Historian Reacts to The Last Samurai: How Accurate is it? 

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The two flags you make mention of are meant to be signal flags, we see this later when they are waving in the air and the American advisor says the attack had been stalled. These flags would be waved in specific ways to denote a meaning across distance. This was used a lot in the American civil war

04:59 if activision were the responsable of this movie this weapon would be a MG-42

The flags are the US Army Signal Corps "Wig Wag" flag. These flags were used to pass information or messages. Great video!

10:52 actually its not shown in this edited clip but the US officer/advisor(?) on the Imperial army side advised sending in skirmishers first. The leader (i forget the names) at 4:38( the one that says commence firing) said something along the lines of "nonsense full attack"(Forgot actual quote). Basically something like that.

the flags you see are what's called "semaphore" flags. they are used to communicate over long distances to denote troop movements and commands

During the last battle scene (which is one of my favourite scenes in any movie ever) all I can hear is IMPERIAL FORCE DEFIED FACING 500 SAMURAI!

2:50 *cough cough* let me remind you of the fact that Samurai used firearms since 1543 and by 1575 after battle of Nagashino there ton of them 3 muskets for 1 Warbow and by the Imjin war this ratio became even larger

I love your videos bro, it's good to have a break from what's happening with this quality content of entertainment, keep it up 💪🏻🙌🏻

Fun fact about "Ute!". It has the meaning of banging or clapping, as well as punching, there is a relation with sounds. It almost feels like "light them up". Introducing an auditory/visual element to make it more severe. As if they said "make them lose their hearing". In Hollywood we associate explosions mainly with a lot of fire and visual effects but they associated it with what it actually is, a displacement of air, a very loud bang and shock wave (kinetic force). Very interesting they chose a word associated with sound over visuals.

One of my favourite movies, glad you made a video for this legendary movie

Those flags are signal flags ,so they can communicate with each other by long distance. They were mostly positioned in high places, so they can see the terrain more better and from there pass down any information real quickly.

Can you react to the Japanese and Korean War movie called "My Way"? React to the Soviet Tanks attacking a Japanese fort scene.

6:27 DAMNED LILY LIVERED COWARDS! YOUR MEN ARE RUNNING SIR!

Your channel is being mad slept on. It’s gonna blow up soon!

You should check out an Indian period piece called "Sardar Udham". It was supposed to be an Oscar Submission but was not finalized for some bs reason. There are certain scenes which depict major historical events and I'd love to see your thoughts about it!

Hey I have a petition. All quiet in the western front (1930) has in my opinion one of the most brutal battle scenes in cinema history. In those times, people and WW1 veterans were horrified by this movie realism

Best movie about this era in Japan is The Twilight Samurai. Its not a war film but it is about the samurai system and its fantastic. Won a shitload of awards and made Hiroyuki Sanada a worldwide star (he plays the ferocious 2IC warrior in the Last Samurai)

It been years since I last watched this movie on TV hands down one of the best war movies ever made I would like to see the historian react to the D Day mission in call of duty ww2 I am sure he will like that scene better than the one in saving private Ryan.

Any chance of you reacting to Talvisota? FInnish made war movie about the Winter War, it has gotten good praises about it being realistic and NOT being a hollywood like war movie.

24:00 my question is why they didn't fire at the horses, it would have broken the charge.

THIS IS MY BROTHER'S AND FATHER'S FAVOURITE MOVIE THANKS FOR DOING THE REACTION

16:17 That’s not true, the rebels did use bows and arrows during the last days during the satsuma rebellion when they were out of ammunition.

Another plot hole in this scene is that Algren would've advised Katsumoto on using more modern tactics and told him that placing some of his men out in the open in front of canon and gunfire would've been a stupid waste of many live and it would've been a better idea to charge toward the enemy while the archers were distracting them with their arrow volleys.

I want someone to make an accurate movie or series about Frederick Townsend Ward which is a pretty interesting figure. I heard that they wanted to make a movie about him but it fell out so they decided to make this movie from that with a different director. Idk how accurate that is but either way a movie about him would be interesting.

19:20 WARE WA KANGUN WAGA TEKI WA

Hmm doesn't the samurai might have that bullet resistant armor called tameshi gusoku

I love samurai so yeah I also love this movie thanks for covering it

Gonna need a Braveheart one. Maybe not as accurate, but I think it's a better movie. Especially with your hardon for the score.

You should do a historical reaction to the World War II battles from "My Way" 2011 Korean war movie. It composes of Japanese vs Russian, Russia vs Germany, and Germany vs Allies.

man so underrated

I am looking forward to see you react to battle of Rorke's Drift from 1964 film "Zulu"

I want to see him play Shogun 2 total war after watching this.

You should react to 13 hours... that would be nice

12:03 that scene for all you Shogun 2 fans is what happens when you get your levy infantry charged by yari/katana kachi and yari ki.

That amazing! It was best things that I hear from you. Also got questions.., I’m curious which you would react to classical Call of duty World at war? I want to hear about it.

I thought, after the Franco-Prussian war, that The Meiji worked more closely with and modeled their military after the Prussian military? I thought a lot of western powers referred to japan as “the Prussia of the east?”

I don't know because, the Japanese word for "fire" in this movie, has nothing compared to the Japanese command orders in the movie Windtalkers. And in fact the combat scenes in Windtalkers are pretty accurate, in fact I'd love for you to do a history review on that movie.

One of my favorites ❤️.

*considering supporting*

The Lindybeige reference got me xD

Nice vide mate. Could you also react to the Danish show 1864 based on the Dano-Prussian war? The show are mostly showing the Danish viewpoint. There are many battles in the show, but the most intresting one is the battle of Dybbøl scene. Which is at the end of the show.

6:26 Bruh IM DEAD

Last Samurai is a crummy movie. The only worthwhile part is a brief scene where you get to see a brief segment of a real kyōgen performance. The movie roughly coincides with the Satsuma Rebellion (1877). The Satsuma Rebellion pitted traditionalists against the modern conscript army of the imperial government. While Saigō Takamori had artillery and some modern weapons at his disposal, a lot of his followers wore traditional clothing and even at times carried traditional weaponry into battle. That said, they did have quite a bit of modern weaponry and resorted to traditional weapons when cut off from logistics. At the end, there was a brief breakthrough by sword wielding Satsuma which was repulsed. Rifles are ultimately distance weapons.

You should do the ww2 movie called the last samurai

Please react to "Letters from Iwo Jima" movie

one of my favourite movies of all time... 8-)

FYI if a channel calls themselves a “amateur historian” and doesn’t even bother to post their sources… They are not a historian.

This movie is so epic.

Great Video

Can you pls video on how historically accurate Shrek 1 is

You know it's a good movie when Han zimmer does the soundtrack

IMPERIAL FORCE DEFIED

Man I love total war. I play on mobile though…

But was there America advisories in Japan?

i mean shoveling a bit is good maintenance for those muscles ;)

You should react to Midway (2019) they did a really good job in the battle scenes! I would like to see you break them down

"On peut violer l'histoire à condition de lui faire de beaux enfants." Le dernier samourai contient deux grosses erreurs historiques - Les officiers étaient français et non etats-uniens - Les samouraïs rebelles utilisaient des armes à feu et des uniformes modernes Le reste est assez bien rendu (je ne suis pas spécialiste de l'histoire du Japon) il me semble. Les batailles paraissent à peu près réalistes (sauf la charge de cavalerie dans la forêt, même si chair de poule assurée). La flèche enflammée devrait faire hurler mais on est en 1877 donc on avait du pétrole, de quoi maintenir enflammé une flèche, ça passe. Le vrai problème de la dernière scène est de voir les cavaliers passer devant les gatling comme à la parade au lieu de simplement charger un peu de côté pour éviter les balles. Quoi qu'il en soit, un des rares films "historiques" que je revois de temps en temps.

Shogun 2 vs Fall of The Samurai army. Sengoku vs Boshin army.

Can you react to battlefield 1 or 5 campaign? Would love to see it

Can you react to medal of honor allied assault D day mission? Or company of heroes mission 1

Woah who dat on the far left at 11:34 ?

Oh god, I love these references to shogun 2 tw hah When I heard "our men are running from the battlefield" i couldnt hold my laughter inside hah (it was past 1am when i was watching it hah)

I loved this movie so much i saw it in the cinema twice.

great video!

The rebellion did not start because they rejected western weaponry but more of the abolishment of their own lifestyle that was centuries in. When the Meiji Restoration happened and the whole Boshin War kicked in, the emperor, Meiji, saw the western civilization as a way of strengthening themselves with the current idea of both French and British ways of having a "constitutional monarchy" where ministers can set rules and laws with an assembly and then pass it to the emperor for approval without the emperor having a say in everything without any checks. However, things didn't get to head only till the end of the Boshin War where these "new-age" ministers really kicked in with their revolution and some might say, it went overboard. Samurais at that time were rather happy with implementing western technology into their culture as western technologies to them wern't a new thing like how they already used arquebuses during the Sengoku Jidai which was a western tech that flowed into Japan. They were actually ok with using guns in combination to their spears and swords but once the Boshin War ended, they felt threatened. Why? It's because the "new-age" ministers suddenly wanted to kill off these stagnant traditions and in the process, wipe out the Samurai class. They wanted a standing army like the European Powers and America while they found the "knights"-like Samurais to be in the way and they held too much powers with lands and even political powers that rivalled their own political powers and suddenly having everyone wielding swords and having impunity to chop people up as they deemed "unsatisfactory" was not good progress and they immediately pushed a decree with the agreement of the emperor to strip all of the Samurai's lands, titles and make them common officer in the new army. Worse still, they had to hand in their Katana which some where family heirloom and even cut away their buns which was a Samurai status thing. Even worse still was that they now were in the eyes of the law, a filthy commoner and they don't reserve a right to execute law in their own rights. This obviously ticked many of the old guards off, especially those in the Satsuma region as they felt that they helped the emperor alot in restoring his power and all they wanted was status quo of their own position while retaining their own beliefs with western tech, not a whole total destruction of their national identity and turn it into a western puppet. When the pressure came, Saigo Takamori resigned from his post after his application to start a war with Korea was rejected and out of spite, many of those Satsuma officers who fought with him in the Boshin War totally quit the cabinet and went back to Kagoshima to start a military school which essentially became the rebellion HQ. Out of fear of their own political positions, "new-age" ministers soon pushed for the emperor to order a punitive "arrest and seizure" of Kagoshima's assets and to "reclaim the weapons from the Kagoshima arsenal" to prevent Saigo's entourages and students from using it but after certain clashes happened, it became a full-blown affair afterwards. Also, as explained above, not all the ones that fought in the Satsuma Rebellion were "ex-samurai" vs "ex-samurai". In fact, many of the Samurais that are not even from Satsuma defected from the government and went with Takamori. Only a handful remained in Meiji's administration and most of them that fought against Takamori were either intellect who studied the western doctrines or wern't even Samurais to begin with who actually entered the new military academy ran by foreigners and trained from scratch with the new army. Only a handful of Samurais stayed whereas majority of them went with Takamori. Even the leader of the battle for the emperor's regime at Shiroyama, Yamagata Arimoto, wasn't a Samurai to begin with. He was just a petty town official who somehow became a military leader during the Boshin War thru his intellectual ability to learn military strategies rather quickly. Ah ah... No. The 1871 IS correct for the movie but not the 1871/84. By the time of the rebellion, the Dreyse and Chaseport was already on it's final legs as metal cartridge was brought into Europe from America. Then, gun makers quickly implemented it into their designs and Mauser at that time was one of the few of those who actually made it work. Japan sent a few delegates across Europe to look for newer arms and with them already liking the French and Prussian stuff, the delegates saw Mauser's new rifle and liked it thus, they bought a whole lot of them and reequipped it for the new army and it is absolutely correct for the soldiers at Shiroyama to be armed with the 1871. The 1871/84 was anachronistic but it's basically the same rifle but with a tube magazine but Imma let that slide for the movie as getting soo many 1871 for that many actors at one point was problematic. However, 1871, absolutely accurate whereas for the Satsuma side would actually be the ones who were using all kinds of firearms from the Chaseport to the Dreyse and there were even reports of them using the 1871 Trapdoors Springfield. However, what you said about the Chaseport and Enfield-Schneider and the Spencer repeater did get used by the Imperials also and did cause logistical nightmares with all the mixtures of rifles of different calibers being used. Also, this is one of the reason why they even made the Murata. Reports from the war reported that the soldiers liked the 1871 a lot but they couldn't keep up with the purchase and with the currency being utterly decimated after the rebellion, the Japanese had no choice but to take what they can, tear it apart, study it and make a rifle of their own and they liked the Mauser action for its robustness, they took it and reengineered it into the Murata.

15:34 yeah I thought the same lol

Are even clarified as Historian or did you search just on the internet?

15:33 lmao if you know you know

Guys Guys How about the Japanese vs Soviets

I loved this movie

Saracens were much better than Samurai Scimitars were much better than katanas Change my mind

One of my favorite movies but yeah. Not the most accurate

For the french teaching japanese troops i found this many years ago and learned about this after that (oui c'était y'a un bail lol. ) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rnmawhCDmv0.html

Mate do the Oba The Last Samurai banzai charge of Saipan(7 July 1944) or Movie Tae Gug Gi based on Korean war. Plzzzzzzzzzzzzz plzzzzzzzzzzzzz plzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Great!!!

Merci, i hate this movie only for the "Americanisation" of everything, seeing old samuraï is not my problem because i let the Japeneses complain about it but for one of the most succesful, older and epic country of Europe, please. (and because my Patriotism want it) We have fight with them and give a lot after...can we preserve our victories and Epicness USA? I understand this is a movie and peoples want some actions and don't care that much of historical things, only Historians or fact guys will love it. (Really who care if the Hero is a US or French one?)

We are waiting for the saving Private Ryan omaha Beach part 2.

the movie misrepresented actual history by making the samurai are traditionist who refuse to change even though they are the one who destroy the old secial class and replace them with meiji oligarch who also former samurai. and the other samurai are piss off and feel betray by the government they help created in the first place.

Manly tears

Every comment he makes shows clearly that even hobby historian is too much for him.

noobs forget to finish their ammo before charging. 😑

SHAMEFUR DISPRAY

shogun 2 the movie

A shamefur dispray!!!

I would recommand to you the channel of « Christopher Lannes », who as also done a reaction to this movie

He was a French guy, welcome to real world

😂

Copy from braveheart wow ! Same scene and same dumb tactics

How old were you in this video? Like 12? LOL

Nothing acurate

Cut the feminine reactions (EEEEPIC) and artificial excitiment in your voice, and the video improves a lot. But nice commentary and info.

Oh f*ck you're gonna make me play shogun 2 again

ePicCC oMg! :>

SHAMFUR DISPRAY

It is so much fun to watch Alexandre getting excited when the battle commences 😆👏 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s0VVfQVmrbQ.html

Merci, i hate this movie only for the "Americanisation" of everything, seeing old samuraï is not my problem because i let the Japeneses complain about it but for one of the most succesful, older and epic country of Europe, please. (and because my Patriotism want it) We have fight with them and give a lot after...can we preserve our victories and Epicness USA? I understand this is a movie and peoples want some actions and don't care that much of historical things, only Historians or fact guys will love it. (Really who care if the Hero is a US or French one?)