The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Twenty-five years ago, audiences saw what would be THE first true movie star performance from eventual three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis headlining a large, mainstream action adventure film….and this would also be the last time they would see this as well.  No matter because as directed by Michael Mann, it was quite memorable to be taken back to 1757 and told the story of Hawkeye, a white man raised and adopted by the Mohican tribe.  Russell Means plays his father, Madeline Stowe plays the British aristocrat whom he falls in love with, and Wes Studi plays a local indigenous guide with a hidden agenda whom he encounters.  Amidst a sprawling story of romance, adventure, political intrigue, and tragedy, let’s find out who leaves the greatest impression….     

Host: Geoff Gershon
 
 Editors: Geoff and Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

https://livingforthecinema.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Living-for-the-Cinema-Podcast-101167838847578

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecinema/

Letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/Living4Cinema/

https://livingforthecinema.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Living-for-the-Cinema-Podcast-101167838847578

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecinema/

Letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/Living4Cinema/

Transcript

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS - 1992

Directed by Michael Mann (Audio clip)

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Wes Studi, Eric Schweig, Jodhi May, Steve Waddington, Terry Kinney, and Maurice Roeves 

Genre: Romantic Historical Adventure

I remember seeing this opening weekend with my mother at a theater in Fresh Meadows, Queens surrounded by a bunch of Jewish/Italian/Greek housewives & grandmas....ALL of them swooning to DDL running around with his flowing hair! And I couldn't blame them....at it core, it's basically a lush, old-fashioned romantic hero story resulting in probably the most conventional movie which Michael Mann has ever directed though he still does it well. 

Day-Lewis plays Hawkeye who grew up with the Mohican tribe even though he’s not one of them.  An even though we learn about the ongoing struggles of both the Mohican and Huron tribes in relation to the ongoing threat from European colonizers he’s surrounded by indigenous peoples of this continent, Hawkeye is treated as the main character and the audience avatar for the most part.  And while telling the story this way might seem dated…..well….IT IS as this was based on a massive fiction novel written by James Fenimore Cooper 196 years ago.  This film adaptation also came out thirty years ago at a time when Hollywood was just STARTING to tell stories like these with increased focus on the POV of Native Americans.  Bear in mind that this was less than two years after the multiple Oscar-winning smash Dances With Wolves , a film which took us very much into the world of the Sioux tribe in the ‘1800’s….yet mainly focused on star Kevin Costner’s character’s story as an American soldier who forms a bond with them.  Hmmm…..

Hey progress is progress and these films were certainly a step in the right direction…. eventually leading to more films focusing ENTIRELY on the Native American experience such as Smoke Signals and Atanarjaut The Fast Runner.  What Mann did with this story as director and co-writer was broader with different POV’s as even though Hawkeye and Cora get the most screentime, the emotional throughline of this movie focuses more on two key Native American characters who are adapting to this recent incursion on each of their lives….in different ways.  

Russell Means plays Chingachook who is Hawkeye’s adapted father and one of only two remaining from his Mohican tribe, the other being his son Uncas played by Eric Schweig – he has watched as most of his family and fellow tribesmen have been wiped out over the past several decades.  And his ongoing response to this seems to be very adaptive – he gets along well with the local Colonials with his ongoing focus on being a good father to both of his sons.  He’s a formidable warrior but isn’t looking for a fight….

Whereas Magua as played by Wes Studi is on an ongoing mission of revenge against the British – he’s a Mohawk who has witnessed most of his family being wiped out by the British while he was enslaved by them for a long time.  He is bitter, angry, and conniving….and his singular focus is on revenge even when that means striking up sketchy alliances with the French.

And as a result, the TRUE climax of the film is an intense but short-lived face-off between these two….which I’ll get to later.

The action is not just exciting but BRUTAL as we witness the rapid-fire ferocity which results when one side on this conflict is ambushed by the other.  None of this is taking anything away from DDL’s performance of course as he FULLY inhabits this character while still delivering what is likely also his most obvious movie star performance – his Hawkeye is very much a conventional action hero and that’s where the several months of preparation that Day-Lewis did before filming REALLY shows.  Apparently, he lived in the wilderness by himself for extended periods of time, learned to live off of the land, and also trained exhaustively to master the usage of many time-specific tools and weapons.  

Beyond that, Stowe is pretty fantastic as well as she brings genuine emotion and depth to a Cora, a British aristocrat quickly adapting to her rustic surroundings and isn’t even afraid to get in on the fight when necessary.  Her scenes with Day-Lewis are of course what was most celebrated about this film at the time of release – they DO have scorching chemistry no doubt and for the most part, it’s a believable romance with minimal melodrama.  Except of course one oft-quoted monologue given by Day-Lewis late in the movie which really DOES sound overtly like cheesy movie dialogue but hey….they used it in the trailers to sell the movie and apparently it worked. (Audio clip) 

Overall this film pretty much accomplishes everything it sets out to do in just under two hours – there’s beautiful lush scenery, suspenseful action, political intrigue, engrossing romance, and…..a very tragic coda which brings the story full circle, where we hear the title of this story uttered and explained in an organic matter.  And here's a hint: despite what the marketing would have had you believe at the time, Daniel Day-Lewis was NOT playing the actual “Last of the Mohicans.”  (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

Apparently, there was originally a 3+ hour director’s cut from Mann which was his true vision for The Last of the Mohicans which included a much more fleshed out story for several characters.  However at the time of production, he was still a not particularly commercially viable director so the studio (Fox) insisted that he pare this down to two hours to make it more audience-friendly movie….and it WORKED as this film was a pretty sizeable international hit when it came out in the Fall of ’92, making more than $140 million worldwide on a $40 million budget.  

Still there was a LOT left on the cutting room floor, most notably the real narrative meat of a romantic sublot between the respective siblings of our two main lovebirds…..Alice Munro played by Jodhi May and Uncas played by Eric Schweig.  What makes this more obvious is that by the end of this film as the tension ratchets up, it’s becomes increasingly obvious that there is SOME sort of romantic connection between these two even though we are given zero setup for it.  The cliffside climax very much hinges on Uncas’ desire to rescue Alice and…..after he’s slain by Magua, we then see Alice look down upon his body and jump off the cliff in defiance of Magua who’s trying to capture her.  

Yet throughout the entire movie leading up to this, we never see any dialogue between these two characters and to make matters worse, Alice is given virtually no dialogue during the second half of the film too.  It’s ALL quite jarring in retrospect and it just leaves THIS version feeling partially incomplete.  Both characters meet such powerful endings that I would have loved to have seen more actual build-up to those endings.

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film) and

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

The stirring score by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman is legendary….if you were in a college dorm during the mid ‘90’s, there’s a strong possibility that one of your dormmates had this soundtrack on CD and was even playing it on a regular basis.  It’s just hugely recognizable and hummable music driven by a lively string section with thumping drums maintaining a steady rhythm – I’m of course referring to the most iconic theme from this score which we hear during two key sequences, the official track name is “Promentory.” (Audio clip) 

We first hear it about halfway through the movie when Hawkeye seeks out Cora at Fort William Henry….they stare at each other…..and then embrace….and then we’re off.  It’s pretty romantic music but for me, it works even better for what I would DEFINITELY consider this film’s trailer moment which is the culmination of the climax on the edge of that cliff.  And we are talking what I consider one of the most impactful seven minutes of film from this era….all driven by this music of course and without any dialogue, this is just a dazzling sequence!

It kicks off with the final judgment of Sachem, the Huron chief mentioned earlier.  And as those violins kick in, everybody starts to separate….and the suspense builds as the music does.  We see Magua traversing through some rocky terrain with several warriors alongside him along with Alice as his prisoner…..we see Hawkeye use his marksmanship to give a merciful killshot to the permanently friend-zoned Duncan who is being burned alive in place of Cora…..we see Uncas running furiously through the woods while tracking Magua’s party with his father a few clicks behind him…..and of course, we see the aforementioned cliffside fight between Uncas and Magua which is brutal and intense as Magua always seems to have the upper-hand right until he unceremoniously slices Uncas neck and pushes him off the cliff, resulting in a haunting slow motion shot of Chingachook as he screams watching his son die.  All of the camera work here is impressive thanks to cinematographer Dante Spinotti, there’s an ideal balance between the facial expressions of these characters relatively up close and longer shots of them amidst all of the scenery.  

But no shot tops the absolute MONEY SHOT as far as I’m concerned….after Hawkeye has shot several more of Magua’s men while Chingachook barrels towards him on that cliffside….we this AMAZING center-frame image of Magua now waiting for this fight arms spread with a hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other.  The music picks up a notch we know it’s ON: two proud fathers now in full-on revenge mode!  What happens after between these two aged warriors is of course violent and short-lived….and it works….but the most memorable moment is that lasting image of Studi’s Magua standing there ready for what will be his last fight. (Audio clip)  

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film): 

Now I’m going to go a bit controversial with this one though let me make something clear: Michael Mann is one of our ELITE living directors, I love just about every film he has done, and if I’m being honest, he’s pretty much the default MVP for every film he directs.  The meticulousness he put into this production is incredible – he went all-out filming in the many of the most authentic-seeming locations no matter how treacherous.  However to this day, this doesn’t feel like a fully complete film – as I said before regarding certain subplots, it feels obvious at times that some scenes were missing.  As strong as this film is, it just does not seem to embody his full vision like stronger directorial efforts of his like Heat, Manhunter, and The Insider have.

And yes, Day-Lewis is THE star of this film in a performance that’s loaded with all of the charisma he can muster which is a lot.  I mean wow, just watching him run tirelessly through the woods sometimes carry a musket in each arm…..I still find myself swooning at times, he can literally hold his own in these sequences with the most celebrated of big-time guy’s guy movie stars in their prime: Connery, Ford, Schwarzenegger, you name it!  However as developed within the screenplay, his character is not the most interesting one on-screen as his motivations and actions are always pretty straightforward – in some ways, it’s a thankless protagonist role even though DDL does the most he can with it.

To me, Wes Studi's performance as Magua is THE standout and he is the tragic, bitter soul of this story.  However it seems on the surface at times, this is NOT a triumphant story.  Everything is being told to us in the context of witnessing an entire civilization getting gradually wiped out with the tragic undercurrent being that under Magua’s leadership, the Hurons might be the most formidable tribe NOW but they’re just mainly buying time, fighting for scraps.  Aligning themselves with the French isn’t going to change that in the long-run.  We are soberly reminded of this fact when late in the movie, all key parties gather for a council with the elder Huron chief who will decide what can be done with the British prisoners who have been taken by Magua….mainly Cora and Alice as they are both daughters of the British Colonel Monroe who he sought revenge.  The Huron chief starts off his decision by calmly uttering, “The white man came and night entered our future with him….”  

And almost everything spoken after that almost feels less consequential….especially the delusional response from Magua in this scene as he's forcefully declares that the French will soon fear the Huron and eventually see them as equals.  It’s pretty clear that he IS getting the revenge he has sought….but not much else, he really has no endgame here and he didn’t do anything to ensure the survival of his tribe.

We fear this guy and we feel for him at the same time which is not to say that we are always rooting for him as he commits some truly brutal acts at points, even carving out a man’s heart in the middle of battle.  No matter because we just can’t take our eyes off of him….every minute of screentime, Studi just OWNS the screen with that glare of his and I LOVE how how he speaks French with such disdain during some critical scenes.  And despite the romance and a few other subplots, the second half of this film is just not nearly as interesting without his revenge story seemingly driving it.  

And this brings me back to a running theme I have had with other notable genre films from that era: it’s ALL about the villain, a great villain performance will drive a certain type of mainstream entertainment no matter how much we like the hero nor how much excellence we witness in front of or behind the camera.  In most of my reviews for major blockbusters from that late ‘80’s into early ‘90’s era, the MVP is almost always the actor playing the main antagonist – The Fugitive, Basic Instinct, Die Hard, Batman Returns….so why should this be any different?  For portraying one of the best villains of this or any era, Wes Studi is the MVP.

Final Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 

Thirty years later, this still really holds up as a satisfying historical adventure and having reviewed other prominent Michael Mann films of late including Heat and Thief, I wouldn’t say that it’s his best but it’s still damn impressive as he shows the blockbuster directors out there how it's done for a change....

Available to Buy or Rent on all Major Streaming Platforms

And that ends another SWIFT AND STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW SHOT INTO THE SUN…. review