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Last of the Mohicans (1992) Daniel Day Lews, Madeleine Stowe Loincloths. Daniel Day-Lewis. Combine them, and the result is glorious. I get palpitations just writing about it. Despite its brutal battle scenes, the film is about love-of men for women, fathers for children, individuals for country-and about devotion worthy of sacrifice. The main characters are three Mohicans and three Britons, caught up against their will in the French and Indian War. Every character, even Magua, the maniacal Huron Indian, behaves according to profoundly felt codes of honor. The horror of the war is that it places those codes and characters in tragic conflict. There are no easy villains. Though not Day-Lewis's best performance (who cares), it may be the best for other actors. All turn in extraordinary performances: Madeleine Stowe, Jodhi May, and especially Wes Studi, who delivers Magua as a Shakespearean Shylock. Mohicans is based on James Fenimore Cooper's "Leather-stocking" series that recounts the adventures of frontiersman, Natty Bumppo. The tales are, well, so silly that Mark Twain was driven to write a parody of Cooper's style. Still, Cooper's works are important because they represent this country's earliest novels—and an important period of history. One final observation: the love scene, for my money, has the top kiss in all of movie-dom. I've made a detailed study (although Russell Crowe's in Proof of Life is a hot rival). |
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