The Last Samurai
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 5, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
20
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Film ThreatChris Barsanti
Director Edward Zwick has an ace up his sleeve, in addition to all the glorious scenery and pulse-pounding battles, and that’s Ken Watanabe. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
All its themes are laid out like index cards on a screenwriter's bulletin board, and each plot turn seems so inevitable that you'll think you saw this movie in a previous life. (You did.) Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
The Last Samurai is an idyll in which the savageries of existence are transcended by spiritual devotion. That’s a beautiful dream, and it gives the film a deep pleasingness, but the fullness of life and its blackest ambiguities are sacrificed. Read full review
60
L.A. Weekly
The only history that bears a real influence on The Last Samurai is the history of Hollywood moviemaking, and the unfortunate way it has of turning extraordinary stories into hopelessly ordinary ones. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Most watchable during the majestic brutality of the battle sequences. This is not only because of the handsome staging, but also because the keywords sacrifice and honor are evoked with verve and simplicity, more so than in the "exchange of idea" chats between Algren and Katsumoto, which sound like statements being read into the Congressional Record by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Unwilling to offend, Zwick whitewashes a culture in which brutality and contemplative beauty were inextricably intertwined and, afraid to alienate audiences, he shies away from the story's logical downbeat conclusion, replacing it with an "ambiguous" ending that recalls, of all things, "The Road Warrior." Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
In The Last Samurai, the body count is almost as high as the dead-brain-cell count. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
There are pleasures to be had in the handsome, heroic The Last Samurai. But they' all on the surface. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
When the script, by Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and John Logan, doesn't sabotage the images, and the great cinematographer John Toll turns action into poetry, The Last Samurai emerges as a haunting silent movie. Read full review
50
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Patently intended to be a serious exploration of a cultural encounter, but this intent withers through a lack of writers' gravity and a mass of action clichés. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
As rich in period and historical background as it is deficient in fresh dramatic and thematic ideas. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Zwick can’t find anything fresh in this deeply pious East-meets-West stuff. The movie comes close to dying between battle scenes. [8 December 2003, p. 139]
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
What it lacks is artistry, those small touches of personality that might have distinguished its lugubrious history lesson from a bunch of pretty pictures with captions telling the story. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
This is a Tom Cruise vehicle, pure and simple, and that means it's destined to be the biggest chunk of guilty white-boy wish fulfillment since Kevin Costner got down with the Sioux in "Dances With Wolves." In fact, the parallels are all but plagiaristic. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Worst of all, nothing happens that we don't see coming. Nothing. If, as Nathan seems to believe, surprise is a crucial element in any campaign, then The Last Samurai might win a battle or two for your attention but is doomed to lose the Oscar war. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Less a heart-stirring historical study than a nostalgic fantasy, built on a foundation no firmer than Cruise's superstar persona. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Too many mind and the story grows tedious or absurd. No mind and the spectacle suffices.
50
USA TodayStaff [Not Credited]
Never recovers from its failure to grip or engage in the early going. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A crock - a pandering epic that's as phony as it is condescending. Read full review
40
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Watanabe's charismatic performance and a couple of colorful minor characters aside, The Last Samurai has little to recommend it. Read full review
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