I hadn’t seen this movie in a long time but I’ve got to say this movie has only gotten better with time. It has aged far better than a lot of other movies will in time. I didn’t really expect that to be the case when I started watching it but was pleasantly surprised as the story, visuals, and direction completely swept me away.
I’ve always liked Michael Mann as a director but one of the good signs of a director is how well their movies adapt with time and his movies seem to hold up well as time goes on. One of the reasons I think his movies hold up well over time is because doesn't just churn out movies by the Hollywood machine. He makes movies he actually cares about and it shows. I personally think Heat is still his best movie, but I could hear any argument for the case of The Last of the Mohicans being his best. I also have to say this movie is one movie not directed by Stanley Kubrick that looks directed by him. A lot of the shots and fluidity of the camera movement reminded me of a Kubrick movie.
I was also caught up in the maturity of the storytelling because Mann doesn’t patronize the viewer but respects the viewer enough to let the visuals tell the story instead of putting in all kinds of unnecessary monologue or exposition (which Terrance Mallick seems incapable of not doing for every film he does). Mann forces the viewer to pay attention to what is going on visually because if the viewer doesn’t pay attention certain things that happen later will make no sense. To keep that visual storytelling going take a lot of patience and maturity. Fortunately Mann was up for the challenge when he made The Last of the Mohicans. Another thing that makes him a great director, is his ability to make an action movie set in this time period. And make it honest to god action movie (of that time period) without diving into the Bay and Bruckheimer theatrics of over the top set pieces, but still have the action set pieces be absolutely great. These action set pieces are truly great, violent, full of tension, and nowhere near over the top but feel completely realistic for the time period they are set.
Another thing Mann needs to do is always work with great actors because he seems to do some of his best work when working with great actors (De Niro and Pacino: Heat, Pacino and Crowe: The Insider; Fox and Farrell: Miami Vice [one of the most underrated movies of all time]). Here he teams with Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe who help to bring this simple story to life. Need I say more about Day-Lewis the greatest actor ever? This is one of his best performances and who would have thought he could have been such a bad ass action hero? I sure didn’t think Day-Lewis would star in an action movie. But only he would find the action movie set in this time period and make it as fun and attention-ed to detail as this movie is, which is probably one of the things that attracted him to this movie. I really like what the story and Stowe did with the character of Cora Monroe. She’s a total woman of her times but is never reduced to the simple damsel in distress, as she picks up a gun to defend herself, never screams her head off in fear of a situation, she always seems in control of her emotions, no matter the chaos surrounding her, but yet she falls completely in love with the wild man of the forest. They did a good job with her character. And also Mann makes one of the best and most passionate kiss scenes ever with Day-Lewis and Stowe that doesn’t have to be reduced with over the top with sex or nudity. It just has to be to shot well, acted well, lit well, and have the right music to fully bring that scene together.
This is a movie for the ages that only gets better with time.
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