The Last of the Mohicans (Mann, 1992): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.10pm
This is part of the Big Screen Classics strand at BFI Southbank and is also being screened on 21st April. Full details here.
Time Out review:
Set in the mountainous frontier wilderness of the colony of New York in
1757, this charts the role played by Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis) in the complex
war waged between the English and the French and their respective allies
among both settlers and Indians. Adopted as a child by the Mohican
Chingachgook (Russell Means) after his white settler parents were killed,
Hawkeye belongs to neither one culture nor the other. Similarly, he is
both warrior and peacemaker; and it is this dichotomy which
simultaneously alienates him from the English military and wins him the
love of the colonel's daughter (Madeleine Stowe). While few would deny the
impressive spectacle Mann provides in some truly magnificent battle
scenes, criticisms have been levelled at the way the film changes from a
historically accurate account of the war into a full-blown love story.
Indeed, it is best seen as an epic romantic adventure of a sort seldom
executed with much intelligence these days. As such, Mann's
characteristic mix of rousing, profoundly physical action, lyrical
interludes, and strikingly stylish imagery, serves to create superior
mainstream entertainment.
Geoff Andrew
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