The Last of the Mohicans
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Short description
Set in 1757 during the war between Britain and France for control of North America, the film follows Hawkeye, a white man raised among the Mohicans, who lives with his adoptive father Chingachgook and brother Uncas. When the daughters of a British colonel, Cora and Alice, are ambushed on their way to their father's fort, the three men rescue them and agree to escort them to the besieged garrison. The journey draws them into the wider conflict, in which Native tribes are pulled into the fighting on both sides, and Hawkeye and Cora grow close. Their path is blocked by the Huron warrior Magua, whose own grievances drive his pursuit of the sisters.
Michael Mann directed and co-wrote the film, which sits between Manhunter and Heat in his filmography. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Hawkeye, with Madeleine Stowe as Cora, Jodhi May as Alice, Russell Means as Chingachgook, Eric Schweig as Uncas and Wes Studi as Magua. Mann produced with Hunt Lowry, and the screenplay is credited to Mann, Christopher Crowe and Philip Dunne, drawing on the classic American frontier story.
Made on a budget of 40 million dollars, the film returned 76 million dollars worldwide, a modest theatrical result that has since been outweighed by its standing with audiences. It holds a 7.6 rating on IMDb from around 205,000 votes and a 7.4 on TMDB from far fewer, while a film critics' rating of 7.8 from 126 reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A film adaptation of the novel of the same name by James Fenimore Cooper (1826).
- Approximately 900 Native American extras were recruited from across the country for the filming.
- Poor living conditions for the extras during location shooting in the forest led to a strike among the cast and crew. It was joined not only by the extras themselves but also by the leading actors, Daniel Day-Lewis and Russell Means.
- Russell Means, despite his clear sympathy for the director (and Michael Mann's mutual personal and political sympathy for him), noted instances of racist treatment of Native Americans by the film crew and the filmmakers' blatant ignorance of Native American history, culture, and customs.
- Day-Lewis, a follower of the Stanislavski system and known for his meticulous attention to character development, gained weight, significantly improved his physical fitness, learned to shoot a flintlock rifle, and operate a canoe for the film. This fact was repeatedly discussed in the English-language press, but few noticed that Russell Means, who was over fifty at the time of filming, performed in hunting and combat scenes without any concessions made for his age. According to Mann in an interview released after Means' death, he achieved the necessary physical condition in three weeks.
- Actress Jody May, when asked about her role as Alice in one interview, replied that her role remained mostly on the cutting room floor. A particular excitement among the film's fans was caused by the love scene between Alice and Uncas, written in the script as quite explicit, but not included in the film.
- Eric Schweig, who played Uncas, expressed in an interview with the film's fan site that the film suffered from the focus being primarily on the white stars of the film—Stowe and Day-Lewis—to the detriment of the “Native American” component of the plot.
- Erik Schweig, reflecting on his work on the role, noted that he remembers more the constant need to run a lot than 'getting into character'.
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