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The post-Christmas period provides, among other things, opportunity to catch up on movies and DVDs which I have not had time to watch during the year. So far the count - since Christmas Day - is up to 11.
Last night E (my wife) and I sat down to watch The Last Samurai, a Tom Cruise epic set in the 1870s. The film offers interesting insight to different values and insights of different cultures, particularly related to death. One clear example is the idea of "an honourable death", so entrenched in many parts of the world, yet alien to the West, which tends to see all death as a waste.
The practice of the 18th century upper classes of having an image depicting death adorning the walls of their living areas (as depicted in the series Status Anxiety, the TV series and book by Alain de Botton) reflects a vastly different attitude to life and death than that which prevails today.
The movie was not one which initially appealed (at least, to me), but it kept us both to the end - which was not bad consdering we had planned to watch the first hour or so, then defer to another night....
Posted by gary at January 9, 2005 02:47 PM
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