THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
A film review by Sarah M. Elkins
Copyright 1992 Sarah M. Elkins
*THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS*: Michael ("Miami Vice") Mann's tightened-up, speeded-up version of the James Fenimore Cooper early U.S. adventure classic, also partly based on a previous movie version's screenplay.
PLOT/KICK-OFF: In 1757, Hawkeye, a hunter/trapper raised by Mohicans, gets caught up in the French and Indian wars in upstate New York. He and his adoptive father and brother rescue (from Huron raiders) an English officer and the two women being escorting to their father's fort.
CHARACTERS/ACTING: Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for his performance in MY LEFT FOOT, looks natural in his role as Hawkeye, though unfortunately the script or director seems to have called for overplaying a scene or two. Madeline Stowe, recently of UNLAWFUL ENTRY turns in a respectable performance as Cora, the intelligent, courageous daughter of a British officer. I liked the lesser-known players better, particularly Jodhi May's portrayal of Alice, Cora's younger, timid sister, and Eric Schweig played Hawkeye's adoptive Mohican brother Uncas. These two had hardly any lines, but they almost stole the show regardless. I would love to see what either could do with a speaking role.
CINEMATOGRAPHY/FX: Beautiful mountain wilderness scenes (filmed in North Carolina), not as awe-striking as BLACK ROBE, but still mighty restful to the eyes. Parts of some fights in slo-mo. Some rather contrived shots (I can almost hear Michael Mann: "Okay, now let's put them in a cavern so they can kiss in front of a waterfall!"). On the other hand, there were a couple of scenes that I thought were very well done, which I will remember. One in particular is a long shot of Alice's face during a crucial moment, which I won't spoil, but it was riveting. That one scene raised the whole level of the movie for me.
SCORE/SOUND: One of the things I liked about this movie was that we got to figure out most things for ourselves, and yet, some of the dialog was muffled and hard to make out, muting that same pleasure. This didn't happen too much, but enough to irritate. Another problem I had (maybe it's just me) is that I often find swelling symphonic music during battle scenes to be in questionable taste, as well as a bit of a cliche. But at least there were no Bryan Adams theme songs or other similarly jarring anachronisms.
VIOLENCE/GORE/LANGUAGE: Hardly any blood or gore, considering, but plenty of musket balls flying and bodies dropping, plus a scalping or two. A couple of mysteriously bloodless hand-to-hand combats with knives and axes. No profanity.
SKIN/SITUATIONS: Kissing.
ANALYSIS: In some ways a disappointment, but a pleasant surprise in others (especially the interesting sub-plots and non-lead characters). The pacing was good; it kept moving, but wasn't rushed. Overall a pretty good movie.
- Sarah elkins.wbst139@xerox.com
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews