Last Samurai, The

A veteran of the U.S. Civil War, Captain Nathan Algren (Cruise) is hired by the Emperor Meiji to train a Japanese army as Western soldiers to defeat samurai warriors. Upon arriving in Japan in 1876, Algren is met with great uncertainty but steps forward to complete the job for which he is hired. His army is comprised of mere peasants with little or no experience in battle, and they are expected to go up against the samurai Katsumoto and his sophisticated rebels much too soon. When Algren is captured by the enemy, he is taken to their village and kept so that Katsumoto may learn more about this strange Western warrior. But what Algren would never have expected was how much he was to learn and inevitably respect the ways of the samurai. "The Last Samurai" is another stirring Civil War-era epic directed by Edward Zwick ("Glory"). (Suzanne Hodges)