Last of the Mohicans

[Lzcutter]

Just watched Michael Mann's wonderful Last of the Mohicans. I love this film.

About a year ago, I tried to watch the 1930s version with (cue chorus) Randolph Scott but could barely get through a reel of it. Not because it was a bad film but because, for me, the Mann version is just the real deal.

I have no idea how close to the original story the Mann version follows but just watching Daniel Day Lewis and Eric Schweig run through the forests always makes my heart beat faster.

I know that Mann prefers to make films that reflect the problems of today's world but Mohicans may be the best of his films.

It is that rare combination of filmmaking where all the pieces add up to make a rousing film. The beautiful cinematography of Dante Spinotti, the score by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, the script by Michael Mann and Christopher Crowe and the performances of Lewis, Schweig, Wes Studi and Madeleine Stowe with able assisting by Russell Means, Jodhi May and Steve Waddington.

There are small moments in the film where just a look or just a touch tells us everything we need to know about what the characters are feeling. The scene where Uncas saves Alice from getting too close to the waterfall, where Alice refuses to submit to Magua's attempts to pull her back from the edge and Means final confrontation with Magua and his men.

The locations are gorgeous and Spinotti's cinematography is breathtaking in some scenes. The night battle at the fort, Magua and his men looking for Nathaniel and the others in the waterfall, the scene in the burial ground.

The score is one of those rare pieces where each cue builds to the next and I love the whole soundtrack album and not just a few cues.

It's rousing cinema and great storytelling. The film is 15 years old and I never tire of watching it. Could be the romantic in me, I suppose.

"Stay alive, I will find you!" My heart melts every time.

[mrsl]

Lynn:

I'm with you on the Last of the Mohicans. It has always gotten to me also. You put it in better words than I could however. I never miss watching when I catch it on, but I've never been able to get it from the very beginning, except when I had to leave for one reason or another. It follows the original story quite closely actually. It straightened me out on my mistaken belief that Hawkeye was 'the last' when it was actually Chinachgook after Uncas died.

You're definitely correct in saying the direction was exemplary as was the music and scenery. I don't envy them working with all that dripping water while so much of the movie took place in, and around that waterfall. Thank you for another sterling commentary.

Anne