‘The Last Samurai’: the role that gave Tom Cruise someone to aspire to
Tom Cruise does his own stunts – we all know that. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to a moviegoing audience that his turn in 2003’s The Last Samurai was no exception. The bountiful period action movie, equipped with swordplay and horse riding, offered yet another opportunity for Cruise to flex his stunt muscles.
Preparing for his performance, which told the story of an American soldier aligning with the Samurai in a battle against industrialisation and modernity, Cruise undertook an intensive training regimen. The Mission Impossible star spent months training, ultimately gaining an impressive 20 pounds of muscle. Given the weight of swords and body armour, Cruise needed to be in peak physical condition to convincingly carry the load and embody the role.
Cruise, perhaps predictably, was not in the mood to downplay his commitment when asked about the process: “I worked for eight months to get in shape for this picture,” he said. “I learned kendo, Japanese martial arts, all manner of weapons handling. I not only had to ride a horse, but I had to effectively fight while riding.”
Cruise stated in a press release before the film’s release. “As far as training goes, you name it, I’ve done it. Several nights of double-sword fighting against multiple opponents, five days and one night of fending off murderous Ninja intruders, weeks of martial arts drills opposite my Japanese co-stars and finally, two months of relentless battle sequences. “
What might be more surprising to some is that the actor’s preparation process for the film went far beyond improving his physical stature or training for elaborate battle sequences. Cruise is not just ‘the guy who does his own stunts’. He is the ever-dedicated performer who once improvised one of Magnolia’s most heart-wrenching moments based on his own relationship with his father. With The Last Samurai, Cruise felt a deeper connection to the character – he “felt it in his gut” that he needed to make the film.
“That’s how I aspire to live my life, with integrity, compassion, honour, loyalty,” he confirmed. “Those are things I think about and that mean something to me. But in making the picture, I got to really get inside a different culture, one I’m absolutely fascinated by.”
In 2003, when the picture was released, he considered the role to be his greatest challenge. Cruise’s character, Captain Nathan Algren, was an amalgam of several different historical figures; three notable figures were Eugène Collache and Jules Bronet, two French officers who fought for the Shogun and Philip Kearny, the American Civil War veteran who fought against the Tutuni tribe in Oregon. The film itself takes many aesthetic, philosophical and thematic cues from these figures. As such, so did Cruise in his preparation for the role. Cruise immersed himself in the Japanese language, culture and history.
“The physical and the character went hand in hand. I basically assembled a small library – the history of the civil war, the American Indian, the Meiji period,” he recounted in an interview with the BBC. “I studied the Samurai culture of Bushido, and then there was the physical transformation. It was a great challenge. I didn’t know whether I’d be able to accomplish that. I didn’t know whether I would get there and realise my ambition for the character, for Algren. It took time. It took a lot of time to get that flexibility and mobility and strength to be able to do that.”
As a result of Cruise’s unwavering dedication, The Last Samurai has stood the test of time as one of director Edward Zwick’s greatest movies – and many consider it to be a picture that’s had a Herculean cultural impact.
