The Last Samurai

I just finished watching the movie. I've had it for a while, but I haven't felt like sitting down to watch a 2.5 hour movie. Silly me. It was awesome. I am amazed that an American production could so completely capture the essence of Zen. This is without a doubt one of the best movies I have ever seen.

The last battle is perhaps the only movie battle where I was not on the edge of my seat. Why? Because there was no doubt how it would end. And yet it was beautiful, serene even. For the Samurai, it was not about winning. It was about showing their enemies the cost of making war on them. About showing them what they had lost. The Tao te Ching says that in war, people act as though at a funeral, because that is all that it is. There are no victors. Only those who die and those who live. What victory is there in that?