The Last Samurai

Went to see The Last Samurai over the weekend, some big epic stuff to keep me tied over till Return of the King. I got my dose of big epic battles, but there is a real problem with the movie: What the heck are the samurai fighting for? The movie is filled with talk of honor, courage and whatnot but the fighting really seems to be about the right to fight. The basic plot of the movie is that the Emperor of Japan is eliminating the samurai from Japanese society and the Samurai are fighting to stay. Oh ya, Tom Cruise switches sides halfway though the movie but thats not what I worry about. What I worry about is a bunch of jumped up warlords, lording over their peasants getting the Hollywood treatment. Samurai are worthless! They do nothing productive, they don't farm, fish or make anything. They just train all day. The only thing they are protecting "their" people from are Samurai from another provence. The imperial army isn't going to burn the village and kill the children Tom Cruise loves so much. All the army is going to do is cut off the Samurai's top knots and take away their swords so they can't hurt anybody. The Samurai are part of the feudal system just like European Knights are and to people living in Post-Modern America they can seem pretty romantic with their honor and chivary. But feudalism is just a protection racket. Thugs with swords promise to keep away other thugs with swords long as the peasants do all the real work. Trust me being a peasent in this system sucks. The Samurai take what they want and can kill you without consequence. So don't cheer for the Samurai. Cheer the peasants that shoot them down. They are not going to be peasents any more.