Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

We watched "The Last Samurai" last night and it is definitely a well done movie with excellent acting, cinematography and story.  For the first time, I noticed that it is ultra romantic, like "Last of the Mohicans' and "Dances with Wolves".  Each has a caucasian central character who embraces the tribal culture of a people undergoing swift and huge transformation.  Algren falls in love with Japanese culture:  the samarai code, the Buddhist philosophy, the simplicity of the life in the mountain village.  In the end, he leaves his own heritage to become an honorary Japanese.  In "Mohicans", Nathaniel is already half Mohican, having been raised by Chingnachcok, and he flows easily from one culture to another, although he has already chosen to be Indian.  Costner's character in "Dances" like Algren, is war weary, suffering post traumatic stress disorder, and ripe for a change of values and a dose of spirituality. 

Some of the scenes in "Last" have the look of Hokusai or Hiroshige prints.  There is a sense of time travel back in time, even if that era is fast slipping away.  Costner is pulled backward in time as well.  It is patently true that a person can be born into one culture but feel out of joint and "fit" more successfully into another.  All three of these heroes find their hearts and homes in tribal structures.  They are not really wild west individualists, they are beings who long for interconnectedness.  Ken Wantanabe's samarai warrior immediately sees his connection to Algren, and opens himself to learning about another culture.  After initial hostility, Algren responds.  This curiosity is the key to the attractiveness, liveliness and admiration we feels for these characters.  Wantanabe is fantastic in this role, for which he was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar.  The battle scenes are wonderful, and as in "Dances" so sad.  These warriors have seen too much.  They each make a retreat to heal themselves.  Algren's is at the village as he is healing from wounds.  Costner's is at the Sioux village and by himself on the plains.  Nathaniel retreats at the end, mourning his lost brother and what he has seen.  He and Cora head south for Kentucky, away from the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars.  Algren will disappear back into the village to live out his life.

There is nothing wrong with a romantic view of tribal people as long as you are aware that the picture you are getting is filtered through a white man's lens and not authentic.  After all, there were many older movies that romanticized pioneering whites as they killed the savages.  Such a picture may be beautiful, and lovely to look at, but it does not represent the way it was.  This is not history, folks, it is romance.  As such, it is a fine romance.