Back in the 1970's, before the TV miniseries, Shogun...
Before sushi became popular with upper middle class folks in California...
Before Quality was spelled with a capital "q".
Geek culture in Silicon Valley began to assimilate Japanese culture and values.
After all, geek engineers in the Valley had way more in common with their Japanese counterparts than they did with the work force in most of Middle America. Japanese and Valley engineers both worked from early morning until 7PM then went out with their co-workers to meet up with friends, eat and drink beer. One almost universal geek activity in the Valley was to go see samurai flicks at that theater in Palo Alto, the one with tables you could sit at and guzzle beer while you watched the movie.
After seeing a couple hundred samurai flicks, you realized it was usually a morality play - good vs evil. Like Star Wars. Or Clint Eastwood Italian Westerns. Still, when you saw a really good samurai film you left the theatre feeling a little "morally uplifted" or some lesser emotion in that same direction, depending on how much beer you drank.
The "Last Samurai" film was able to induce a vivid flashback to that era (unlike LSD which never produce on that promise). I got that morally uplifted kinda buzz just like back in the 1970's!! So I liked this movie, big time. Even though Tom Cruise was in it. I was just glad he didn't try to play it like a strutting rooster as he did in "Pop Gun" or whatever it was called.
Before sushi became popular with upper middle class folks in California...
Before Quality was spelled with a capital "q".
Geek culture in Silicon Valley began to assimilate Japanese culture and values.
After all, geek engineers in the Valley had way more in common with their Japanese counterparts than they did with the work force in most of Middle America. Japanese and Valley engineers both worked from early morning until 7PM then went out with their co-workers to meet up with friends, eat and drink beer. One almost universal geek activity in the Valley was to go see samurai flicks at that theater in Palo Alto, the one with tables you could sit at and guzzle beer while you watched the movie.
After seeing a couple hundred samurai flicks, you realized it was usually a morality play - good vs evil. Like Star Wars. Or Clint Eastwood Italian Westerns. Still, when you saw a really good samurai film you left the theatre feeling a little "morally uplifted" or some lesser emotion in that same direction, depending on how much beer you drank.
The "Last Samurai" film was able to induce a vivid flashback to that era (unlike LSD which never produce on that promise). I got that morally uplifted kinda buzz just like back in the 1970's!! So I liked this movie, big time. Even though Tom Cruise was in it. I was just glad he didn't try to play it like a strutting rooster as he did in "Pop Gun" or whatever it was called.
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