The Last of the Mohicans

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Movie, Lacklustre DVD
Review: Last of the Mohicans is one of the best movies of the 1990's and one that could potentially stand the test of time and be enshrined as a classic.

I say "potentially", because this DVD is the "Director's Expanded Edition" and Mann has apparently taken a hacksaw to the original that we all know and love from the big screen, laserdisc and VHS versions. Gone are tons of important and memorable dialogue, total scenes are cut, the soundtrack has been gutted, and many of the scenes that remain unscathed visually lose much of their weight due to the "new score".

This edition demonstrates quite clearly what is inherently wrong with many DVDs. We all go to see a movie, love it, and simply want to duplicate the experience in our homes. Instead we are forced to watch a totally new (and inferior) "Director's Amalgamation DVD" that only shows the critical importance of editing in the movie creation process.

When will these companies understand that if a movie was popular and critically acclaimed in its theatrical form, then it's probably not a good idea to let the director "slice and dice" the original into some Frankenstein-like equivalent?

As I toss The Last of the Mohicans into the "do not watch again pile" I worry that I will NEVER be able to get many of my favorite movies on DVD and re-experience the spectacle I witnessed on the big screen. Now that's depressing.

Rating:
Summary: A classic film of the '90s
Review: Every decade has it's classic films. This is one of the best of the 90's. This epic film is well crafted, and Michael Mann spent much time to develope a classic. His direction is stunning, and the cinematogrophy is some of the best and most beautiful since the days of classic cinemascope. Daniel Day Lewis is a fine actor, and fits the part well. The DVD is superb, with great sound and a wonderul transfer. The 90's gave us some of the greatest films of all time, and this epic is one of them. Not always listed as a favorite of critics, and it did not make the AFI 100 Greatest Films list, but it deserved to be included. I would rank it as one of the top 100 films of all time.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding film version of a classic novel
Review: People expecting the 1992 produced movie "The Last Of The Mohicans" to be completely true to the book by James Fenimore Cooper are bound to be disappointed, as the film version is only loosely based on the classic novel. However without such an expectation, viewers can look forward to an outstanding adventure film.

Viewers immerse into the world of those people who lived on the East coast of North America in the middle of the 18th century. The British and the French fought over the dominance on the continent, British setters tried to build up a self-contained life, and Native Americans formed alliances with the competing European forces. Against that background, viewers get to know the main characters -- Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the two last Mohicans, and Nathaniel, Chingachgook's white son, who is also called Hawkeye.

Aside from the realistic, though not overly brutal battle scenes, viewers will primarily remember the love story between Nathaniel (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Cora Munro (Madeline Stowe), the daughter of a British officer. The ensemble acting is superb and the cast couldn't have been chosen better. Beautiful scenery as well as a fantastic soundtrack round off this excellent adventure movie.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, but was better before the director expanded it.
Review: First off let me say how much I love this film, saw it in the theatres when it came out and immediately bought it on tape when it was available to buy. That said the movie on DVD is drastically different from the film I saw on the big screen. Director Michael Mann has taken out some of the best lines in the film, the cool asides that Daniel Day Lewis said, and though I can understand why he took them out there absence took something away for me. Lewis's character is no longer the hero I enjoyed the first time I saw the movie, now he is just the
strong silent type. Maybe I am just a product of films such as Die Hard and The Terminator but I like a kind of cocky, self assured hero. The Hawkeye of the original movie was that hero, this Hawkeye is not.
Secondly Mann decided to cut out some key scenes that built up the love between Daniel Day Lewis's character and Madeline Stowes character. The love is still there but more subdued, taken down a level. This I believe is another mistake because as a romantic at heart I really enjoyed the way the original movie pushed the romance.
The final note is a deletion of a great bit of music from the original version of this film. During the scene where Hawkeye chases down Madeline Stowes character from the clutches of her Huron captors there used to be a very moving song. Now it is gone, replaced with a low level, almost non-existant strum, of violins and drums. Kind of takes the power out of what was once a very moving bit of film.
So in the end this move is still very good but I have to recommend the original version more. So go get the film on VHS and then buy this one. They are two completely different films even though they tell the same story and have the same cast.

Rating:
Summary: What's the rush?
Review: Even the cover art for the DVD conveys it: *The Last of the Mohicans* is in an awful hurry. Perhaps all the on-location shooting in North Carolina put constraints on the film's budget, who knows. . . . All I can say is that unless you're intensely focused on the movie, you're probably going to have to watch it twice in order to get connect all the dots in the plot. Director Michael Mann employs an overly light, "skimming" approach to the narrative, with the unfortunate result that certain scenes -- such as the siege on Fort William Henry -- are more incoherent than not. Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe are hardly granted enough "friction time" to justify all the bosom-heaving passion that suddenly erupts. There's a woefully underdeveloped suggestion of romance between Stowe's younger sister and Day-Lewis' half-brother Uncas. Why are Russell Means and his son Uncas the "last of the Mohicans", anyway? -- i.e., where's the background? Basically, what I'm saying is that the movie needed to be longer. It needed to sit still for awhile; the action needed build-up (as well as more spatial coherence during the action itself). Having said all that, let me also praise Michael Mann for filming one of the most beautifully photographed commercial releases of the 1990's. And let me praise whoever did the score, which is also one of the most beautiful of the 1990's. (A profoundly simple theme, with minor variants, ringing over and over and over.) Oh, and let me tip my proverbial hat to the final sequence, in which the photography and music are wedded to gild the painted lily of the movie's heart-stopping, poignant climax. Pathos, action, violence, despair, sacrifice . . . but then, Mann is nothing if not operatic. [A note on the "director's cut" brouhaha. The prime complaint seems to be the removal of certain throwaway one-liners by Day-Lewis that are more in the mode of Ahhnold ("One day, you and I are going to have a serious disagreement", et al.) than in the spirit of the character as presented. Mann has wisely chosen to excise these embarrassments, which had been attempts, I suspect, to curry favor with the multiplex-at-the-mall crowd. Beyond that, however, the movie is neither hurt nor helped by the very slight deletions and additions on this DVD edition.]

Rating:
Summary: The LAST of the Mohicans
Review: For a 'wildly romantic and daringly exciting' Saturday night flick, many of the latest titles on your local movie rental location's shelves would at least lead you through an enticing story. The Last of the Mohicans was clearly a mistake during the restocking of honest movies. Its exaggerated sensualizations, poor cinematography, and tedious 'epic' story line slop together into a desperate attempt to glorify James Fendimore Cooper's mediocre novel.

The movie opens (after a lingering scenic introduction of setting) with Nathaniel (Daniel Day-Lewis) running through the woods shirtless in hunt of wild game. A sharp shift for Daniel from a gay street punk (My Beautiful Laundrette, 1986) to a bulked-up Indian-raised hero. Immediately this exaggeration sickens the mood and its questionable legitimacy persists throughout the movie as Nathaniel shoots every target perfectly. The barbaric and heroic action leaves a foul aftertaste in the mind of those expecting a qualified film.

Beyond the poor appeal of the key character, the 'action' in this action movie was apparently left out. As a group of British travel through the woods Indians break out and a jumble of actions occur. The battle scene omits many details, and the viewer is left watching a meaningless scramble of pandemonium irrelevant to the plot.

Ultimately, Mann's The Last of the Mohicans is the example of a failure to define a true epic story. Lacking story line,
meaningless exaggerations, and poor character development stand as testament to the failure of this poorly produced picture.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favourite films
Review: I really like this film. It is fantastic, and well performed by Daniel Day Lewis. The sounds are great, the landscapes are beautiful, and the film is extremely exciting.
I recomend to all. It is a classic.

Rating:
Summary: How Do You Know?
Review: I watched this film for the first time 3 weeks ago and it was fantastic, so romantic. The cinematography (Dante Spinotti) was breathtaking and surprisingly the entire film was perfectly cast (Bonnie Timmermann).

I bought the VHS of this film because many of the reviews stated that the Director's Cut was such a deviation from the original. I did not find this to be the case. Aside from some dialogue and music that had been edited out, the movie is practically indistinguishable - which leads me to my question - how do you know that there is more footage of Uncas and Alice? Anyone watching the film is riveted by the strong, quiet performance of Eric Schweig and questions the prominent billing and minimal part of Jodhi May. Nevertheless, the viewer is left with a strong sense that there is indeed something more.

Is there? Or is it the extremely fine acting that leaves the viewer longing for what should have been for the ill-fated couple?

Rating:
Summary: Mann, this is HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!
Review: I couldn't wait for the DVD to come out so I could finally see the scenes of my favorite characters (Uncas & Alice) that were cut out of the movie and made this couples tragic ending less credible. There were love scenes and more chemistry scenes between the pair that never made it to the film because directors felt this couple was more interesting to people than the MAIN squeeze Day-Lewis & Stowe. OK now the movie is 10 yrs old. Where's all the never before seen footage?? Where's the interviews?? Where's all the cut out lines I've come to know & love?? Where's the making of...?? Where's the bloopers?? Where are any of the special features that I spend money on DVDs to see? I mean my little brother's Spiderman DVD has 10 extra hours of cool stuff and behind the scenes extras for crying out loud! Oh Mann! (excuse the pun) please I beg of you- for all the faithful LOTM fans everywhere, please come out with a collector's edition which includes all the cut scenes and extras. Mann oh Mann, what a shame. This could have been Awesome!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing!! Completely different from the original movie
Review: Any current release of Last of the Mohicans on dvd is completely different from the original movie. This director's cut version has lost everything that made the movie great. I'm hoping the studio will release the real version on dvd sometime soon. Until then, everyone will have to settle for watching the original version on vhs.