The Last Samurai

[ramymensa]

but....

 

he was the 'narrater'...

 

he was the one telling the story of the last of the samurai.

 

he can't die for that reason.

 

it would've ruined the story-telling mechanism.

 

(despite it being flawed in the first place...)

 

or am i being too pedantic here...

 

It could be like in American Beauty. You remember Kavin Spacey's character dies and "lives" to tell the story "from above". This could have ruined "The last samuray" plot forever

[Drunken Monkey]

well, it kinda works in american beauty cos it was just his life doing the 'flashing before his eyes' thing.

 

it wouldn't have worked in the last samurai cos if he was telling his story from the grave, he wouldn't have been present for the emperor's 'stand'.

 

anyway, as i said before, i never thought that tom cruise's character was the last samurai.

 

rather he was just some (lucky) guy who got to spend time with the last of the samurai (the guys from that village), which you must remember, is a social class which algren does not and could belong to (hence, he is not the last samurai)

 

he might've been recognised as a kindred spirit but that does not make him 'one of them'.

 

he was telling their story.

[kchenault]

Actually the narrator was the British photographer, but we got glimpses of story from the Algren character through his journal. The narrator said he didn't know what happened to the American, but liked to think he lived out his days in Japan.

[siufeifei]

The narrator was the photographer but the words were Algren's. That way, you got to see things that Algren wasn't party to. However, i would say that the main story teller was still the Algren character. It just happend to be that his words were being read by the photographer.