# Message of The Last Samurai (spoilers)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/message-of-the-last-samurai-spoilers/257799>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 1, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/message-of-the-last-samurai-spoilers/257799 "2004-08-01T01:35:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/message-of-the-last-samurai-spoilers/257799/21 "2004-08-02T22:38:16Z")

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> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> The led the army, they defended from bandits & pirates. No samurai? Then you have bandit-lords “squeezing their livelihood out of the peasantry”.

Where do you think feudal nobility comes from? Royalty is what happens when bandit-lords have children.

I agree with the OP, and have made the same argument on the boards before, most articulately in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=267554&highlight=samurai) thread. Bottom line: _The Last Samurai_ was a very pretty movie that wanted desperately to have a Message, but was too stupid to pull it off.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/message-of-the-last-samurai-spoilers/257799/22 "2004-08-03T02:01:48Z")

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“Tom Cruise is the last Samurai? …I should direct a movie called ‘The Last Ni$8&@ on Earth’ staring Tom Hanks.”

-Paul Mooney

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**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/message-of-the-last-samurai-spoilers/257799/23 "2004-08-03T02:14:49Z")

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> [@xtisme](#):
>
> And you are totally correct…they WERE a bunch of useless parasites. That was by design in fact…samurai that were writing poetry and writing about the angst of battle weren’t out causing rebellions or killing people. However, when you stagnate your society eventually it comes back and bites you on the ass…big time.

It was worse than that – samurai were useless parasites by the end because they were generally _forbidden_ to do real work. Some exceptions were made for the lowest ranking samurai, but the rest weren’t supposed to dirty their hands with common tasks. They were paid (but not much) by the government, and any other money coming into the household was usually the result of the women. They often took in laundry or sewing, and daughters might be sold to geisha houses or even brothels.

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