The Last of the Mohicans

Absolute Tour de Force, 20 October 2007

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom


A ten rating is rare indeed for me.Even the greatest work might always have been tweaked just that little bit more. But with Michael Mann's masterpiece that would appear churlish, because the sum of its component parts is so overwhelming.

Of course it helps that James Fennimore Cooper's story is a classic. A story that conjures up vast open spaces, heroic emotions, and rich colours in the mind of the reader.To so successfully translate those images onto the screen is a tremendous achievement.

Daniel Day Lewis is superb as Hawkeye, understated, but decisive, sensitive but brave.The music is as lush and rich as the cinematography which itself has only been matched by "Lawrence of Arabia" and the Epic quality of the film is established from the opening frames to the closing credits.

For a running time only eight minutes short of two hours, Mann keeps the narrative racing along with some set pieces which are quite simply astounding, The Mohawk ambush of the retreating surrendered garrison is as bloody and visceral as anything I have seen on screen, and a chase in the caves under a waterfall as beautiful as it is compelling.

There is no bad language, there are no special effects. There is a nostalgic examination of vanity,pride, love, honour,duty,sacrifice, revenge and injustice. A Shakespearean task is taken on, and achieved by Mann in this regard. Rarely can a project as multi-layered in its ambitions have succeeded quite as triumphantly as this