THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992 FILM)

'''The Last of the Mohicans''' is a 1992 historical epic film set in 1757 during the French and Indian War. It was directed by Michael Mann and based on James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, although it owes more to George B. Seitz's 1936 film adaptation than the source novel. The main cast includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Wes Studi, Eric Schweig and Jodhi May.
The soundtrack features music by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, and a song by Clannad. The film won an Academy Award for Sound.

Contents

Synopsis

Director's cut

Differences from the novel

Historical Accuracy

Locations

Reception

Box Office

See also

References

External links

Synopsis

The film is set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, in which the British and French battle for control of the North American colonies. Though they are bound by law to aid the British Armies, many colonial settlers are reluctant to leave their homes along the frontier for fear of attacks by Huron Indians allied to the French.
The film opens with Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), Chingachgook (Russell Means), and Uncas (Eric Schweig), the last of an ancient tribe called the Mohicans, as they hunt down and kill a young buck deer in the forest. They then take the slain animal to the Cameron house, and join the Cameron family in their meal. Jack, a colonial militiaman, tells Hawkeye that he is gathering volunteers for the British army. The next morning, Jack and a group of other potential recruits decide to go to Albany to obtain terms from General Webb, who agrees to grant them leave if their homes are attacked. Satisfied with the terms, the volunteers travel to Fort William Henry.
At the same time, Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) and her sister, Alice (Jodhi May) are traveling to Fort William Henry, north of Albany. They have received word from their father, Colonel Edmund Munro, to meet him there. A native guide, Magua (Wes Studi), has been sent to escort them and a detachment of 18 British soldiers, commanded by Major Duncan Heyward (Steven Waddington). On the trail they are ambushed by a small Huron band. Magua himself initiates the attack. All the soldiers except Heyward are quickly killed, before he, Cora and Alice are rescued by Hawkeye and his companions. Magua, subtly preparing to shoot Cora, is interrupted by Hawkeye and escapes into the forest. The Mohicans agree to escort the survivors to Ft. William Henry. Along the way, they discover that the homestead belonging to the Camerons has been razed and burned and everyone has been killed. Hawkeye also mentions to Heyward about Magua attempting to shoot Cora, mentioning a likely blood feud between their families, but Heyward dismisses the idea as nonsense.
When they arrive at William Henry they find that the fort is under heavy attack by French forces. They manage to sneak inside and Munro scolds his daughters for joining him. They realise that the message Munro supposedly sent to Alice and Cora was misrepresented by Magua. They surmise he intended to stop Munro's request for adequate reinforcements reaching General Webb, ensuring the fort would fall. Munro gravely tells Heyward that the French are quickly approaching mortar range and that the fort can only hold out for three more days. Their only hope is to get another messenger through to General Webb and again ask for reinforcements. Hawkeye and Uncas create cover for the messenger as he makes his way through the French picket line, shooting down Indians and Frenchman at distances of over 500 yards.
Munro is confronted by Hawkeye, who tells the Colonel that settlements are being attacked by Ottawa war parties. Hawkeye demands that Munro let the colonials aiding in defending the fort return to their homes, as previously agreed. Munro refuses and Hawkeye agrees to cover for Jack and his other friends so they can leave the fort. Hawkeye is arrested for sedition and sentenced to hang.
Several days pass without reinforcements. As the fort is on the verge of falling to the French, their commander General Montcalm orders a ceasefire to meet Munro and offer him surrender terms. He and his remaining soldiers and their families are offered safe passage to Albany, on condition they return to England and no longer fight in the war. Munro reluctantly accepts, after reading a message intercepted by the French that Webb will not send any more men to his aid. However, although knowing Munro would keep his word as a soldier and gentleman, Montcalm also knows the British High Command would overrule him, so he informs Magua of their route.
As the British march back to Albany, they are attacked by Hurons, led by Magua. Munro himself is killed by Magua, who, just before cutting out the Colonel’s heart, promises to kill his daughters so his family line will not continue. This was his primary goal all along. Magua’s village had been destroyed years earlier by British soldiers led by Munro, causing the end of his own family line through the death of his children and his wife marrying another man after Magua was taken as a slave, as she believed he was dead.
Hawkeye, Cora, Alice, Uncas, and Chingachgook, and two British soldiers, escape with Heyward to a cave behind a nearby waterfall with Magua close behind. With all their gunpowder wet from their escape down the river, Hawkeye realises the only way everyone will survive is for the Mohicans to escape, thereby avoiding an impossible fight and allowing the others to be captured alive. They will then be taken to the northern Huron lands, where the Mohicans can easily track them and rescue them. Heyward calls Hawkeye a coward, as he and the two soldiers intend to fight. Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook make a dramatic leap into the waterfall. The Hurons arrive shortly after, easily killing the two soldiers and incapacitating Heyward.
Alice, Cora and Heyward are taken to a Huron village. Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachgook follow them. Magua demands recognition from the high chief Sachem in exchange for Heyward (to sell back to the British) and the Munro sisters (to be executed). The meeting is interrupted when an unarmed Hawkeye approaches, running the gauntlet in order to earn safe passage. With Heyward translating into French, Hawkeye convinces the chief that Magua is acting according to his own selfish plans rather than following Huron tradition. The chief agrees and decrees (in Huron, preventing the others from fully understanding) that Cora will be burned alive, Magua will take Alice as a wife (allowing both bloodlines to continue) and Heyward will be returned to the British. Hawkeye is given respect and safe release, but demands that he be sacrificed in Cora’s place. Heyward, out of new respect for Hawkeye and love for Cora, deliberately mistranslates, offering himself instead. The chief accepts and Magua curses him and leaves with Alice and his men. Uncas, who has been watching from a distance with Chingachgook, follows on his own to rescue Alice, whom he has fallen in love with and mistakenly believes is being led away to be killed. Cora is given to Hawkeye and Heyward is tied up to be burned. At a safe distance beyond the village, Hawkeye delivers a mercy shot to Heyward, ending his suffering in the fire. The two meet up with Chingachgook and follow Magua to rescue Alice.
Uncas is able to head off Magua and his band. He quickly kills several men before engaging Magua. Although the two seem equally matched, Magua, as the more experienced fighter, quickly gains the upper hand. The other Mohicans regain sight of their enemy just as Magua stabs Uncas in the throat and throws his body off a cliff. Alice, already traumatised and realising Uncas' died out of love for her, then throws herself from the cliff, despite a half-hearted (but genuine) offer of mercy from Magua. Hawkeye and Chingachgook catch up, killing several of Magua’s scouts. While Hawkeye holds the last men at bay, Chingachgook engages Magua in hand-to-hand combat. Deliberately inflicting many vicious but non-fatal blows, Chingachgook slowly and painfully kills Magua.
The last scene of the film shows Chingachgook and Hawkeye engaging in a spiritual ritual. With the death of Uncas, his one blood relative, Chingachgook names himself 'the last of the Mohicans'.

Director's cut

A "director's cut" was released in which Michael Mann has deleted some material and added some extra, thereby increasing the movie by 3 minutes.

Differences from the novel

As the case with all the film adaptations of ''The Last of the Mohicans'', several changes and cuts had to be made from the original material for a feasible movie. In addition to a markedly more concise story, the major changes to the story involved swapping the relationships between certain characters; minimizing, excluding or changing roles of others and changing the order of some of the scenes.
In the novel, Hawkeye and Chingachgook are close friends about the same age; in the film, Hawkeye is Chingachgook's adopted son and thus Uncas' adoptive brother.
In the novel, it is Alice (not Cora) who attracts the attention of Major Heyward, and a quiet interest develops between the young Uncas and the brunette Cora. Hawkeye/Natty Bumppo is not romantically involved with anyone. Another character, David Gamut, who is present in the novel, was entirely omitted from the film.
Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachgook meet the British travelers on the road, and become suspicious of their scout Magua. Magua escapes into the night. Before they reach the fort (not after), Magua ambushes the party at the cave by the waterfalls, capturing Cora, Alice, Gamut, and Hayward, while the frontiersmen escape down the river. On the long journey, Magua tells Cora of his anger over being turned out of his tribe after the white man taught him to drink firewater. Later while working as a scout for Colonel Munro, he was publicly whipped for being drunk. He feels wronged, demanding, is it "justice to make evil, and then punish for it?" Wanting revenge, he reasons that Munro took from him, so he will take from Munro. He proposes to let Alice go if Cora will come with him as his wife. (Colonel Munro did not kill Magua's family). Cora's refusal brings an attack upon the captives, who are then saved yet again by the sudden arrival of the three woodsmen.
The film version regains parallel with the novel here. The protagonists then make their way to the fort, which is besieged for many days (rather than brief period shown in the film). Heyward discusses his wish to marry Alice with her father's permision, and also learns that Cora is a mixed race child, she and Alice are half-sisters by different mothers. The fort is surrendered, and Magua massacres the withdrawing British forces, and once again captures the two girls and Gamut (not Heyward). Hawkeye, Uncas, Chingachgook, Heyward and Colonel Munro (who was not killed in the massacre) pursue them (parting ways with the film storyline yet again), weaving their way through a complex maze of captures, escapes, indian spirituality and politics in their quest to reunite their little group... that ultimately culminate in the main party presented before the Delaware (not Huron) chief Tamenund. Magua is demanding the return of his captives from the chief, who deems Cora his only rightful prisoner (no one is burned alive). The men offer Magua a prisoner trade, however he refuses and departs with Cora and his Huron warriors. The chase and two battles ensue, during which Uncas and his beloved Cora are killed. Magua is also killed, but by Hawkeye (not Chingachgook).
The film also had considerably more focus on the romantic relationships than the novel, which was mostly action-based. Heyward's character is also significantly different - in particular, he possesses an integrity not seen in the film. In the novel, Heyward and Hawkeye are comrades (not rivals), and the scene where he testifies against Hawkeye's report to Colonel Munro never occurs. Nor does the subsequent subplot, in which the colonial militia serving at the fort feel betrayed by the British for being refused permission to leave to defend their homes and attempt to desert.

Historical Accuracy

While the film, like the novel, is more of a historical romance, much care was taken with recreating accurate costumes and props. The film features a Fort William Henry reconstructed based on historical documents. The siege of the fort is a good representation of the siege warfare of the 18th century epitomized by General Montcalm's investment of Fort William Henry and the large scale military actions that marked the latter phase of the French and Indian War. There is one scene in the Director's Cut that features Duncan and a group of British Grenadiers using the classic rank and file advance to decimate a group of French Regulars and enemy natives. This is a fairly accurate portrayal of how British soldiers would have behaved in the theater and how effective they were in winning the war.

Locations

While the film is set in upstate New York, it was shot in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina near Asheville. Locations used include Lake James, Chimney Rock Park and The Biltmore Estate. Some of the waterfalls that were used in the movie include Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, and High Falls located in the Dupont State Forest.

Reception

''The Last of the Mohicans'' opened to wide acclaim, with critics praising the film for its cinematography and music. Well-known critic Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' called the film "...quite an improvement on Cooper's all but unreadable book, and a worthy successor to the Randolph Scott version," going on to say that "''The Last of the Mohicans'' is not as authentic and uncompromised as it claims to be — more of a matinee fantasy than it wants to admit — but it is probably more entertaining as a result."^[1] However, some reviewers panned the film, such as ''The Washington Post's'' Desson Howe, who called the movie "glam-opera" and "the MTV version of gothic romance". Howe added that, while "Day-Lewis doesn't act so much as bare himself, fire flintlocks, and pose in picturesque positions," the film was "stirring".^[2] Another reviewer, ''The Washington Post's'' Rita Kempley, recognized the heavy drama, writing that the film "sets new standards when it comes to pent-up passion", but commented positively on the "spectacular scenery".^[3]
''The Last of the Mohicans'' is certified "Fresh" at the film site Rotten Tomatoes, with a positive rating of 97% (28 reviews out of 29 counted fresh).^[4]
"The Last of the Mohicans" has had a substantial cultural impact, and is referenced both in Carlito's Way by the titular character, and by Big Pun in his song "Capital Punishment."

Box Office

The film opened in the United States on September 25, 1992 in 1,856 theaters. By the end of its first weekend ''The Last of the Mohicans'' had generated $10,976,661, and by the end of its domestic run the film had made $75,505,856.^[5]

See also

★ The Last of the Mohicans (novel)

★ The Last of the Mohicans (album)

★ Battle of Fort William Henry

★ The Last of the Mohicans (disambiguation)

References

1. The Last of The Mohicans Roger Ebert
2. The Last of The Mohicans Desson Howe
3. The Last of The Mohicans Rita Kempley
4. Freshness count Rotten Tomatoes
5. The Last of The Mohicans Box Office Mojo

External links

★

★ On the Trail of The Last of the Mohicans

★ Entertainment Weekly profile