The Last Samurai/YMMV

• Base Breaker: Nathan Algren
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Two words: Hans Zimmer.
  • For starters, there's "Red Warrior", which has samurai yelling war cries as part of the song.
  • Reportedly, he had been studying Japanese music to make sure he had it right, and was subsequently asked by Japanese composers how he had captured it so well.
• Fan Dumb/Hate Dumb: Anyone who thinks Cruise is playing the title character. Not like this was the first time such a thing happened with a movie title.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Katsumoto's death, plus Algren's determination, show the Emperor and the Japanese people the value of Bushido. We all know how that turned out.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "Bob" is The Voiceless, not unlike another Bob.
  • One moment that can be funny with the right audience -- ninjas bursting through walls. "Damn those paper walls. They can't keep anything out."
  • The Total War: Shogun 2 expansion pack "Fall of the Samurai" is focused around the modernization of Japan (as well as the conflict of conventional Japanese weapons against guns and cannons), with you being very capable of reenacting the movie's final battle.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Kastumoto, a Expy of Saigō Takamori, leader of The Satsuma Rebellion, a revolt of ex-samurai against the Meiji government from January 29 to September 24, 1877, 9 years into the Meiji Era. Historically, the reason why the Satsuma Rebellion was so dangerous was because it was an important manufacturing center for cannons. Paintings depicting the revolt show that Takamori's forces had plenty of guns while the well-uniformed Imperial forces mostly only had swords!
• I Am Not Shazam: Algren is not the last samurai, Katsumoto is. See Word of God. Or, alternately and arguably more appropriately, the last samurai are Katsumoto and his men, since the word is both singular and plural.
• Moral Event Horizon: A certain massacre of a Native American village by Bagley, the raid being in response to attacks on his forces from around the region. Note that while it's clear that this event (which, while horrific, is implied to be nothing particularly notable from Bagley's point of view causes Bagley to cross the horizon for Algren and presumably the audience, it's some way into the film before we actually learn why the latter hates the former so much.
• Tear Jerker: The samurai's charge almost breaks through... but then they are coldly gunned down by the army's new Gatling guns. Already emotional enough, but then Hans Zimmer's score turns it into an incredibly gut-wrenching spectacle.
  • Moments later, Algren helps Katsumoto commits suicide... and as Katsumoto is dying, he sees a Cherry Blossom tree in bloom. As he sees the blossoms fall, he says: "Perfect. They are... all... perfect...". Pass the Kleenex, please.
  • The conversation between Algren and Taka's oldest son, where they both admit being scared, ending with the boy begging him to just go already as they both try not to cry. The hug makes it even worse.
• Values Dissonance: The audience is supposed to sympathize with the rebellious remnant of what, art and culture aside, amounts to a hereditary caste of armed thugs who retained carte blanche to abuse and kill commoners for offenses that we would in modern terms find ridiculous and petty. Rendered mostly superfluous during the relative peace of the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai either spent their time absorbing resources produced by the peasants and prosecuting internecine conflict or were pressed into the role of bureaucrats- the forerunners of the modern Salaryman.
  • Most of these 'petty abuses' amount to lack of manners. It could be argued that lack of manners is a deep crime in a pre-industrial society with as high a population density as Edo Japan.
  • Also in universe, as much of the Character Development and plot advancement come from comparisons between Eastern and Western approaches to honor in combat, and in general.