Spall adds that, in fact, several famous expatriate photographers lived in Japan during the Meiji Restoration and says that Zwick steered him towards one in particular. "Ed is the most well-informed director I’ve ever worked for," he says. "There isn’t an aspect of this era that he doesn’t know about. I think he gave everyone a book that their character might be based on or influenced by. Mine was about a chap named Lafcadio Hearn, an American in Japan around this time who, like Graham, is completely taken by the culture."
Billy Connolly stars as Zebulon Gant, a character he considers "the archetypal non-commissioned officer who has license to be impertinent with his superior Algren because they are old friends. When Gant is hired to train Japan’s modern army he tracks Algren down to get him involved too, because they’ve both tried civilian life and they’re no good at it."
Connolly found The Last Samurai to be "a great story, a very heroic tale," but it was his personal interest in Japan that also attracted him to the project. "I read a great deal about Japan and had been there a couple times. I love the culture," he says, "and thought Ed and Marshall got it exactly right. They obviously have a great respect for the traditions and sensibility they’re portraying. I’d always thought that tales about the Samurai would make a dramatic subject for modern film. I believe audiences will be impressed by the loyalty that the Samurai have for each other and the allegiance between Algren and my character, Gant."
One of the UK’s top comedians, Connolly’s career has expanded into television and film, and he’s adding dramatic roles (notably 2002’s White Oleander) to his award-winning comedic performances. Says Herskovitz of the two-time BAFTA nominee, "Billy Connolly is one of the funniest men I’ve ever met and just a joy to watch." Regarding the actor’s casting, he says, "Ed and I always loved watching Victor McLaglen in the John Ford films, all those cavalry films with John Wayne. McLaglen would play the second in command. He was an Irishman playing a Scotsman and partly as homage to that we hired Billy Connolly, a Scotsman to play an Irishman."
Tony Goldwyn, so memorable as the charming but traitorous villain who pursues Demi Moore’s character in Ghost, delivers a thoughtful and effective portrayal of Col. Bagley.
From Algren’s point of view, Bagley is evil. Algren vehemently disagreed with Bagley’s decisions during the American Indian Wars and now, as he grows to admire the Samurai, Bagley’s allegiance to the opportunistic and anti-Samurai businessman Omura confirms Algren’s negative opinion of his erstwhile comrade-in-arms. To the filmmakers, the Colonel might be less evil than just typical.
"Ed and I talked about making him very much a man of his time," offers Herskovitz, "because, in fact, his outlook was the norm. Algren is more in tune with indigenous people, with the American Indians and later with the Samurai. That type of thinking is an anathema to Bagley, who’s a pragmatist and an empire builder, someone who believes without question that Western civilization is superior. He believes that the elements of American culture he helps bring to Japan – everything from munitions to democracy to a free market system – are gifts that this backward nation should gratefully accept. From a moral and philosophical perspective, Algren and Bagley come from completely different places."
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