Superbly directed by Michael Mann, The Last of the Mohicans is an exhilarating historical romance epic loosely adapted from James Fenimore Cooper’s book first published in 1826. The movie is set in 1757 on the early American Frontier at a time when the French and English were still vying for control of North America.  Two sisters, Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and Alice Munro (Jodhi May) are part of an English convoy headed for the besieged Fort William Henry, where their father, English Colonel Edmund Munro (Maurice Roëves), is awaiting them. The convoy is ambushed by a group of Hurons lead by Magua (Wes Studi). English-born Mohican-adopted Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis), his adoptive Mohican father Chingachgook (Russell Means) and brother Uncas (Eric Schweig) come to the rescue just before Magua shoots the sisters, saving their lives. They escort the survivors to their destination and loves stories develop in the backdrop of the French and Indian War.

I absolutely loved this movie and numerous re-watches over the years have only strengthened that feeling. Although the movie is, at first sight, an adventure movie with plenty of violent battle scenes, it is actually a romance epic centered around two unlikely couples and set in the state of near-complete wilderness of the American Frontier which only reinforces the romantic theme of the movie. Not much has to be said about the romance between Hawkeye and Cora which is the main love story driving the movie. Just as powerful however is the unconventional romance between Uncas and Alice. They don’t exchange even a single word in the movie but we can see the passion between the two characters slowly develop and the bottled-up emotions from the two characters all come out in the stunning and gut-wrenching climatic ending of the movie, which is arguably one of the most powerful and moving sequence ever made. It’s a special scene that I will watch every single time it’s on TV because everything comes together to make that scene perfect: The musical score, the choreography, the action that happens on screen, the look between Magua and Alice, and even the gorgeous location of the scene which is the most stunning of the entire movie. All of those match each other to perfection to wreck havoc on the audience’s emotions.

The performances by the cast was outstanding as you would expect. Daniel Day Lewis is the unlikely romantic lead and gives his character just enough complexity while amping up the romantic and erotic intensity in his scenes with Madeleine Stowe to great effect. “What are you looking at sir?” she asks uncomfortably and he answers “I’m looking at you, Miss” with a long gaze worth the price of admission. Stowe and Jodhi May played the Munro sisters convincingly. If there is one thing that is slightly lacking, the sisters could have been developed a little bit more. Russell Means and more particularly Eric Schweig were solid in supporting roles. Wes Studi is terrifyingly understated as the Huron scout Magua who only wants to see the day he will be able to kill Colonel Edmund Munro and his two daughters. You look at Wes’ career and he has been an outstanding character actor in so many memorable movies. In The Last of the Mohicans, he is intensely intimidating, ruthless and cunning, and definitely one of the best “bad” guys ever. The cinematography is simply breath-taking with the stunning Smoky Mountains used as backdrop for the movie. The numerous but varied battle scenes are brilliant with primal brutality in full display and violence that push the R-rating to its limit. The period recreation is excellent and it truly feels like every single detail is authentic to the time period from the costumes to the weapons and the sets. Finally, the haunting musical score by Trevor Jones is one of his career’s best, slowly building up until the climax of the movie unleashes the main score.

An extremely entertaining and romantic movie with overwhelming emotional impact, The Last of the Mohicans is one of my very favorite movie of all-time and in my opinion an extremely underrated masterpiece of movie making.

A

Notes: R-Rated for explicit violence.