The Last of the Mohicans (movie, 1992)

The Last of the Mohicans ( The Last of the Mohicans ) is an American film directed by Michael Mann , released in 1992 . It is the film adaptation of the eponymous novel byJames Fenimore Cooper published in 1826 , but with several changes made, which modify the original story.

Summary

In 1757 , at the height of the Conquest War , in what was then the Province of New York , the French , supported by the Hurons , fought against the British , helped by the Mohicans .

Nathanael, a European man raised among Mohicans , rescues officer Duncan Heyward and his two protégés, Cora and Alice Munro, with the help of his adoptive father and brother. They had to join their father, commander of Fort William Henry , Colonel Munro. The officer and his company had been ambushed by their guide, a Huron named Magua, or “Subtle Fox”, posing as a Mohawk. It was then that Nathanael, or “Hawk’s Eye”, intervened to save the British. The latter then take their route but find themselves as soon as they arrive at the battle of Fort William Henry .

The battle is articulated around a seat set up by the French to force the British to abandon their position. With fewer soldiers and artillery than his opponents, Colonel Munro considers the maximum duration of the fort’s resistance at three days. Then arrive his two girls in company of Nathanael, his father and his brother, who tell him of the betrayal of Magua. For Munro, there is only one solution – send a scout to join the nearest fort, to ask for assistance and benefit from the arrival of the reinforcements.

But while the scout is dispatched, Munro learns that Hawkeye, who had in parallel asked his Militia friends whether they wanted to stay with the British army or not, took advantage of his side to help the militia who wanted to go out to leave the fort. Considering this act as a betrayal, he puts it in irons and orders his hanging for the next day, even if he saved his daughters. Cora, who had told him of his love just before his imprisonment, then comes to see him to tell him the news.

But the hanging did not take place, for the next day the activity of the fort was interrupted by the sending of a French delegation, led by the Marquis de Montcalm , and demanding the surrender of the English garrison. Munro, who is preparing to reject Montcalm’s request, then learns from him that the reinforcements on which he expected will not happen, since the response of the English fort has been intercepted by the French and that this stipulates that no help can be provided.

Munro, who understood that the battle was lost, accepts Montcalm’s conditions of surrender, which promises him that all the soldiers of the fort will be able to leave safe and sound, but only if they go to the nearest port to regain England. On the eve of the departure of the garrison, Magua then informs Montcalm that for him, justice has not been rendered, since the English, whose army has burned the village of his family, are still alive.

The next day, the English garrison leaves the fort, and enters the road that leads to the closest friend nearby. But the journey is interrupted by the ambush that Magua and his warriors hold on to the troop. In the battle, Hawkeye, who remained imprisoned for his act of treason, manages to free himself, and goes to join Cora to protect her. Meanwhile, Magua manages to reach Munro, and declares to him that after his death, he intends to kill his two daughters. But Nathanael manages to rescue Alice and Cora from the ambush, and, with his father, his brother and the officer Heyward, embarks on pirogues to escape the Hurons.

After having distanced them during their flight, the survivors decided to take refuge in a cave, in order to escape the Hurons by making them believe that they continued to flee by pirogue. But Magua’s warriors find them, forcing Hawkeye, his father and brother, to jump into the nearby waterfall to escape and try to free Cora, Alice and Duncan later. Arrived in the village of warriors Huron Magua, they then ask to get an audience with the great sachem to report their exploits. After proposing to sell the English officer to the French to continue to maintain relations with them, Magua announces that he intends to burn Cora and Alice, to honor the promise he made to their father before killing him .

Nathanel, who had managed to find his trace and follow the discussion from the beginning, then left his hiding place to prevent the execution of the two sisters. Taken to task by the Hurons, he managed nevertheless to reach the great sachem and propose to him his own request, which would consist of releasing all the prisoners to avoid fearing a revenge from the English. Magua pretends that the Hurons have nothing to fear from the English, since they are superior in number, they and their French friends. Hawkeye argues that since the French have just made peace with the English by taking their fort, they no longer have any reason to come help the Huron, to which Magua responds saying that it is by fear of the number they represent that the French will agree to come and help them.

Magua adds that thanks to their strength, they will be able to steal the goods of other Indian peoples, and thus have something to bargain with the whites, to recover gold. What Hawkeye is quick to add is that if it is the greed that Magua intends to bring to the Huron people, there will be no point in doing so except to same way as the English and French. Finally falling in agreement with Nathanael’s words, the sachem states that Duncan will be able to return to the English army, but Magua will take Alice as his wife to ensure his descendants, and burn his sister Cora to avenge his family. .

Distraught by the new decision of the village dean, Nathanael then implores the sachem to replace Cora by his person, to allow Cora to continue living. But Duncan, who was in love with Cora and served as an English-French translator (French spoken by the Hurons) until now, arranges himself instead of Nathanael and die at the stake. Hawkeye, surprised by the decision of the officer and removed from the village with Cora once his comrade at the stake, decides to thank him by killing him from a distance with a rifle, in order to to shorten his sufferings and the pain that the flames gave him.

Chingachgook and Uncas, Nathanel’s adoptive father and brother, come out of hiding to join Cora and her lover. The troop then goes up the cliffs overlooking the village, because it is there that Magua intends to spend with Alice to bring her back to his native village. Then an ambush by Uncas and Chingachgook to try to recover Alice, and in which Uncas died. The young woman, desperate by the death of the one from whom she had fallen in love during the siege night, then chose to kill herself by throwing herself off the cliff. Chingachgook and Hawkeye, arriving too late to prevent the deaths of Uncas and Alice, profit by settling their accounts with Magua; Chingachgook then took the Huron, and at the end of

The film ends with Chingachgook, Hawkeye and Cora on the top of the cliffs, scattering the grass that symbolizes the ashes of Uncas. Chingachgook, in addressing the Great Spirit, asks him to kindly reserve a place for his son in the Council of his people, “for they are all there except one; me, Chingachgook, the last of the Mohicans. ”

Technical sheet

Unless otherwise stated or supplemented, the information mentioned in this section can be confirmed by the IMDb database .

  • Original title: The Last of the Mohicans
  • French title: Le Dernier des Mohicans
  • Director: Michael Mann
  • Screenplay: Christopher Crowe and Michael Mann, with the participation of John L. Balderston , Paul Perez and Daniel Moore, based on the novel The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
  • Photography: Dante Spinotti
  • Editing: Dov Hoenig and Arthur Schmidt
  • Sets: Wolf Kroeger
  • Costumes: Elsa Zamparelli
  • Music: Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman
Additional Music by Ciaran Brennan and Dougie Maclean  (en)
  • Production: Hunt Lowry and Michael Mann
Executive Producer: James G. Robinson
  • Production Company: Morgan Creek Productions
  • Distribution companies: 20th Century Fox (United States), AMLF (France)
  • Original languages: English , French , Mohawk
  • Format: Color – 2.20: 1 – Dolby sound
  • Genre : historical drama
  • Duration: 112 minutes, 117 minutes ( director’s cut version )
  • Budget: ~ US $ 40,000,000 1
  • Release dates 2 :
 France :
 United States :

Distribution

  • Daniel Day-Lewis (VF: Patrick Poivey ) : Nathaniel Poe, known as “Falcon’s Eye” (Hawkeye in VO)
  • Madeleine Stowe (VF: Micky Sebastian ) : Cora Munro
  • Russell Means : Chingachgook
  • Eric Schweig (VF: Pascal Renwick ) : Uncas
  • Jodhi May VF : Anne Rondeleux) : Alice Munro
  • Steven Waddington ( Bernard Lanneau ) : Major Duncan Heyward
  • Wes Studi VF : Simon Abkarian ) : Magua
  • Maurice Roëves (VF: William Sabatier ) : Colonel Edmund Munro
  • Patrice Chéreau : General Montcalm
  • Edward Blatchford  ( VF: Philippe Vincent ) : Jack Winthrop
  • Terry Kinney : John Cameron
  • Tracey Ellis  (en) : Alexandra Cameron
  • Justin M. Rice : James Cameron
  • Dennis Banks  (en) : Ongewasgone
  • Pete Postlethwaite : Captain Beams
  • Colm Meaney : Major Ambrose
  • Mac Andrews : General Webb
  • Malcolm Storry  (en) : Phelps
  • David Schofield : Sergeant Major
  • Eric D. Sandgren : Wood Racer
  • Mike Phillips : Sachem
  • Mark A. Baker : a colonialist
  • Dylan Baker : Captain of Bougainville
  • Tim Hopper  (in) : Ian
  • Jared Harris : a British lieutenant
  • Sebastian Roché : Martin

Production

Genesis and development

The film Michael Mann is the ninth audiovisual adaptation of the famous eponymous novel by James Fenimore Cooper published in 1826 . The first dates from 1911 , and the most famous are those of Clarence Brown and Maurice Tourneur in 1920 , that of George B. Seitz in 1936 and that of James L. Conway in 1977 .

Distribution of roles

Russell Means , who plays Chingachgook here, was a representative of the Lakota , a member of the American Indian movement AIM and promoter of a Lakota Republic .

Shooting

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The shooting took place at Chimney Rock Park (in the mountains of North Carolina and 25 miles from Asheville ) especially the final battle in the last 17 minutes of the film.

Music

The Last of the Mohicans
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack of Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman
Exit 1992
2000
Kind movie soundtrack
Label Morgan Creek (1992) 
Varese Sarabande (2000)
Critical

AllMusic 3

edit

Trevor Jones was originally the only composer of the film’s music , which was to have more emphasis on electronic music , like the director’s previous films. Yet, as a result of disagreements with Michael Mann , Trevor Jones leaves the film even before he has finished his work. This task is therefore entrusted to Randy Edelman . Both composers are credited to the credits, which excludes any nomination to the Oscars. They will however be nominated at the 1993 Golden Globes for the best music .

Part of the music is inspired by the Folies d’Espagne .

The music of the credits was still used in the show Take or leave on TF1 during the crucial moment when we will know if the candidate has won or lost the game.

A rerecorded version is marketed in 2000 by Varese Sarabande . The tracks are presented in the chronological order of the film and the song I Will Find You of the Clannad band is absent.

List of titles (1992)

Titles 1-9 composed by Trevor Jones; 10-15 by Randy Edelman

  1. Main Title – 1:44
  2. Elk Hunt – 1:49
  3. The Kiss – 2:47
  4. The Glade Part II – 2:34
  5. Fort Battle – 4:22
  6. Promentory – 6:15
  7. Munro’s Office / Stockade – 2:30
  8. Massacre / Canoes – 6:52
  9. Top of the World – 2:43
  10. The Courier – 2:27
  11. Cora – 2:30
  12. River Walk and Discovery – 5:30
  13. Parlay – 3:46
  14. The British Arrival – 2:00
  15. Pieces of a Story – 4:58
  16. I Will Find You (interpreted Clannad ) – 1:42
List of titles (2000)
  1. Elk Hunt – 1:50
  2. Bridge at Lacrosse – 1:23
  3. Garden Scene – 3:20
  4. Ambush – 2:35
  5. The Glade – 3:16
  6. Fort Battle – 4:18
  7. The Courier – 2:30
  8. The Kiss – 2:49
  9. Stockade – 2:47
  10. Massacre – 6:54
  11. Ascent / Pursuit – 3:06
  12. Promontory – 5:38
  13. Top of the World – 3:01

Box office

receipts
  •  United States ~ $ 75,505,856  1
  •  United Kingdom ~ £ 5,337,079
  •  France ~ 1,240,746 starts in the dining room

Distinctions

Awards

  • BAFTA Awards 1993
    • Best photograph for Dante Spinotti 4
    • Best Makeup & Hairstyles for Peter Robb-King
  • 1993 Oscars
    • Best sound

Appointments

  • BAFTA Awards 1993
    • Best Actor in a Leading Role for Daniel Day-Lewis
    • Best costumes for Elsa Zamparelli
    • Best Art Direction for Wolf Kroeger
    • Best Sound for Simon Kaye, Lon Bender, Paul Massey, Larry Kemp, Doug Hemphill, Mark Smith and Chris Jenkins
    • Best film music for Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman
  • Golden Globes 1993
    • Best music

Notes and references

  1. ↑ a and b (en) Box office and budget  [ archive ] – Mojo Box Office
  2. ↑ Release dates  [ archive ] – Internet Movie Database
  3. ↑ (in) Trevor Jones / Randy Edelman – The Last of the Mohicans (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) ”  [ archive ] , on AllMusic (accessed on 3 July 2016 )
  4. ↑ (in) Distinctions  [ archive ] – Internet Movie Database

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