Edward Zwick · 2003 · exile

Edward Zwick's 2003 film. A Civil War officer wrecked by what he did in the Indian wars is hired to train the new Imperial Japanese Army in modern weapons, and is captured in his first engagement by the samurai rebels he was sent to destroy. Wintering in their village, he finds the thing he had lost - and then has to watch it be shelled into history.

1. 1
   San Francisco

   Captain Nathan Algren sells Winchester rifles at trade shows in San Francisco, drinking to keep the Washita out of his head, until a Japanese delegation offers him a great deal of money to train an emperor's conscript army.

2. 2
   Yokohama

   He lands at Yokohama into a country remaking itself at speed - railways, telegraph, western tailoring and a modern army - and finds the conscripts he is given cannot load a rifle, and are being sent against the samurai regardless.

3. 3
   Tokyo

   The war ends in Tokyo, where the surviving rebel leader's sword is laid before the young emperor - and the question of what a country keeps when it modernises is answered, briefly, in front of the men who profit from the answer.