The Last Samurai/Trivia


 * Actor Allusion: Tony Goldwyn gets impaled on something sharp and pointy. Why does that sound familiar?
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Algren's number two, Gant, is played by renowned Scottish actor/comedian Billy Connolly, who reprises his role as the quintessential (violent) Glaswegian.
 * Katsumoto is also Saito from Inception, General Kuribayashi from Letters From Iwo Jima, and the first decoy Ra's Al Ghul from Batman Begins.
 * Ujio is perhaps best known in North America these days as playing Dogen, the temple guardian from Lost.
 * Peter Pettigrew plays Simon Graham, the overly honest British gentleman.
 * What Could Have Been: Pro wrestling legend Satoru Sayama was originally cast to the film, but he backed down in the feeling that he wasn't good enough as an actor, and also citing schedule troubles.
 * Word of God: Some viewers bristled with the assumption that a white American man was the eponymous "Last Samurai", but the word of god clarified that the title refers to Katsumoto and his samurai. The word "samurai" is an irregular noun and is the same both singular and plural.