- In my mind, The Last of the Mohicans was the project that proved Michael Mann could succeed at something other than "cops and robbers"-type procedurals. In 1992, Mann was still most directly associated with the TV show Miami Vice, and all of his critically acclaimed projects such as Thief and Manhunter could be described as crime stories (not to mention the TV show Crime Story itself). How Mann got the nod to direct a period piece set during the French and Indian War is anybody's guess, but what resulted is easily one of the best war dramas and early American frontier movies I've ever seen.
- The story, which credits both James Fenimore Cooper's source novel and its 1936 film adaptation, follows a frontiersman named Nathaniel (Daniel Day-Lewis) who was adopted by a Mohican family at a young age. His father Chingachgook (Russell Means) refers to Nathaniel as his "white son", but it is obvious that he cares for him just as much as his birth son Uncas (Eric Schweig). The trio lives happily off the land, but the ongoing war between France, England, their subjects, and the American Indians threatens to disrupt the delicate balance of life on the frontier. Although Nathaniel and Uncas refuse conscription, the attacks of a war party led by the ruthless Huron Magua (Wes Studi) make it clear that Nathaniel and his family cannot avoid this conflict for long.
- In the first of several phenomenal battle sequences, Nathaniel, Uncas, and Chingachgook disrupt Magua's assault on Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and Alice (Jodhi May) Munro, daughters of the prominent British colonel (Maurice Roëves) in command of Fort William Henry. Accompanied by the stodgy British Major Heyward (Steven Waddington), the group soon finds that Magua's victims included their friends on the frontier (Terry Kinney, Tracey Ellis), and Nathaniel commits to seeing the women safely escorted to the fort. In the film's most visually shocking moment, the group reaches the fort at night only to find it wreathed in smoke and explosions. The French siege has already begun, and they're on the wrong side of the walls.
- Although the film's interpersonal drama, best represented by the Nathaniel and Cora's nighttime embrace, the stirring theme music, and the oft-quoted "I will find you!" speech, is compelling enough, its more obvious strengths lie in its tremendous battles and breathtaking scenery, captured perfectly by cinematographer and longtime Mann collaborator Dante Spinotti. The film's hidden strength, however, may reside in how thoughtfully it portrays its Native American characters. With his terrifying and merciless demeanor, Magua could easily have become an unfortunate caricature, but Studi and the script make it clear that his hatred has some sympathetic roots. Likewise, the casting of two leaders of the American Indian Movement (Russell Means and Dennis Banks, the latter of whom plays a Huron chief) broadcast the production's awareness of Native American sensibilities. Strange as it may seem, this 25-year-old film may have done a better job portraying a difficult chapter in American history better than a modern movie would now.
- Also featuring Pete Postlethwaite, Colm Meaney, and Patrice Chéreau.
