"Frankly," he continues, "what also attracted me was that we all three shared such enthusiasm for the subject. When I first started talking with Ed, he was so passionate and excited about it; he was like a 15-year-old boy, jumping around the room, painting the scenes with his hands. And he brought that passion with him throughout production."
Zwick’s films have often explored the complexities of war and honor. To dramatize the differences as well as the common ground between a Western soldier and a Samurai warrior were irresistible. "First in college and then for years after, I read a great deal of Japanese history," Zwick relates. "I was deeply moved by Ivan Morris’s The Nobility of Failure, which tells the story of Saigo Takamori, one of Japan’s most famous figures, who first helped create and then rebelled against the new government. His beautiful and tragic life became the point of departure for our fictional tale."
The change from feudal Japan to a more modern society meant the demise of certain "archaic" customs and values epitomized by the Samurai. For many years, they held a highly respected place in the social order. Like England’s knights, Samurai soldiers protected the lords, or, in this case, the Shogunate, to which they had sworn fealty. As the knights upheld their system of chivalry, the Samurai lived by a code called Bushido, "the way of the warrior," which emphasized, among other things, loyalty, courage, fortitude and sacrifice.
In contrast to the modern weapons the West now offered Japan, the Samurai seemed anachronistic to the proponents of progress. This new lust for all things modern left no room for the Samurai with their fabled swords and old-fashioned notions of honor, exemplified here by their last remaining leader, Katsumoto (played by Ken Watanabe) and his few devoted
warriors. Katsumoto’s challenge is to maintain his personal principles in a society that no longer values them. His struggle, especially in combination with Algren’s own reluctant spiritual journey, appealed to Zwick.
"I’ve always found the core values of the Samurai culture to be both admirable and relevant," he explains, "in particular, the understanding that violence and compassion exist side by side and that poetry, beauty and art are as much a part of a warrior’s training as swordsmanship or physical strength. Also, I’m interested in the unexpected possibility of spiritual rebirth reaching those lives for whom it seemed the least possible." Addressing his desire to combine these elements in The Last Samurai, he says, "Our story is a romantic adventure in the broadest sense of the word and, at the same time, a very personal odyssey. The challenge is to create a story in which the relationships rival the larger context, the inner landscape resonating against the epic canvas.
"The character of Katsumoto is as intriguing to me as is the character of Algren," Zwick continues. "Personally, I identify with his dilemma and see how it applies to many other aspects of modern life."
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