Product Description

An epic adventure and passionate romance unfold against the panorama of a frontier wilderness ravaged by war. Academy Award® winner Daniel Day-Lewis (Best Actor in 1989 for My Left Foot) stars as Hawkeye, rugged frontiersman and adopted son of the Mohicans, and Madeleine Stowe is Cora Munro, aristocratic daughter of a proud British Colonel. Their love, tested by fate, blazes amidst a brutal conflict between the British, the French and Native American allies that engulfs the majestic mountains and cathedral-like forests of Colonial America.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-01-23
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Amazon.com
Wildly romantic, daringly exciting, Michael Mann's film of James Fenimore Cooper's novel created a new babe magnet out of Daniel Day-Lewis, he of the heaving pecs and flowing mane. As Hawkeye, he plays an American settler raised by the Mohicans who is forced to serve as a guide for British adventurism in upstate New York. But the British have been outflanked by the French (and their Indian allies); then British honor is betrayed when a band of renegades assaults them during their retreat. Mann captures the viciousness of this era's hand-to-hand combat in startling battle scenes. But he also invests the film with heartfelt romance, as the feelings swell between Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. The ending is a stunner, a long, nearly wordless sequence of battle and loss. Strong performances all around, particularly by Russell Means as Chingachgook and Wes Studi as the evil Magua. --Marshall Fine

From The New Yorker
In Michael Mann's version of James Fenimore Cooper's improbably durable tall tale, everybody looks great: the movie seduces us with haircuts and landscape. The hero of this melodramatic story of pre-Revolutionary America is Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), a rugged-but sensitive-individualist who roams the forest of the Hudson Valley in the company of two Indians, Chingachgook (Russell Means) and Uncas (Eric Schweig). The three men serve as guides and bodyguards for Cora and Alice Munro (Madeleine Stowe and Jodhi May), the maidenly daughters of a British officer. The Brits are at war with the French, but the greatest danger to Anglo-Saxon life and limb is posed by a band of bloodthirsty Indian guerrillas, led by a wily Huron named Magua (Wes Studi). The setup pretty much guarantees thrills, and Mann delivers the action-movie goods, but with a sort of abstract, lyrical pictorialism. Day-Lewis's Hawkeye-a cultured white man's dream of virile primitivism-is almost entirely a visual phenomenon, and it works. (He runs well, and sports a terrific mane of straight, stringy alternative-rocker hair.) The picture is awfully, solemnly silly, but it's enjoyable and even rather stirring. Mann has polished up a not very profound myth with skill and conviction, and given it a fetching new look; that's what pop filmmakers do. Also with Maurice Roëves and Steven Waddington. The lush cinematography is by Dante Spinotti. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Epic Saga
The Last of the Mohicans is epic in scope, music, cinematography, action and running... lots and lots of running... sometimes it's exhausting to watch Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachook run so much, but, regardless of that, the film is glorious in all the visuals. And Daniel Day Lewis has never/will never be as gorgeous as in this film; it's one of those epic romances, too: "I will find you... do whatever you must to survive... I will find you" says Hawkeye to his lady love behind a cascade of water. Wonderful film - thoughtful, sad ending.

A Woodland Journey
"The Last of the Mohicans" is a film which combines fine cinematography, good acting, an excellent musical score, and very well filmed battle scenes. Both the modern film and the nineteenth century novel were set in the French and Indian War and have some of the same characters. However, anyone who has read the book will quickly realize that the film is very different. That said, the movie is actually very good and an excellent tale of adventure, love, courage, and brutality. There are some historic errors (the massacre in the film looks more extensive than what actually happened and Col. Monroe actually survived the real massacre). As far as I remember, this film has relatively little cursing and no nudity. It is a very violent film, especially in its last quarter. However, the violence is realistic and actually less than some of the things which actually happened on the frontier (see some of Allan W. Eckart's books). The natural scenery (filmed in North Carolina) is beautiful and makes an ironic though scenic backdrop to the chase scenes as well as battles that occur in the film. Particullary memorable scenes include the bombardment of a British fort (Fort William Henry), a large massacre of retreating British soldiers, a canoe chase, and the final pursuit along rocky cliffs. I should mention that some of Hawkeye's shots seem a little far fetched considering rifles of the time, but that doesn't take away from the film. Overall, I enjoyed it considerably.

This is the movie I am taking to a deserted island...
We all know that retarded question: what movie/book/poem/appliance would you take with you if confined to a solitary exile for life?... Well, if I ever have to answer that question, this as true as it gets... This movie comes with me - hands down and no competition (well, provided that the deserted island is equipped with DVD/VCR player and enough reliable electricity to run it - oh, hell - forget that: I would pedal a stationary bike to generate electricity...).
This movie is as perfect as perfect gets. The script, the actors, the breathtaking scenery and the music that brings it all together. Yes, I read the book. It probably sucked, but I could not care less - I was 12 and forever infected with the romanticism of the last frontier (that was before "Star Trek", mind you...). When the movie came out, I was much older, somewhat wiser and more discriminating, and no less a romantic fool. I fell head first, and it was not till I watched it for the tenth time or so, before I started to get pass the overwhelming gut feeling and into the details that make this movie a masterpiece. OK, there is Daniel Day - Lewis as Hawkeye (very different from Cooper's asexual scout hero...) - visually enticing, to be sure and a competent actor - no more, no less. Than, there are others: Wes Studi as savage and cruel, yet compelling Maqua. Eric Schweig as Uncas - casted as stereotype, managed to overcome it and more: packed an entire romantic story of love and ultimate sacrifice into few stolen glances... Opposite him, Johdi May as Alice - timid British girl overwhelmed and bewildered by the carnal reality of the Frontier - facing the cruel odds, she grows up in matter of days if not hours. The final scene over the cliffs is a masterpiece: Alice moves away from her captor, horrified and shocked, she glances away into unimaginable abyss, and when she looks back, her face is transformed in a matter of seconds - from uncontrollable fear to serenity of understanding and acceptance... The final moment, when she looks away, almost like a girl shying away from lover's glance is so breathtaking when one realizes it's the world she shies away from, in such a soft and sweet, yet final gesture...
And of course - Madeleine Stowe as Cora. One might not consider her role such an outstanding accomplishment (as it is, to be sure...) - if not for the remainder of her movie career so far. Madeleine Stove managed to portray characters who border on timid and forgettable - characters who try to be pretty, seductive, memorable, and who never quite manage it... She seems always that bland girl on the brink of attractiveness - by intention or accident, she never seems to find the groove that would make her shine. Until she became Cora - and she shines indeed! Fragile and demure, yet strong and irresistibly beautiful she is positively radiant!
All of that - and then there is the music score by Trevo Jones and Randy Edelman - absolutely genius.
Yes, yes - if I have to pedal a stationary bike on that deserted island - please, let it power the DVD player that plays "The Last of the Mohicans"...