From: NatChat Discussion List <genetics.washington.edu!native>
Subject: REVIEW:  THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 17:07:18 GMT

Original-Sender:  Ellen Eades <ellene@microsoft.com>

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS was originally a novel by the execrable
James Fenimore Cooper (and was pilloried by Mark Twain in an
unforgettable essay titled "The Further Literary Offenses of
James Fenimore Cooper," in which he sharpens his sword of wit
and his pen of editing to razor's edges and has a great deal of
fun).  This new screenplay, based on the original 1936 screen-
play, has been updated for modern audiences considerably.  In
my opinion, it's a huge improvement.

I was never able to plow through Cooper's novels as a child.  I
was riveted by the movie.  The cinematography alone is worth the
full price of admission; sweeping views of mist-covered rolling
mountains, roaring rapids, rocky pinnacles and virgin forest are
the backdrop for an impressively romantic storyline.  Far less
grim and sophisticated than BLACK ROBE, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
manages to cloak its absurdities in a reasonably historic style,
where even villains have reasons and heroes are capable of demi-
godlike achievements of strength, endurance and spirit.

Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Nathaniel (Hawkeye in the novel), a
white orphan raised by the Mohawk, Chingachgook, alongside his
own son.  This trio seems as much a part of the Atlantic forests
as the deer and the cougar.  Also starring is Madeleine Stowe
as Cora Munro, the daughter of the British general commanding Fort
William Henry.  Several other supporting roles are very well done,
among them Alice Munro, Cora's sister; Major Duncan, Cora's suitor;
and Uncas, Chingachgook's Indian son.  A special mention goes to the
villain of the piece, Magua, a Huron Indian who allies his war-party
with the French general besieging Fort William Henry to revenge
himself on General Munro and his colonial and Mohawk allies.  Far
from being wholly evil, as in the novel, Magua by the end of the
movie is still brutal, vicious, and vengeful, but managed to
evoke not a little sympathy from me.  Special cameo appearances
by Dennis Banks and Russell Means of the American Indian Movement
lent emphasis to the Native American subplots.  Cooper's original
novel was a heavy-handed treatment in which Magua was a stupid,
cruel, unreasoning savage and Chingachgook a noble example of
the "natural man," a common theme of the Enlightenment.  This
film version has discarded these outdated stereotypes and replaced
them with some awareness of the Five Nations of the Atlantic
seaboard, and both Magua and Chingachgook appear as part of
a larger tribal group, rather than as individuals with no context for
their actions.

Daniel Day-Lewis never fails to impress me, whether in MY BEAUTIFUL
LAUNDRETTE, MY LEFT FOOT, or THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS.  The man is
simply splendid, bringing a nobility to the character of Nathaniel
which even a jaded modern cannot fail to find humbling.  As Cora,
Madeleine Stowe manages to find a balance between strength, spirit,
and the need to make her character a believable woman of the 1700s.
But the true strength of the movie is in the camera's eye and the
magnificent backdrop (filmed mainly in North Carolina's Chimney Rock
State Park, but beautifully evoking the Green Mountains of Vermont),
against which the heroic characters almost pale.

Unlike 1492 (the preview of which was shown before THE LAST OF
THE MOHICANS), which strikes me as a rewrite of THE MISSION
with less of a social conscience and awareness of native issues,
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS attempts, at least, to inject some
sensitivity into the situation in which the Huron, Mohawk, and other
tribes found themselves in the mid-eighteenth century: caught
between tribal conflict and a better-armed, better-organized white
colonial people, seeing the end of their previous existence but not
yet subject to the wholesale slaughter which was inflicted upon the
Plains and Southwest tribes.  I found it a good-hearted, if naive, attempt.

Anyone with an interest in period films must see this movie; anyone
who admires native American history, early colonial history, or
simply loves the forests of the Atlantic seaboard, should go see
this on the big screen.  Pay what you need to.



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