7 STARS OUT OF 7

Krueger

viewed 8/18/05

reviewed 8/27/05

The Last of the Mohicans is the first movie reviewed by Movie Club, chosen by myself. It’s a movie I’ve seen many times before, a movie I have loved for many years. Thus, it has been an intimidating task to sit down and review it.

My criteria for movie greatness is vague, except for one simple, required element: it must make a personal connection with me. Thus, a movie like this will receive my highest ranking possible while a recognized American classic movie like The Godfather (although admittedly also a beloved movie) will fall somewhere short of that.

So what is that personal connection in the case of Last of the Mohicans? It’s another simple element, and also the definitive one off my creative life. Heroism.

Call it leftover idealism from youth. Call it the Luke Skywalker Factor. Regardless, I’m a sucker for Big Damn Heroes.

For example, I love that Hawkeye/ Nathaniel/ Daniel Day Lewis can take out a couple of Indians from 200 yards to protect a courier he has no allegiance to. I love seeing Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachgook charge through an overwhelming horde of enemies to save the helpless women they do not even know, then do it a second time once they do know them. And I love the final fight (if you can call such a one-sided affair a “fight”) between Chingachgook and Mauga; I love that unstoppable moment where everything comes together for a character or person, and you KNOW there is no way he will lose.

More than anything, I love the final 10 to 15 minutes of the movie. I love it more than any other movie moment ever put to film. So I am troubled: How do you write a review for a scene that you cannot find the words to describe? How do you quantify the translation from moving pictures and sounds first into emotions, then into words? I fancy myself a person who once a had a talent for the written word, yet I have been incapable for years to truly explain what it is about this scene that moves me so much.

So I won’t even try. Instead, since this is MY review and mine alone, here are my disjointed reasons and observations:

-The Score: the music begins building right as Magua makes off with Alice, right as Uncas informs Chingachgook that he will be going after her (with nothing more than a hand to his shoulder), right as Duncan is lifted into the fire. It leaves no question that the climax of the movie has come, that everything has been building to this. There is a sad, tragic, desperate quality to it that leads you to believe (to KNOW) that not all these characters are going to make it out alive.

-Desperation: as mentioned above with the score, there is a palatable sense of desperation. The love affair seems to be focused on Cora and Nathaniel, but does that make Alice any less important? Less worth saving? She HAS to be rescued, no matter the cost.

-The lack of dialogue: The only word spoken from the beginning of the scene to the end is a cry of “Uncas!” from Hawkeye. Other than that, it is dominated by the score, interrupted only by the sounds of gun fire or axe meeting flesh. The dialogue in this movie up to now has been very good; very strong, wonderfully written. But what is happening here is clear, and there is no need to sully that with words. The score, the actors, the cinematography; they tell this part of the story.

-Uncas and Alice: Uncas and Alice. A beautiful love story. Pure. Innocent. Sweet and noble. Their love has thus far been very understated, only hinted at. Maybe it’s not the same passionate affair as Hawkeye and Cora, but what two love stories are ever the same? Instead, Uncas seems to see and love the pure, youthful beauty of Alice. Throughout the movie, Alice has been portrayed as childlike, helpless, overwhelmed. She truly needs rescue. Uncas doesn’t fault her this. He just rescues. His confrontation with Magua is terribly painful to watch, especially the moment when, mortally wounded, he looks at Alice and realizes he can’t save her. The look on his face is not fear of dying or concern for himself. It’s sorrow for having let Alice down. He dies, and Alice walks to the ledge to look down at his dead body.

So much happens in this moment; Jodhi May steals the movie in these 30 or so seconds. It is heart wrenching, yet also beautiful. Here is this sweet, helpless little girl, thrust into this horrible adventure that she has no preparation for. She has relied on Uncas and these others to protect her since the first attack, fearful all the time. Afraid. In this moment, she realizes that Uncas gave his life for her; she recognizes the incredible nobility of this act, and it was all for her. How can she do any less for him? At the same time, something about her movement to the ledge has, possibly, affected Magua. You see him swallow subtly, lower his knife and try to wave her back. But she’ll have none of it. She can’t beat him. She can’t escape on her own. But in this moment, for the first time, she is not afraid. So the only way she CAN beat Magua, the only way she can be free and unafraid, the only way she can honor the man who so heroically tried to protect her, is to hurl herself off the ledge as well. Did she know that Hawkeye and Chingachgook were coming, and that rescue was still possible. I think she might have, but this was her moment. This was her gaining her strength, overcoming her fear and she did the only thing she could do in THAT moment, to preserve THAT moment. She did beat Magua. She was brave. She was strong.

-A Father’s Righteous Vengeance: here is that unstoppable moment. Chingachgook charges ahead, never hesitating, confident that his white son will aid him. It’s a determined charge, a desperate one. His son is lost, and there can be no argument that he is just in his vengeance. Just as Uncas was overmatched by Magua, so is Magua overmatched by Chingachgook. He has no chance. Not on this day, not in this moment. Chingachgook mortally wounds him, but gives a final disapproving look of disappointment before landing the killing blow. Never has an ending felt so right. Last of the Mohicans: 7 out of 7 stars Krueger

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