The Last of the Mohicans, based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper - 8.3 out of 10

The Last of the Mohicans, based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper

8.3 out of 10

The Last of the Mohicans combines elements of romance, adventure, thriller and drama with very rewarding results.

Evidently, the presence of Daniel Day-Lewis, nominated for an astounding six Academy Awards and winner of three, together with Golden Globes, BAFTAs and an incredible 140 prizes won, brings the motion picture to a level where this story would not have been with another actor.

He portrays Hawkeye aka Nathaniel Pope, the half-white adopted son of Chingachgook, who lives according to the traditions of the Last of the Mohicans, one of the American tribes that would be extinguished, as the title makes clear, by the arrival of the white man from Europe.

The Mohicans live in peace…the film begins with a hunt in the once majestic forests, where the killing of an animal is celebrated, but also grieved, a touching ceremonial shows that Native Americans have had a special relationship with wild life, the animals they had to use as food where honored and thanked, which in an époque when Climate Change reveals how careless human beings have been – some still are, denying from the highest pulpits what they keep calling a hoax – is shocking to see as an example from people who knew centuries ago how to honor nature and live in harmony with it, unlike us, present generations.

This motion picture is very interesting because it also depicts a more complex narrative, where there is no black and white canvas, albeit Hawkeye and to a large extent all his other tribesmen, is the Ultimate Superhero and Role Model, and in the camp of the white man, there are various degrees of immorality, while the Native Americans are also divided between brave, honest, wise, loyal, extraordinary men and some loathsome, bloodthirsty monsters like Magua and his acolytes.

While the Mohicans side with the British – even if in their camp, there are vile characters and some complicated individuals who are courageous, determined but also repugnant and limited in so many ways – other tribes decide to fight with the French, while the American territory – as much as it was then known of it – was disputed between the two sides and their local allies.

Magua is the paradigmatic villain tat kidnaps the daughters of the colonel in charge of the local unit of the British Army, Edmund Munro, called by his adversary White Hair, and Uncas, the half-brother of Hawkeye, and the Mohicans who are allies of the English, confronts him.

However, even if they save the women and Major Duncan Heyward, together with some other soldiers, they still come against the stubbornness, stupidity and tragic blindness of the colonel.

This one would not let the local militia depart from the fortifications he controls to defend the frontier and their families, in spite of the fact that the allied tribesmen point out that the next fight will be decided by larger forces, for when the French attack – it is just a question of when and not if – they would need support from larger units of British forces, from nearby and the presence of the men would not make any difference alongside the British.

Furthermore, Colonel Edmund Munro first threatens to jail them and execute anyone who would help these loyal allies move from the fort to try and save their families and then imprisons and is bent on killing Hawkeye and his men, with Major Duncan Heyward playing a vicious role in the matter.

The latter had asked Cora Munro, the elder daughter of the colonel, to marry him and lies about what he has seen in the devastated villages they have passed through and states that the attacks must have been committed for stealing purposes.

As a result, Cora informs this major that the answer he had been waiting for is negative and she would not marry him, the most important role in this refusal being played by the fact that she has fallen in love with the valiant, strong, handsome, loyal and moral Hawkeye, who seems to be the exact opposite of the British suitor, who has helped to put him on death row.

The British and French have a pact, but Magua and his men have another perspective, he had vowed to kill the daughters of White Hair, to extinguish his seed and wipe out his presence, his descendants of earth and then eats his heart.

Part of that commitment is alas fulfilled, for this brute ambushes the retiring British forces in the forest, where one of his hatchet men would have killed Cora were it not for the glorious, magical ability that the Superhero of this film has to fight and kill his enemies and Magua kills the old colonel and…takes his heart out, showing it to a horrified audience.

I mean, those looking at the scene in movie theaters, for his fellow tribesmen were busy committing other atrocities.

Cora, her sister, Alice, Major Duncan Heyward and a few other white men are trying to escape with the vital help they have from Chingachgook, Uncas and Hawkeye, only to fall into the hands of their enemies again.

Major Heyward redeems himself to some extent, when he is willing to sacrifice himself for the woman he loves, being tied to a stake to be burned, the fire is started and his suffering is excruciating, up to the point where the Ubermensch Hawkeye shoots from a distance to end his awful misery.

The Last of the Mohicans is a mesmerizing work, even if not always, instructive in its retelling of part of the American History, that related to the beginning of a major conflict that would lead to the massacre of Mohicans and so many others.