The Last of the Mohicans

4 pipes out of 4

At first glance The Last of the Mohicans is simply another white take on the Native American story, glorifying the white and keeping the Native American story hidden. Upon closer inspection it helps share both the plight of the Native American while placating the mostly white audience. Daniel Day-Lewis plays a white man who was adopted by a Mohican father after both his parents were murdered at a young age. While Lewis does a masterful job as he always does in his films, it is his Native American father and brother who steal the show. Their portrayal is both honest and heartbreaking, giving the audience a partial view into the Native American colonial life, caught between war and famine, slowly being eradicated. The true relationship to watch in this film is not Day-Lewis’s character Hawkeye and the daughter of a British Colonel Cora (Madeleine Stowe), but the Native American brother Uncas (Eric Schweig) and Cora’s younger sister Alice (Jodhi May). One is obvious that will happen while the other develops slowly and with subtle cues, giving us hope for the future between Whites and Native Americans. If we take our cues from Alice and Uncas then a resolution can be found between these two parties. The film develops around the French and Indian war in the Colonies prior to revolution. There are a number of instances where the film plants the seeds of why the colonies declared independence, for instance the inability to leave their post while their homes and families were burned and murdered. The love relationship between Hawkeye and Cora seemed slightly rushed but the message behind the film and the development of the relationships between the other characters far exceeds it. The development of the villain character Magua (Wes Studi) was extremely well done in that while remaining the villain and not seeing reason, the audience gets a view into what has caused him to become this way. The Magua character demonstrates that there are no clean hands when it comes to the Native Americans be they French, British, Colonists or even Native American.