The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

This was a gift from Keith some time back. (Thanks, Keith!) The Last of the Mohicans has long been one of my favorite movies, and it's a movie I like more and more upon every viewing. At this point, having just seen it for the fourth time, I'm ready to make a bold statement. Are you ready? Either way, here it comes. The Last of the Mohicans is the most under-appreciated movie of all time.

I was careful not to say "underrated;" the movie actually rates pretty highly, and always has. I'm not suggesting that people dislike this movie. But they don't like it enough! Bring up contemporary historical epics and people are quick to recognize the likes of Braveheart and Gladiator, but - in my experience - they're more apt to include forgettable stuff like Troy and Kingdom of Heaven than to acknowledge The Last of the Mohicans. On IMDb, the movie has an unassuming 90,000 votes cast on its rating; this makes it just the 193rd most voted on movie of the 1990s alone, one spot above The Wedding Singer. For comparison, The Shawshank Redemption has 1.2 million votes. It's not that people dislike or even don't love The Last of the Mohicans; it's got a 7.8 on IMDb and an 88% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Rather, the 22-year-old movie seems largely forgotten or otherwise ignored by the general public today. And that's a shame, because The Last of the Mohicans is a fantastic movie.

I will now spend the rest of this post hyping and gushing over The Last of the Mohicans. In bullet form, of course.

• Daniel Day-Lewis. One of the most intense method actors in our time, and arguably the most selective, here plays a frontier bad ass.
• "Epic" is an overused word, but there's really no other way to describe this all-genre-encompassing film. Romance? Got it. Bromance? Oh, you better believe in the bond between the Mohicans. Drama? Certainly. Action? In spades. Suspense? Right before a couple of Huron raids, for sure. Western? Takes place on the very Western frontier of America, which at the time happens to be upstate New York. War? Yeah, the French and Indian War.
• Historical accuracy is one of those things you tend not to notice in a film, as it's the inaccuracies that stand out. Well, The Last of the Mohicans pays attention to all the immaculate details, from clothing to accents to weaponry. The only glaring inaccuracy is that the whole thing was filmed in the Carolinas, rather than upstate New York, but if anything that just makes it a more beautiful film.
• Speaking of which, oh man, the scenery here is just phenomenal. Woodland chases, waterfalls, cliffside climaxes. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. And because this was 1992, there's no digital retouching or color balancing going on; the "orange and teal" phenomenon is averted, replaced instead by a much more natural "autumn and forest green" palate achieved without any post-production editing whatsoever. This is a beautiful, beautiful movie.
• And that music! Oh, man. You know the song. Or maybe songs. There's the rhythmic bouncy frontier-ish part, and then there's the bombastic melodramatic explosive part. I'm terrible at describing music, so let's just say the first part is like diligently climbing a mountain, and then the second part is like getting to the top and admiring the view. Does that work? Anyway, you know the song. Or songs. So damn good!
• Also, the movie was way better than the book. I read the book, hoping for the movie. It was drastically different. This makes sense - the film's director notoriously decided not to read the book before going to work on whatever adapted script he had, so this was going to be a rather faithless adaptation right out of the chute. But, hey, it's better off for it.
• Magua is one of the greatest film villains ever conceived. His motives are clear, and although they aren't necessarily relatable, they're understandable. He speaks in the third person. His threats are elaborate and full of imagery. "When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart. Before he dies, Magua will put his children under the knife, so the Grey Hair will know his seed is wiped out forever." He's such a memorable character, and he looks like a badass to boot.
• This one may be a stretch, but the movie isn't entirely chauvinistic, either. Sure, the only two women in it are the romantic interests of the Mohicans and a British guy, and yeah, they get captured more than once, but still! One of them successfully rebukes a marriage proposal and the other one takes matters into her own hands when she's forced to marry Magua. Couple of regular Miss Independents, I tell you. As far as 1757 standards go.
• Speaking of the women getting captured, how about when Daniel Day-Lewis gives that brief but inspired promise speech? "I will find you!" This was such powerful stuff that Hollywood started making movies based solely on the premise of women getting kidnapped and men pledging to find and rescue them. That's right, Taken. You're nothing more than a thematic spin-off of one aspect of The Last of the Mohicans.
• Holy hell, that final battle scene. I'm tempted to just link to a YouTube clip, but that would spoil the ending of the movie for anyone out there who hasn't seen it yet. (See it already!) That final series of battles, void of any spoken words, and acted entirely through conflict, body language, and reaction shots. It's a flawless, powerful, escalating sequence of death, loss, vengeance, and justice. So good!
• The closing monologue, delivered by the titular last remaining Mohican, is a bit on the nose, but who cares? So is the title, in the first place. This isn't a movie with subliminal messages or hidden motifs. Anyway, here's that monologue: "Great Spirit, Maker of All Life. A warrior goes to you swift and straight as an arrow shot into the sun. Welcome him and let him take his place at the council fire of my people. He is Uncas, my son. Tell them to be patient and ask death for speed; for they are all there but one - I, Chingachgook - Last of the Mohicans." Cue the bombastic music and the end credits.
• Actually, here's the alternate ending monologue, which may be even more on the nose, but which I think I like even better: "The frontier moves with the sun and pushes the Red Man of these wilderness forests in front of it until one day there will be nowhere left. Then our race will be no more, or be not us… The frontier place is for people like my white son and his woman and their children. And one day there will be no more frontier. And men like [him] will go too, like the Mohicans. And new people will come, work, struggle. Some will make their life. But once, we were here." Just kind of casually foreshadowing, with perfect hindsight, not just the removal of the Native Americans over the next hundred years or so, but also the rise and fall of the Wild West for fifty years thereafter. And what a coda! "But once, we were here." A fitting enough summary to an excellently bittersweet movie.
• All of this, and the movie is less than two hours long. That's a rarity for any great drama, much less a historical epic like this one. So see it! See the movie!

Just fantastic stuff here, guys. Fantastic stuff that deserves more of a legacy in the zeitgeist than it's ever achieved.