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Mistakes

When Algren is packing to leave, Colonel Bagley picks up the note that the young boy had written for Algren. In the close up, you can see the paper is light blue at the top and a light pink at the bottom. When Algren takes it from him and smooths it out, it is suddenly all light blue. See more...

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In scene 32, Katsumoto and Algren ride through the line of troops and as Algren dismounts, his horse kicks out at the soldier to the right of the camera and hits him in the groin. The soldier bends over with the impact, backs up, then bravely straightens up again as the scene continues. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

The Last Samurai (2003) - 27 corrections

Directed by Edward Zwick, starring Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly, William Atherton (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, War

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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Entry When Katsumoto tells Aldrin that they have clear passage to Tokyo, he pronounces Tokyo with three syllables (Toe-kee-o) as would an American, whilst the proper pronunciation has two syllables (Toe-kyo). Despite the fact that they are speaking English, this mistake wouldn't have been made by a native Japanese speaker. [This is disproven by itself; Ken Watanabe, the actor playing Katsumoto, IS a native of Japan, and as we can clearly hear he pronounces "Tokyo" with three syllables.]
Corrected by Twotall Time
Entry When Algren is talking to Katsumoto about General Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn, he states that Custer leads a single battalion against 2000 Indians. Katsumoto asks, "How many men for Custer?" Algren replies, "211." A battalion is actually made up of 5 companies of approximately 200 men each. Therefore, if Custer would have taken a battalion to Little Big Horn, his accompaniment would have been closer to 1000. [Incorrect. At the time of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the entire 7th Cavalry regiment, Custer's unit, consisted of just 45 officers and 718 troopers, 166 of whom were not present on the battlefield, having been detached for other duties. Prior to the assault, Custer divided his troops into three battalions of varying size, taking the largest group, consisting of just over 200 men with him, a group that would subsequently be completely wiped out in the famous Last Stand. It may not match what you think should be the right numbers, but Algren's statement is historically accurate.]
Corrected by Tailkinker
Entry Some of the Japanese phrases were either mistakenly or deliberately (probably for effect) mistranslated in the subtitles. For instance, when Katsumoto has his audience with the Emperor, the latter requests his teacher's advice. When the subtitle says: "... my teacher", he is saying "oshiete", which actually means "tell me" or "teach me". Likewise, when Taka offers Algren her late husband's armor, she says "ureshii". In the subtitle, it is translated: "I would be honored", whereas it really means (in this context): "I would be happy". (Of course, it would take some basic knowledge in Japanese to spot these mistakes) [Absolute literal translations from Japanese to English frequently yield unexpected (sometimes humorous) results. The point of the subtitles is to correctly relay the substance of the conversation, not a word-for-word translation.]
Entry In the scene when the Imperial Japanese Army is fighting the Samurai for the first time in the forest, Algren is knocked from his horse. He is then fighting several Samurai foot soldiers. During the fight he is stabbed in the right shoulder with a spear. Later in the village Taka is sewing up a wound in his left shoulder. [He was stabbed several times and in several different locations.]
Entry In the final battle where the samurai first assemble behind barricades, before making their strategic retreat behind the hill, the Japanese army kills a number of them with cannon fire. Yet, when the Japanese army pursues them, the bodies have disappeared. [I count at least 2 dead bodies, and there is a lot of smoke and many wooden barricades where more samurai could lie and we don't see.]
Entry During the final battle, there is a close-up of a samurai's foot stepping on the back of a dead soldier. You can tell that there is thick padding inside the soldiers jacket in the upper shoulder area. [The soldiers are going up against guys with big swords, if it were me I'd stuff my jacket with anything I could get my hands on in an attempt to lessen/deflect a sword blow. Clearly this is futile as the swords can cut through muskets, but you can't blame a guy for trying . . .]
Entry When Algren wears Taka's dead husband's armour, it is in pristine condition. At the beginning of the film Algren killed Taka's husband by stabbing him - surely the armour should have a hole in it? [Algren stabs Taka's husband in his unprotected throat - his armour is never touched.]
Corrected by Tailkinker
Entry At the very end of the samurai's last charge, the Imperial army bring out the gatling guns. After a few seconds of firing, you can see in a close-up shot of the ammo feeder that the magazine is half-empty. The gun fires for a minute or so more, far long after the magazine should've been depleted, with no time spent reloading. [There are 3 gatling guns, you can see all of them when they are ordered to stop firing. It is reasonable to say thet they were firing alternatively to provide regular flow of bullets, instead of having them fire all together for 15 seconds, then stop for 20 seconds to reload (giving to the samurais time to come close enough) and then fire again.]
Entry As Algren is fighting with the training sword in the rain, one of the times that he is beaten down by his adversary, his opponent hits Algren's sword so hard that the sword falls out of Algren's hand. Then immediately in the next shot, Algren is getting up with the sword in his hand as if he never let it go. [The sword falls straight to the ground, a few centimeters under Algren's hand. It would take no time to grab it again.]
Entry It was the British and Germans/French who trained a modern military for Japan, not the U.S. [At the end of the movie the Emperor refused to sign the treaty with the Americans, and Omura referred to treaties proposed by the British and French when the American ambassador was pushing for the treaty's approval. We can assume that one of the competing offers was accepted in lieu of the American treaty.]
Entry Algren says that he was in the Battle of Little Bighorn when he is on the stage. It cannot be true, because the only survivor from this battle was a horse. All of General George Custer's men died in this battle. [Algren could legitimately claim to have been present at the Battle of Little Big Horn. A second group of men under Major Reno fought a desperate action at the Little Big Horn separate to that of Custer's and many of these men survived the Battle.]
Entry If Japan is being modernized and the samurai have been gone for over 200 years, shouldn't the ninja be long gone as well? [Ninja are not gone, even to this day. Though samurai may no longer carry a daisho(long and short sword)or have authority, people are still trained to be like them in their combat/physical and spiritual/mental abilites.]
Entry The last samurai battle in Japan took place in 1600 at Sekigahara and the last significant military action of any sort was during the Shimabara rebellion of 1637. So by the time the events of this film take place, the samurai have not fought or even seen a battle for over two hundred and fifty years. Yet, in the film, they are as skilled at large scale battle tactics as any 16th century army. These tactics take decades of experience and practice to get even approximately right and no amount of "sword swinging" in the fields can substitute for real combat in a good old bang-up war. Twelve generations of samurai had come and gone and the only military action they had seen was as police officers and bodyguards. No wonder they lost. [While the last great battles may have been a long time ago, the discipline of the samurai still made them enemies to be reckoned with. Also, as the 1900 Chinese Boxer Rebellion proved again later: even the greatest courage and hand-to-hand fighting skill is hardly a match against massive modern firepower.]
Entry At the last charge of the Samurai, they fall in droves to the Japanese army. The armour the samurai wore was designed to withstand blows from high pressure per impact katana swords, it would have resisted the rifle shots from the Japanese infantry more effectively than shown, maybe not from the Gatling guns but definitely from the rifles. [Not so. It was mainly designed to resist slashing attacks. In fact, most of the time Japanese armor wasnt even 'armor' at all, just woven silk, padding, and light metal, sometimes even wood. The purpose of the armor was to offer minimal protection, while full mobility for the samurai to move. Samurai put most of their faith in avoiding any blow, rather than letting his armor withstand it, which is why they needed such mobility. Even if a katana were to strike them, there would still be a pretty good chance the armor wouldn't be able to absorb it. Similarly, a gunshot would easily penetrate most samurai armor. Some of the more wealthy samurai were able to wear Euoropian type breast plates that offered more protection, but still they may or may not resist a rifle shot. In fact, you'll notice that once firearms became the major weapon in battle worldwide, armor was completely done away with, as even the heaviest full plate of armor wouldn't be able to withstand most rifle shots.]
Entry In Japanese culture, non-close friends and relatives are never referred to without showing them respect by adding "-san", "-sama", "-chan", "-kun" or "-sensei" to their names when mentioning them. Leaving these out (in most cases) would be extremely rude. However, when speaking in Japanese, Katsumoto and the others speak normally, but when speaking in English with Algren he does not use those at all. This continues even when Katsumoto has started to regard Algren as his equal. Please note that this is most likely a deliberate choice in order not to confuse the viewers who are unaware of this fact. [No, it only shows that Katsumoto is well-versed enough in Occidental culture that he knows that when speaking in English, one does never to add an honorific after names (unless you count calling someone "Mr. Whatever" a honorific). Only those Japanese who are not proficient in another language tend to still add the honorific.]
Corrected by Sereenie
Entry Near the beginning, the first time Algren goes to train the troops, and at the end, the general says they will leave to ambush the samurais troops at 6 A.M. However, seeing as he is in the military, he should've said 0600. [The 24 hour clock was not in use yet in the late 1800s.]
Corrected by Sereenie
Entry Throughout the film you can see in the backgrounds some ferns in the forest, but there are no ferns in forests in Japan, as it was filmed mostly in New Zealand. [As far as I could see, they are cycads, not ferns. And cycads do grow in parts of Japan.]
Entry At the beginning of the film, during the sideshow shot, you hear the show playing the song "Bonnie Blue Flag," which was a southern war hymn. The lyrics go something like, "Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights, hurrah!" Not something that a Union officer would be a part of. [Considering Algren was a disillusioned drunk, who's to say what he would have been a part of for $25 a week.]
Entry Algren and later Taka are shown bathing in a smoothly-finished cement bath, something you would not see in a remote village in 1877 Japan. [I can't see any evidence of cement, it may be smooth lined, but it's carved into the rock.]
Entry During the last charge of the Samurai, they are riding face-first into single-shot barrel-loading howitzers. I believe there were only 6 to 8 of them. However, as they charge, there are literally dozens of explosions from the howitzers, far more then what a battery of them would be capable of firing even with a quick loading crew. Furthermore, the absolute first time the Howitzers fire, they adjust aim, a relatively slow process. In the final charge, the impact of the Howitzers is keeping pace with their advance. [Yes it is true there are not that many howitzers but if you watch the DVD closely you will see that there is a rank of cannons behind them firing on the advancing Samurai troops.]

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