The Last of the Mohicans

Brilliant lemonade with everything that it encompasses – phenomenal music by Trevor Jones (the title motif is heroically arched like the stairs to Valhalla), beautiful exteriors, excellent actors, simply written characters, a very simple construct and a beautiful romantic component. Given that I don't like romantic storylines, Mann has masterfully brought his to the screen thanks to the sparks between Stowe and Lewis. The Last of the Mohicans may be surprisingly abbreviated and not very flowing, yet it is able to slow down at the right moment and conjure a beautiful shot and impressive slow-motion. Hollywood may have committed a crime against the book, but that sweet-hearted romance is exactly what I felt when I was a teenager reading “The Deer Hunter". A wonderful reminder of years gone by and at the same time a film that always gets to me each and every time. And surprisingly, more and more. (01/30/2004)

So that's where that music comes from! The Last of the Mohicans doesn't deny its age-old premise, especially in the romantic storyline. Almost every scene sweats pathos until it flows off the screen, and if by chance someone doesn't feel that way, the soundtrack pushes it in your face every five minutes until it's just funny. But once again you can rely on Mann, his perfectionism making some scenes breathtaking spectacle, further aided by the knowledge that this is the kind of "honest filmmaking (TM)" that involves hundreds of extras in real sets and everyone knows what to do (unlike Braveheart, where if you look beyond the foreground in the battles, there are some gentlemen jokingly wielding their swords and looking like boys playing knights). The convoy ambush scene is incredible. The Hurons running out of the woods on either side of the road, the initial confusion among the soldiers, then the first gunshots enveloping the entire clearing in white smoke, all in one slow rising shot where it's obvious that even the biggest newbie of a stuntman has been individually briefed on what he's supposed to be doing in the scene. Rarrr! (07/26/2018)

After many years I enjoyed The Last of the Mohicans again, finally on Blu-ray and in the original version. And it is still an amazing film, what else can I say. Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas are great heroes just as Magua is one of the best bad guys I've seen in a film. Mann's direction cuddles with the breathtaking scenery, he manages to build tension before the action and then draw you in perfectly, the romantic subplot doesn't get in the way at all because it simply belongs to such adventure stories. And then, of course, there's the riveting finale, which, thanks to Jones and Edelman's music, makes you feel like everything is at stake. As I’ve already said, amazing film. Probably not essential to the history of cinema, but amazing nonetheless. (03/20/2023)

Mann is a directorial intellectual with a unique gift for entertaining the masses. Reason and the senses can only wonder at the image and music composition, and the ingenious skill in building subtle relationships between the characters breathes life into the film. However, The Last of the Mohicans is, with all due respect, just a perfectly dressed Indian woman who, thanks to her simple shallowness, gave me the impression of perfect sterility the entire time. Any unwinding of the threads of the audience’s empathy for fated love crumbles from the warfare and vice versa. When it was over, I had a feeling of half-satisfied libido and longed for at least an extra half hour. PS: Having a familiar central theme doesn't automatically make the whole soundtrack brilliant. (10/05/2007)

Although they murder the original story, luckily The Last of the Mohicans works primarily as a romantic adventure movie in itself. And very well at that. Plus, all negative impressions are pushed out of the mind by the unforgettable final sequence. If the whole movie had been like that, I wouldn’t have lost for words. Just forget about seeing anything that resembles the book. ♫ OST score: 4/5 (08/07/2007)