Herskovitz, who soon joined the writing team, adds that while the story and characters are purely fictional, the filmmakers painstakingly endeavored to achieve an overall level of authenticity in all aspects, "a faithful evocation of that period in Japanese history and of the principles and values of the Samurai. We tried to be accurate and respectful. We consulted experts, established contacts with academics and screenwriters in Japan and enlisted many Japanese specialists and personnel as part of the production. We wanted to get it right."
As for the themes running through The Last Samurai, Herskovitz believes they are not only genuine but timeless. "The story about an individual who must come to terms with his loss of honor and self, and his subsequent journey to reclaim that honor, to trust himself again to make the right decisions, applies to any time in history but certainly now, when we are surrounded by the compromises of modern life."
As The Last Samurai unfolds, audiences experience the physical, emotional and spiritual turbulence of this exotic and contradictory era through Captain Algren. Says Zwick, "As he discovers it, so do you; as he is moved by it, so are you."
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