The Last Of The Mohicans
Bibliography
The Last of the Mohicans. Produced by Michael Mann. 1 hour 54
minutes. 1992.
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Last of the Mohicans. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1983.
The French and Indian War of the eighteenth century had uniquely
complex qualities, matched by the gravity of its outcome. The myriad of
cultures involved the French, Canadian, American, English,
Algonquians, and Iroquois whom make this era fascinating. The
multi-ethnic element made it a war built upon fragile alliances, often
undermined by factional disputes and shifting fortunes. Violent as it was,
its battlefields encompassed some of the most beautiful country to be
found anywhere. Its richness in diverse cultures, the severity of its
bloody violence, and the beauty of its landscape, all combine to make
this an era with great depth of interest. It is entertaining and educational
to witness a re-enactment event of a historical film and novel called The
Last of the Mohicans.
In the wake of the 1992 debates about Columbus, the discovery of the
Americas, and whether terms such as 'holocaust', 'genocide', and 'racism'
should be applied to what happened to Native Americans, Michael
Mann's film remake of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the
Mohicans continues a process of historical erasure or forgetting that
Cooper and his contemporaries began. The sentimental racism expressed
in Cooper's novel involves the ideas of the auto-genocide of 'savagery'
and the inevitable extinction of all Native Americans. Though Mann
purported to take great pains in his film to be historically accurate, the
film is only accurate in relation to trivial details. It thoroughly scrambles
major aspects of Cooper's text, including converting the ageing Natty
Bumppo into a young sex symbol (Daniel Day-Lewis). More
importantly, the film completely erases Cooper's sentimental racism by,

soon after Uncas claims his position as chief. He allows Magua to leave
with Cora, knowing that while it is morally wrong, she is (by Indian
customs of law) his property—won fairly. This decision would have
been drastically different if laid in the hands of a European settler. The
different values and the conflicts raised by them are extraordinary. By
avoiding personal development of the characters, and by accentuating the
differences between the two worlds, Cooper is able to objectively
describe both. While this may seem to be an unusual manner in which to
read a novel, it is one in which I was able to appreciate the work. I find it
extremely important to place a novel in historical and cultural context.
His work was much different, as was the world he wrote about. The
novel he created was, and is, an accurate description of his world and the
world he wished to convey. It is in this context that we must appreciate
it.
The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, revolves around
the theme of captivity and the drama of the clash between Indian and
European cultures. It involves white victims of captivity by Indians.
Their record keeping of the tragedy provided the Puritan audience with a
personal story of raids and forced marches, the wilderness and its native
inhabitants, and of the chilling efforts of Indians and Frenchmen to
assimilate their captives into an alien culture. Cooper follows all of that,
plus gives the reader the opportunity to see the white man from an
Indians point of view. He does this by providing emotion for the Indians,
specifically, Magua and the noble Huron warrior.
The victims were innocently held captive by barbaric and cold Indians.
These victims lost their families to gunshots, stabbings by spears, and
being knocked down by their hatchets. A woman lost her child to an
Indian selfishly trying to signal an exchange of the baby for a shawl. The
ferocious Indian held the baby by its feet and teased the woman for an
exchange. Upon seeing her desperate for her child, he struck the baby's

the Mohicans is an immensely satisfying adventure that makes lavish use
of the wide screen as it explores the landscapes of the really "Old West,"
while paying great attention to detail in costumes and set design as it
re-creates the period. Mann goes to great pains to recreate the actual
living conditions at the time of his story. But it is the action —
hand-to-hand combat, characters racing through the trees and along
cliffsides, jumping into waterfalls, and the images of huge blazing
cannons alternating with the explosions of flintlock rifles that keep this
movie going.
Mann’s film is quite an improvement on Cooper’s all but unreadable
book. Much has been made about how authentic the movie is, about how
the cast learned wilderness survival skills and how every bow, arrow,
canoe and moccasin was constructed according to the ancient ways.
There are just enough historical and political details; the movie touches
quickly on the fine points of British-French-Indian-settler conflicts, so
that they can get on to the story we’re really interested in, about the hero
who wins the heart of the girl. There were great action and suspense
scenes as courage was all over. This is Hollywood at its best and its
worst. The soldiers’ uniforms are splendid, but idiotically ornate and
impractical for warfare. It wasn’t until 1916 that the British and French
stopped wearing the bright clothing, as they were easy target colors.
True, the movie perpetuates the Hollywood mystery of uniforms that stay
pressed, immaculate, spotless, and dustless, even after long sweaty
marches in the wilderness. The Indians seem accurately described, both
from the point of view of the historian and political correctness. There
are no dialogs to speak of, no historical, anthropological, geographic,
political, social, explanations or orientation. So you don’t learn much
about world history from their conversations and dialogue. What you do
grasp about the history of this period is by soaking in the environment,
traditions, rules, surroundings, behaviors, clothing, and styles of living.