Plot
Three trappers protect a British Colonel's daughters in the midst of the French and Indian War.

Release Year: 1992

Rating: 7.7/10 (59,180 voted)

Director: Michael Mann

Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means

Storyline
British and French troops do battle in colonial America, with aid from various native American war parties. The British troops enlist the help of local colonial militia men, who are reluctant to leave their homes undefended. A budding romance between a British officer's daughter and an independent man who was reared as a Mohican complicates things for the British officer, as the adopted Mohican pursues his own agenda despite the wrath of different people on both sides of the conflict.

Writers: James Fenimore Cooper, John L. Balderston

Cast:
Daniel Day-Lewis - Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe)
Madeleine Stowe - Cora Munro
Russell Means - Chingachgook
Eric Schweig - Uncas
Jodhi May - Alice Munro
Steven Waddington - Maj. Duncan Heyward
Wes Studi - Magua
Maurice Roëves - Col. Edmund Munro
Patrice Chéreau - Gen Montcalm
Edward Blatchford - Jack Winthrop
Terry Kinney - John Cameron
Tracey Ellis - Alexandra Cameron
Justin M. Rice - James Cameron
Dennis Banks - Ongewasgone
Pete Postlethwaite - Capt. Beams

Taglines: The first American hero.

Release Date: 25 September 1992

Filming Locations: Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $10,976,661 (USA) (27 September 1992)

Gross: $75,505,856 (USA)

Runtime: 112 min  | USA: 117 min (director's cut)

Trivia:
The film was originally scheduled for a Summer 1992 release, as the teaser posters said, but when Michael Mann's first version clocked in at three hours, he was told by Fox to cut the film down and the release was postponed to September. Mann was never happy with the resulting two hour version, feeling he had not had enough time to properly trim it, and so Fox allowed him to re-edit it entirely for the 1999 DVD release. Although only a few minutes longer, the new version features minor changes throughout the film. It is Mann's preferred version and the only one available on DVD in the US.

Goofs:
Continuity: Hawkeye shoots a Huron who drops his gun. The gun falls off of a rock and then in the next shot reappears on the rock for Hawkeye to grab as he runs by.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Title Card: 1757 / The American colonies. / It is the 3rd year of the war between England and France for the possession of the continent. / Three men, the last of a vanishing people, are on the frontier west of the Hudson river.

Fierce, bold, and beautiful - "The Last of the Mohicans"

Rating: 10/10

"The Last of the Mohicans" was one of the most popular and acclaimed films of 1992. Its vision of early America, as it was during the French and Indian War, is captured in its utter brutality and beauty, complete with the many driving ambitions and clashing cultures of everyone involved.

This movie has a bit of everything, including action, romance, war, and passionate drama. The director, Michael Mann, knows the story well and does all but completely discard James Fenimore Cooper's source material, which some have dubbed as being racist and totally unfair in its portrait of Native Americans.

The story (and what a story) is all over the place, with three frontier scouts - Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), Chingachgook (Russell Means), and Uncas (Eric Schweig) - escorting a British colonel's daughters - Cora and Alice Munro (Madeleine Stowe and Jodhi May respectively) - to safety at the besieged Fort William Henry. Major Duncan Heyward (Steven Waddington) rivals Hawkeye for Cora's affections and a vengeance-driven Huron named Magua (Wes Studi) seeks to have both daughters killed in retribution for the loss of his own children.

This is by far Mann's best film yet (it ranks #15 on my all-time favorite movies list) and he uses the lush wilderness settings to great effect. He also makes good use of the editing, which actually comes in handy when showcasing the brutal violence that dominates much of the film's action sequences. The film's last 20 minutes are a definite stunner that can only be described as classic and vicious.

This is a great movie that shows America in its infancy, complete with the rivalries, intrigue, and violence that I'm sure was an everyday part of life during this hectic time period.

10/10

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