Damn being faithful to the book, "Last of the Mohicans," is a triumphant piece of filmmaking. Based on James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel of the French and Indian War, both history buffs and action film-lovers can rejoice in Michael Mann's loose adaptation.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Hawkeye, adopted white son of Chingachook (Russell Means) and brother of Uncas (Eric Schweig)...both last remnants of the Mohican Indian Tribe. They cross paths with the daughters Monroe, Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and Alice (Jodhi May), who have been sent to Fort William Henry to meet their father.
With this basic plot, you can expect to witness a glamorous film treatment...filled with an awe inspiring musical score, stirring cinematography, and body shaking brutality. Last of the Mohicans isn't so much a film, as it is an opera. Day Lewis does a fine job as Hawkeye, but he isn't so much acting as he is posing for the camera. With his long locks draped across his shoulders and his sculpted body, Day Lewis is an unlikely actor to play a dreamboat. It almost tiptoes on the verge of being laughable, but luckily Day Lewis is a good enough actor to not be too absurd with it.
This is a very romantic film indeed, and not only with the basic love story. The cinematography captures a long gone wilderness; a frontier that no longer exists. This movie takes great pains to show historical accuracy, and feels realistic enough...but the manner in which Hawkeye and his brethren dispatch of enemy Indians, although truly awesome, is almost a little too Hollywood stylized.
The ending of this film is a true knockout. It's a wordless, 10-minute sequence set entirely to a heartbreaking and pounding musical score. I will not say more, for fear of ruining it, but Mann achieves directorial perfection with this sequence and should be rightly praised for it...if not the entire movie itself.
Fans of the novel may not rejoice at the large differences between novel and the book, but for cinephiles who can put this aside, a rollicking good time at the movies is to be had.
Matthew Doyle
Last of the Mohicans
Damn being faithful to the book, "Last of the Mohicans," is a triumphant piece of filmmaking. Based on James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel of the French and Indian War, both history buffs and action film-lovers can rejoice in Michael Mann's loose adaptation.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Hawkeye, adopted white son of Chingachook (Russell Means) and brother of Uncas (Eric Schweig)...both last remnants of the Mohican Indian Tribe. They cross paths with the daughters Monroe, Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and Alice (Jodhi May), who have been sent to Fort William Henry to meet their father.
With this basic plot, you can expect to witness a glamorous film treatment...filled with an awe inspiring musical score, stirring cinematography, and body shaking brutality. Last of the Mohicans isn't so much a film, as it is an opera. Day Lewis does a fine job as Hawkeye, but he isn't so much acting as he is posing for the camera. With his long locks draped across his shoulders and his sculpted body, Day Lewis is an unlikely actor to play a dreamboat. It almost tiptoes on the verge of being laughable, but luckily Day Lewis is a good enough actor to not be too absurd with it.
This is a very romantic film indeed, and not only with the basic love story. The cinematography captures a long gone wilderness; a frontier that no longer exists. This movie takes great pains to show historical accuracy, and feels realistic enough...but the manner in which Hawkeye and his brethren dispatch of enemy Indians, although truly awesome, is almost a little too Hollywood stylized.
The ending of this film is a true knockout. It's a wordless, 10-minute sequence set entirely to a heartbreaking and pounding musical score. I will not say more, for fear of ruining it, but Mann achieves directorial perfection with this sequence and should be rightly praised for it...if not the entire movie itself.
Fans of the novel may not rejoice at the large differences between novel and the book, but for cinephiles who can put this aside, a rollicking good time at the movies is to be had.
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