The Last Samurai vs A League Of Their Own

Tom Cruise is the most distinctly modern actor I can think of. It’s near impossible for me to imagine him existing before the invention of email, or say, clear braces. In movies like Jerry Maguire, he’s great, playing the sort of guy who probably gets told “Hey, you look just like Tom Cruise!” I think his best performance is in Minority Report, and it’s no doubt because it places him in a post-Tom Cruise future, where he can finally get a little rest.  In director Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai, we get Tom Cruise 1876, to mostly good results, even if it’s never fully plausible that Tom has gone back in time.

Cruise stars as Nathan Algren, a Civil War Captain who, now that the war is finished, is a drunk performing at gun shows. He’s haggard, rude, worn out and plagued by battle flashbacks. He’s hired by the Emperor of Japan to train a modern, gun-toting, Americanized group of soldiers to replace the ancient Samurai protection the Emperors had utilized for centuries previous. The new recruits are confused by the language barrier, and many are simply too nice and sheepish to be soldiers. Long before the troops are ready, they’re sent to battle against the Samurai. They don’t fair well. Algren fights as long as he can, even killing the red armor-wearing leader, but is taken hostage.

As a captive of the Samurai, Algren is treated more like an honored guest. He’s well-fed, and housed in the home of the man he killed, with the remaining members of the family. His widow, Taka, is resentful of Algren’s presence in her home, but given no say in the matter, treats him with hospitality and respect. Taka is played by an actress named Koyuki, and she’s graceful and pretty, and makes frequent Meaningful Eye Contact with Algren, though, thankfully, there’s very little in the way of romantic cliché. Taka never fully forgets that Algren killed her husband, but does come to respect him as a warrior and a member of her home and village.

Algren has less luck warming up to the rest of the village. The male Samurai—even the very youngest--spend their down time sparring with swords and staffs. Algren eventually joins them, and is schooled over and over, especially one rainy day. Later, he begins to find comfort in the village, with its traditions and routines, and his fighting improves as well. He also gains respect and a tentative friendship from his former rival, Katsumoto, played by Ken Watanabe. Apparently, Watanabe is a big star in his native country, but this is the first time I’ve seen him in a movie. He’s fantastic, matching Cruise scene for scene, and providing a striking physical presence in the battle scenes. By the way, the fight scenes are incredible. One, involving ninjas, is especially cool and makes good use of shadows and confined spaces. The major battle scenes are reminiscent of Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, Kill Bill, you name it. Every war movie tactic is employed here, and they’re brutal and exhilarating to watch. Before the most important battle, with the now quite-proficient Japanese Army, Algren puts on the red armor of the man he killed at the beginning of the movie. Conveniently, he leaves off the helmet and face mask, never letting us forget that he’s Tom Cruise. By that point in the movie, I didn’t blame him one bit. Honestly, I think he’s good in the movie. His performance is all about intensity and emotion, and even if I didn’t believe for a second that Tom Cruise was anyone other than Tom Cruise, well, I did come to believe that the events of the movie happened to Tom Cruise. And I figure, if Tom Cruise is going to fight on your Samurai team, you want to advertise that fact a little.

The Last Samurai has three endings, at least one too many. The first befits the dark and brutal tone of the battle scene that proceeded it. The second is an odd shout-out to dignity, or nobility, or the Golden Globes or something (and for some reason, paraphrases the Braveheart poster). The third and final is the one you probably expected all along. Whether or not Algren has earned his happy ending is pretty much a guarantee. Whether or not The Last Samurai has is debatable.

So, a superstar playing a drunk, burned out from his former profession, but lured back in to train a rag-tag group of rookies in a period movie…where have I heard that one before?

In A League of Their Own, Tom Hanks stars as Jimmy Dugan, former pro-baseball player, current drunk, soon-to-be coach of the Rockford Peaches, one of the first all-female baseball teams in the major leagues. It’s sort of Tom Hanks’ first grown-up part, or at least the first where he gets to throw his weight around a little. I think it’s one of his best performances. He’s funny, sad, weathered, pathetic, and,--a rare quality for superstars in movies—real. Tom Hanks makes Jimmy Dugan a living, breathing, 1940s baseball coach. The rest of the cast is great too. In case you’ve never seen A League of Their Own (you know, if you don’t have TNT, or maybe if you’re a LIAR), then here’s a primer:

Geena Davis and Lori Petty play sisters (and if you feel your mental image is betraying the movie, rest assured: they look nothing alike). While Geena’s husband, Bill Pullman, is away at war, she and Lori are working the family farm and spending their weekends kicking ass down at the local ball diamond. With the war taking ball players away, a candy bar magnate (Gary Marshall) decides to put his money behind an all-girls league. The earliest scenes are some of the best, with Jon Lovitz as the league scout, and Davis and Petty meeting the rest of the potential players, including Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell…uh, hold on, there are others, I swear…um…oh yeah, there’s a girl who can’t read, and uh…the one who isn’t as good looking as the others but hits homers all the time, and a Cusack, and…ooh, the girl who cries.

So, Dugan whips them into shape, kind of, and finds himself, a little. The real pleasure of A League of Their Own is in its shocking freedom from preaching. Aside from one brief scene about racism, it’s mainly just baseball. Everybody’s good, (and looking at that cast, there’s bound to be a few you’re thinking won’t be good. In this one, they’re good.), Penny Marshall’s direction is well-paced and smart, and Squiggy makes a cameo.

The question is, will you find anything worthy in a repeat viewing of A League of Their Own a decade after its release? Movies from twenty, thirty years ago are no problem. A movie that is ten years old, however, we tend not to be as forgiving of.  Relax. A League of Their Own is set during WWII, so it’s not like there’s Vanilla Ice references, or Arsenio Hall playing the best friend. The only early-nineties nostalgia you might feel is for League’s missing cast.

Aside from Hanks, the cast of A League of Their Own is largely absent from movies lately, which, in the case of Geena Davis, is too bad. If anyone deserves a comeback, it’s her. I mean, come on, how many other actors are Oscar winners, Olympic-level athletes, Mensa members, and patented inventors? Shit, Kevin Costner still gets leading roles, and he can’t even catch a baseball while doing the splits.

There are moments in A League of Their Own that still make me smile. The curfew-breaking night at the jitterbug bar; “There’s no crying in baseball”; Jon Lovitz; and of course, any scene where Lori Petty doesn’t speak. And, unfortunately, there’s a moment that makes me cringe: the ending. It’s set in the present day, and has aged versions of the players visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame, catching up, and hugging and getting all cheesy. No matter how many endings The Last Samurai threw at me, it never went this route, and for that I’m grateful.

The Last Samurai: B+

A League Of Their Own: B