The Last Samurai

“I’d like to think he found a small measure of peace, the kind that so many search for and so few ever find.”

I just saw “The Last Samurai”. It is a fantastic film. I love the concept — a very jaded and disillusioned Civil War “hero” is hired by the Japanese emperor to assist in modernizing Japan’s army. Fresh from the dirty business of slaughtering and/or relocating American Indians, the man is again faced with the unsavory task of confronting Japan’s own brand of indigenous warring people: the Samurai.

Captured by one Samurai band in combat, the man slowly learns what peace can mean. And what powerful visions of grace he finds at the hands of his captors? Truly the scandalous kind, and he repays it with the forfeiture of his own heritage. What better honor than to fight alongside your former enemy in common brotherhood, and to dine with your former adversary in true community?

Oh, that I could find what Nathan Algren does. A small measure of peace after a life of searching.

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