'The Last Samurai': a production of epic proportions

By Steven Rea
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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"The Last Samurai," set in this period, was also a very dramatic shoot. Production crossed three continents — two weeks in Japan, seven weeks in Los Angeles and five months in New Zealand, where a team of 200 carpenters built a samurai village outside of New Plymouth, on the country's North Island. Filming began in 2002 and went well into 2003.

"It was a very long and very tough shoot, just in terms of the physical demands," says producer/co-writer Marshall Herskovitz, on the phone from Washington just before Thanksgiving. At times, the production crew swelled to 1,200: 300 to 600 Japanese extras, 400 New Zealanders and a U.S. contingent of 200 to 300.

"When Tom (Cruise) turned to us one day and said, 'Well, this is the biggest movie I've ever worked on,' we all got a little bit scared," Herskovitz recalls, laughing. The decision to shoot in New Zealand, home of the Hobbits and warriors of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was based on economics and landscape.

"Japan today is very different to how it was in 1876," says the producer. "And although there are unspoiled areas, they're very remote. It was difficult, just in terms of the logistics, to make it work."

Director Edward Zwick "did a lot of scouting in Japan," Herskovitz reports, "and then a lot of scouting in New Zealand, and there were a lot of things to recommend New Zealand — obviously the open spaces, which are remarkable there. Where we built the village, you could turn the camera literally 360 degrees and not see anything of the modern world."

Cruise, who speaks some Japanese in the film, is surrounded by a cast of great Japanese actors: Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada and Koyuki, the popular model-turned-actress who portrays a widowed villager at first repelled by the Westerner ("He smells," she says) and then compelled to throw a lot of moony glances his way. Brits Billy Connolly and Timothy Spall and American Tony Goldwyn also star.

Logistically, the most difficult undertaking for Herskovitz and Zwick was the picture's climactic battle, in which a mass of rifle- and cannon-equipped imperial soldiers face the noble, sword-slinging — and seriously outnumbered — samurai. More than 50 horses were deployed.

"The battle scene had every single department head very nervous for many weeks," says Herskovitz. "There was a lot of physical danger in it from the weapons and in terms of the horses. It was just on such a huge scale.

"And also, it was such an articulated battle. It wasn't a battle scene where they come, they clash, and it's over. This was a battle scene that had, basically, three acts and told a lot of story. So, that raised the level of difficulty tremendously. In the end, it took us 31 days, with two units working all the time, to film that one sequence. I get tired just thinking about it."

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company