Last of the Mohicans
Directed by Michael Mann
Screenplay by Michael Mann and Christopher Crowe
Based upon the novel by James Fenimore Cooper, and the 1936 screenplay by Philip Dunne
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeline Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig, Jodhi May, Steven Waddington, and Wes Studi
114 minutes (director's cut 117 minutes). Rated R. Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1. 1992
Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis as HawkeyeThe term "epic" is tossed around a lot these days when referring to films. Often a film will be called epic merely for breaking the two and a half hour mark. But how many real epics can you identify in today's cinema? I can only think of a few. Michael Mann's Heat is one of them. Mann's The Last of the Mohicans is another.
    Mann, the creator of Miami Vice, obviously has a talent for epic storytelling. Here, he adapts the James Fenimore Cooper novel about the love between an adopted Mohican and the daughter of a British colonel into a simply beautiful, wonderful captivating, emotionally powerful film. Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot) plays Hawkeye, the aforementioned adopted Mohican, and the lovely Madeline Stowe (12 Monkeys) plays his love Cora. Wes Studi (Heat) portrays the Huron war captain The hauntingly beautiful Jodhi Maydetermined to end the life of Cora's father, Cora, and her sister Alice, played by the hauntingly beautiful Jodhi May. Russell Means plays Chingachgook, Hawkeye's adopted father, and Eric Schweig plays his adopted brother, Uncas.
    This is simply a beautiful film. The cinematography alone is breathtaking, but Mann's camerawork defies explanation. The battle sequences are both brutal and mesmerizing at the same time. They manage to take on an almost poetic quality. Now, I have not read Fenimore's novel, but the story in this film is wonderfully written. The script is great. The characters -- and their relationships with one another -- are wonderfully defined by both the script and the actors. The love story between Hawkeye and Cora is nicely told, and Day-Lewis and Stowe give passionate performances. Jodhi May's character Alice seems superfluous to the story at first, but her presence brings emotion and power to the tragic climax. Her literally wordless romance with Uncas is one of the most subtle and beautiful parts of the film.
Madeline Stowe    It's not all romance, of course. The battle sequences are brilliant, and reminiscent of the sweeping epic battles in Spartacus, Braveheart, Glory, and Gettysburg. It's impossible to watch them sitting back. You have to lean forward, in an attempt to try and take in as much of the poetic violence as you can. This is definitely a film that must be seen in the widescreen format. The poetic quality of the violence comes out the most in the aforementioned tragic climax, an almost wordless slow-motion dance of physical and mental confrontation that simply throbs with emotions.
    Watching The Last of the Mohicans (and, indeed, Heat), it's easy to figure out why the forthcoming The Insider is only his third major motion picture. It's because Mann is a true craftsman, an artist who takes the time to create mesmerizing and beautiful epics that haunt you with their powerful emotions and tragic climaxes.
    Michael Mann is one of our greatest filmmakers. The Last of the Mohicans is proof of this.
    Bottom line: A beautiful, emotionally powerful epic from one of the most talented persons to ever step behind a camera.
    My grade: A+
    My advice: See this beautiful epic in the widescreen ("letterboxed") format.
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