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East of Little Big Horn "The Last Samurai" puts a Yankee in the Emperor's court and lets Tom Cruise show off his swordsmanship.by Jonathan V. Last 12/05/2003 12:00:00 AM     Email a Friend   Respond to this article THE ADAGE that every generation gets the president it deserves applies equally well to popular culture. We get the TV shows, pop songs, and cinema we deserve. Movie stars, too. The greatest generation got Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, and Cary Grant. (Bogart and Tracy served stints in the Navy.) For their sins, the Boomers were given Warren Beatty, Robert Redford,...

A disillusioned young man ventures overseas, where he encounters a band of warriors dedicated to resisting the modernization of their country. The warriors follow a patriarchal code of martial valor and spirituality that appeals to the young man and he joins the group. But their opponents—nationalists who seek to improve their country’s infrastructure and introduce governmental reforms--pursue the warriors and eventually defeat them through the superiority of their military technology. Sound familiar? The story of John Walker Lindh—who left the bourgeois comforts of Marin County to “find himself” among Afghanistan’s Taliban? Or perhaps a tale of some misguided soul who...

Seems my initial thoughts concerning the new Tom Cruise movie may ring true, according to one of the reviews at Ain't It Cool...It will be interesting to see if there is any outcry over this...Will he be fighting any US soldiers in the end or just the new Japanese army? Is the West viewed as the bad guy? It would appear so...those evil Westerners... From Ain't It Cool News: Review: ...Don’t worry, though, because Mr. Cruise also has some fine moments. Most notably when he is dealing with the disgust he has for being a part of the genocidal white...