Tom Cruise played former U.S. Army captain Nathan Algren in The Last Samurai.
Released in 2003, the film was directed by Edward Zwick and set in Japan during the 1870s. Algren is a fictional American veteran hired to train the Imperial Japanese Army, but he becomes involved with samurai resisting rapid military and political change.
Cruise also served as a producer and performed much of the character’s physical work during the production. Ken Watanabe played Katsumoto, the samurai leader whose character is loosely inspired by Saigō Takamori, a historical figure associated with the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion.
The film is often discussed alongside historical accounts of Japan’s modernization, although Algren himself is not a real historical person. It also takes considerable artistic liberties with the samurai’s final resistance and with the relationship between Japanese and foreign characters. The movie received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Watanabe.