.2" It was a warrior class whose sole purpose was to defend God's law and righteousness.
In The Last Samurai follows the warrior code of bushido, that grew from the bonds of unwavering feudal loyalty to the vassal, or the patron-client system. It borrowed heavily from Bhuddism and Confucianism in the aspects of emphasizing duty and loyalty to one's superior, heroic courage, honesty and justice, polite courtesy, compassion, and complete sincerity as a complete way of life. It was taught as the standard of conduct for samurais, and as we see at the end of the movie, is what is melded together with industrialization for the cult of emperor worship until 1945.
Both movies covered the time periods in general very well, though not necessarily painting the exact historic figures entirely accurately. But, just as both directors stated, they understood the historical context but also understood that the audience wanted a good dramatic story. In the comparisons, we can see the warriors' of each locale and time period underwent different measures of training and followed certain codes. To understand the two different types of warriors and their time periods, one must actually do some secondary studying, the movies will not do the trick. However, for a good two to three hours spent, the movies are entertaining and provide a bit of insight into the minds of knights and samurais.
Resources
1."The Last Samurai" http://lastsamurai.warnerbros.com/html_index.php. Nov 26, 2005
2. Scott, Ridley and Nancy Friedman. Kingdom of Heaven. Newmarket Press. New York,
NY. 2005. pgs 8-33.
3.Scott, Ridley. Kingdom of Heaven. 20th Century Fox. 2005.
4. Zwick, Edward. The Last Samurai. Warner Brothers. 2003.
