I really enjoyed the movie for the movies sake. As for portraying samurai accurately, nah. Keep in mind that the samurai were an elite group of individuals within their society (to include a standing law which allowed them to decapitate any commoner whom they felt had not been deferential enough to the samurai. The only person the samurai had to justify the beheading to was the Daimyo to whom the commoner owed allegiance). The final battle scene was (I believe) based on a true battle which did indeed take place in 1877 only the numbers were reversed. 3000 men armed with fire arms decimated a MUCH larger force of samurai...but then what kind of heroic last stand would that have been for our heroes. Like I said at the beginning of the post, I enjoyed the movie for the sake of entertainment and have even watched it more than once.
