If you go to http://www.extasybooks.com/eb. php3?ebookid=18853 you can have a look at my latest wor...
If you go to http://www.extasybooks.com/eb. php3?ebookid=18853 you can have a look at my latest work.
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"The Last of the Mohicans" is a very well made film, beautifuly filmed, nicely directed and with some excellent acting. It has subtlety, elegance, pace, action and romance. It does bear a strong resemblance to Fennimore Cooper's original novel, but has re-written the tale in some fascinating ways. There will be plot spoilers in this op.
The basic film plot: Hawkeye is a white man raised by native Americans. When hunting with his 'father' Chingachgook and Uncas, they find signs of a Huron raiding party. Following the trail they arrive in time to rescue Major Duncan Heyward and the two young women he is escorting: Cora and Alica Munro. The two women are daughters of the commander of a nearby fort, they are travelling to joign him. Hawkeye and the two Native Americans offer to help the sisters reach their father. We learn that the English are fighting the French and that there are tensions with the local militia. They find a house where a woman and child known to Hawkeye have been killed.
After some adventure, they reach Fort
William, only to find it under seige - the Huron Indian who lead the girls into the trap had not relayed the message that Munro is close to being over run by the French. (Magua, the Indian in question has a long standing grudge against Munro and has infiltrated Munro's company to lead them to destruction.) Munro refuses to release the militia to defend their homes, Hawkeye helps some of them to leave. Munro accuses him of sedition and condemns him to death. During this time, romance blossoms between Hawkeye and Cora. (No sex, but lots of tension and a definitely errotic atmosphere) Munro is obliged to surrender his fort, and the French allow them to leave with weapons and colours. The Hurans, who had been supporting the French, have no interest in peace. Lead by Magua, they masacer the retreating men. Hawkeye, with Uncas (who is developing a romance with Alice) and Chingachgook, rescue the girls and Heyward, and take a canoe down the river. When the Hurons find them hiding under a waterfall, Hawkeye and his companions flee, knowing the women will probably be safer, and that they can rescue them later - their gunpowder is wet, and staying would mean death for them all.
Magua takes Heyward, Cora and Alice back to his chief. Heyward is to be burned, and hawkeye does not arrive in time to save him. Magua flees with the women, and in a dramatic moment on a cliff edge, Uncas is killed, and Alice plunges to her death, following him into the afterlife.
In the original book, Heyward survives to marry Alice, Cora dies to Magua's knife, as does Uncas, and the implied romance was between Uncas and Cora. In the book, Hawkeye is a much older man.
Having read the book, and seen the film countless times, I find I prefer the film (Not usual for me.) The film has the pace and motivation which are missing in the book, and the gloriously huge landscapes are compelling indeed.
More about the film. Most of the cast are names that mean little to me. However, Daniel Day Lewis in the role of Hawkeye is superb, mysterious, alluring and very sexy. He carries the film. Pete Postlethwaite is in the cast, but I have yet to work out who he is in the film!
What I love most about this film is the amount that is conveyed by the facial expressions of the characters. Both Uncas and Alice are largely silent, but both are significant presences, speaking with eyes and body language. The love affairs are all in the facial expressions, and are very moving and powerful - perhaps because they are so understated. We are sued to romance being demonstrated much more overtly i films, and this makes quite a contrast, and if anything, renders the emotions more intense.
The music is stunning, with the theme song supplied by Clannad. The music captures the pace, the grandure of the landscape and the pathos in some of the events.
The script is not very heavy - in many scenes words are scare and actions are aloud to speak for themselves. What dialogue there is is well crafted, convincing and effective.
The fight scenes are brutal, realistically so. Not suitable for younger viewers or the squeamish. Nasty things happpen to nice people, and some scenes are rather distressing, if you get upset by that sort of thing.
This is the sort of action film that women will enjoy as well, and a romance that men don't tend to get sickened by. A rare mix indeed. I regret not seeing this at the cinema, but back in 1992, I would have been too young I suspect! hard to believe that this film is ten years old - it hasn't aged a bit, and is as fresh now as ever.
Tnhis is a film in much the same mold as Braveheart and Gladiator - heroic, dramatic and romantic, and able to captivate almost any audience. I strongly recomend it.
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