The Last Samurai (2003)

I remember this. It came out during my first year of college. Everyone called it "The Last White Guy" because Tom Cruise as the last samurai just didn't seem right.
The inexorable traditions of the Samurai don't need an introduction. Their methods are infamous and pretty much everyone knows about them, including a disproportionately large number of white males that know way too much Japanese history. Reality? Nobody cares, man. The samurai were psychopaths that couldn't stop thinking about ritual suicide. 400 years ago they were the strongest soldiers on the planet, but the year 1853 onward, they struggled with the concept of whether or not getting shot was honorable.

Despite the lack of story, the scenes looked great, the fighting wasn't bad, and the music won awards.
So why is Frank TJ Mackey the last samurai? Because he was so impressed by them that he went and became one himself, taking a samurai wife in the process. *INSERT COMMENT ABOUT ASIAN FEVER HERE* He even kills some ninjas. Lots of ninjas, in the range of 30-40 of them. The only problem is that he joins the samurai at a time when the feudal system was being replaced by the Empire of Japan, forcing them to fight for their right to exist. Their cause was doomed from the start, and you watch them spiral out of a losing war with imperial riflemen.
Oh, and just in case you didn't catch it, historical accuracy: -50%.

Rating: 60%
Did you notice that they made a reference to the Battle of Thermopylae? A full 4 years before 300 Spartans.