Latest / All The Right Movies / The Last of the Mohicans (1992) | Ep. 65 - Part 1

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The Last of the Mohicans (1992) | Ep. 65 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

0:04
All the right movies. I think you and I are going to
0:08
have a serious disagreement. A leader who defied authority
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and a rebel who surrendered to no one.
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What are you looking at, Sir? I'm looking at you, miss.
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Daniel Day. Lewis, stay alive.
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Madeline, Stir. We'll find you the.
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Last of the Mohicans. The Last of the Mohicans, opened
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in 1992, is a sweeping frontier epic directed by Michael Mann
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and set during the French and Indian War.
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The film follows a Mohican family as they navigate a
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conflict of cultures while protecting the Colonel's
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daughters caught in the crossfire.
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My name is John and the Wild Frontiers men with me are Matt.
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Maguassei, he understand the English very well and Westie.
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Death and honour are thought to be the same.
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Today I have learned they are not.
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It's colonial America and ATRM are heading into the forest to
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talk the story that proves love and action aren't always
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exclusive. So just stay alive and we will
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find you. Hello and welcome to All the
1:30
Right Movies. We travel by night and don't
1:33
stop for anything except to podcast about classic and hit
1:36
films. It's the only thing we'll stop
1:38
for. And to kill some deer,
1:39
obviously, of course. Yeah, today's show does take us
1:44
back to the frontier. It really does.
1:46
We're telling the story of Hollywood, one film at a time.
1:48
And now which Muskets, Mohawks and Michael Mann as we dive into
1:51
the sweeping romance and brutal action of The Last of the
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Mohicans. Lovely, yeah?
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Before we join the war party though, or should we try and
1:59
recruit some new warriors as paid runs I.
2:02
Think we should? Yeah, let's do that, yeah.
2:04
So our ATRM patron service supports the podcast and gives
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review show plus hundreds of archived ATRM classics.
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If you're into Michael Mann, we've got Heat already covered
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for you. Yeah, or if sweeping period
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Nice. We do Lords and Lords of Others
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Yes, you do, no matter what occurs.
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Yeah. So back to 1757 then The Last of
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the Mohicans. Mark, this was your choice.
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Yep. So why this film?
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This is going to sound contrary because obviously it did win the
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pole against some of the big films in there, but I just think
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this is one of the films. It's not talked about enough,
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It's not respected enough. Maybe the fact that came between
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dancers with wolves and brave hearts and those who got the
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attention in a way this one didn't quite.
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What sandwich that is? I mean, what a sandwich.
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Speed up. It does get overlooked a little
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bit, but it really shouldn't because there are a lot of films
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that are a lot to this one, which we'll get into.
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Yeah, but it's got such an epic old fashioned sweep to it that I
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absolutely adore it Moves longer to crack and Pierce.
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Amazing scenery, incredible music, incredible set pieces.
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Daniel Daly was running. Big swords, big hair, big
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waterfall. It's got it all.
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Lovely. Yeah, I want to watch it again
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after that, yeah. What's an obvious GET that in
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the post? Yeah, this is a big historical
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number, and I've got quite a long history with it.
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First saw it when I was probably 1415, I think, Right.
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And I loved it at the time, to be honest.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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The first Michael Mann film I ever saw.
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Yeah. And while I know now that
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sweeping romantic epics aren't usually his thing, then I was in
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Hook, Line and Sinker and a lot of it the first as well.
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We've got Daniel D Lewis in what I'm pretty sure is his most out
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and out action role. Got to be, surely?
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First time we've talked about Madeline Store as the leading
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lady. Yes, and the first time we've
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talked about film set in the 70s, 100 since 2 episodes ago.
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So we're overdue. And as a backdrop, you've got
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the French and Indian War or mix of cultures in British, French,
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Native Americans, colonial Americans.
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And in the middle of it all this like forbidden love story.
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So interesting stuff. As always, we'll be dissecting
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all of it and telling the story of how it was made, which is a
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pretty fascinating 1. So this is going to be massive
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epic surely? Surely it is massive.
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And Westie, I know you can read all the Flint like while running
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that can. I've seen you on board.
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And Curry. Yeah, it's imperative to carry
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one of them around. Bold and Curry.
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I'll be honest with you, you've got no choice but to load it by
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running. So this is perfect for you,
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isn't it? Yeah, 1757, we're about to get
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on here for anyone to think about current, but I was late
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90s for me, this one, well, it was one of them that kind of
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slid underneath because like you said there, John, there was
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dancers with wolves and there was Braveheart and Braveheart
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kind of knocked me socks off a little bit. 95 because my first
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Michael Mann film was Manhunter, obviously.
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Oh really? Yeah.
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Yeah. And then it was coming back with
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these kind of big sweep and that makes.
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And it was just before the Patriots came out, there was
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that extra kind of pull towards that period piece.
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I thought I need to check it out.
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And I absolutely loved it. This is perfect.
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It was really Michael, man, and it was like that next step
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towards what I expected from him, but didn't expect it to be
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this big in scale and just so grand and sweet.
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And I was just taken away by how romantic it is.
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And I think I'm going to repeat that all the way through the
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podcast because this is just an incredible romance of
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everything. It's a romance of landscape.
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It's a romance of family. It's a romance of, you know, a
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relationship. It's really poetic.
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Well, like Matt said, I think it is one of them that's kind of
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hidden under the bed a little bit.
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People don't shine the light on it enough.
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So I think it's high time that we do that.
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I wouldn't fancy finding Magwa hiding under me bed.
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Well, of course not. God no, I don't want to find
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them. Anyway, so The Last of the
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Mohicans was produced by Morgan Creek Productions, distributed
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by 20th Century Fox and Morgan Creek International, and
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released on September the 25th, 1992.
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Shot mainly in the mountains of Western North Carolina, the film
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was directed by Michael Mann, written by Mann and Christopher
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Crowe, based on James Fenny Moore Cooper's novel of the same
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name, and stars Daniel Dale Lewis as Hawkeye, Madeleine
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Stewart, Cora Monroe and West Duty as Magua.
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Yeah, let's cross that frontier then, shall we?
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Yeah, let's do it. It's 1757, the wilderness
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awaits, and we're tracking with The Last of the Mohicans.
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The beginning. The Last of the Mohicans opens
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in the Wilds of colonial New York, 1757.
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The French and Indian wars raging and cultures are
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colliding. The battle ready arrival of the
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Mohican lads is coming. But first we start with some
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character introductions. We certainly do.
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Yep. So we open by meeting all of our
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main good guys, the Mohicans, Hawkeye, Chingach, Kukununkas
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are hunting deer through the forests of the Adirondacks.
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Meanwhile, at the British Garrison, Cora Monroe is letting
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down the romantic advances of Major Duncan Hayward, played by
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Stephen Warrington. Yeah.
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So the frontier of the drawing room, St.
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How was the opening for you? The opening is fantastic, it's
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yellow credits, we'll get that out of the way.
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It is. They go slightly orange.
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It's fine. So 1757 wouldn't know exactly
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where we are. That's quite big, isn't it
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Massive. It's a great write up.
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That music starts to creep in. We'll get the perfect
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introduction to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli.
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Sorry, the lad running through that forest.
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It's perfect because this opens with the real energy.
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You don't know what they're doing, you don't know where
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they're going, but you know they are part of that landscape.
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That camera just floats through. There's nothing handheld,
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there's nothing jarring When Dave Lewis just takes off that
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ledge and then lands perfectly. It's a, oh God, this is just
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incredible. We're 2 minutes 50 into the film
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and Hawkeye's got his shirt off, Yes.
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Too long if anything. Yeah, of course, just before
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1757. I want to just want to see him
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with his shirt and then tell us what year it is.
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The light streaming through the trees, they just blend in
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beautifully. I think it really, really works.
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Like I said, you don't know the motivations until you see that
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deer and then they kill it. And that's an incredible shot
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where that kind of just flips over the camera and just lands.
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But then it's the way that it's honored what honor your courage
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and speed and strength. And we're sorry to kill your
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brother and you kind of know, but these guys are just the best
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guys in the world. They're really efficient, the
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part of the landscape. And I really hope these are the
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good guys because these are the three I want to back all the way
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through the film. It sets them up perfectly.
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And you are in for the ride. Yeah, same for me.
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I mean, pretty much instantly. I mean, I also love when a
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period film starts with just a big year on the screen.
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Yeah, about 1750 sevens. Massive, Massive.
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And then the yellow titles. I'd never noticed that until you
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mentioned the Westie. Now it's everywhere.
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Really good films got yellow credits.
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There's a few were falling down, but I think I'm just going to
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write a booga boat. The opening shot, the Blue Ridge
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Mountain does the score, like, booms over the top.
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I mean, come on, We'll get to the music, obviously.
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Yeah. But I think it's quite clever
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opening with the deer hunt, Man just drops us straight into this
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world with no real set up, just three men running through the
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woods. And the way they tell this,
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like, little story, you straight away kind of get a sense of
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their skills as fighters, as the work, as a team and that
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spirituality. I also like how Chinga Chuk
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apologizes to the deer after they've shot him.
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Like, sorry, brother. Yeah.
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I mean a bit late now but fine. I'll see that every time we get
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fish and chips. Sorry mate.
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And then it's the dinner at the Cameron's cabin that fleshes out
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further and that gives us more info about the world.
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They're like an isolated frontier family talking about
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their dealing with the British military.
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So we know they're going to crop up.
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And we get more from the Mohicans relationship.
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We get the Ching GAT cooks, the Father, Hawkeye and Ungasa
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brothers. And Hawkeye's on the lookout for
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a lady. Oh yeah.
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I wonder if one will come along. Well, I mean, he is Hawkeye.
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I'm sure he'll spot one. Yeah, whatever he wants for
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sure. In preparation for the deer hunt
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scene, Daniel Day Lewis learned how to hunt and track deer.
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He was able to identify by tracks how long it has been
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since a deer had left a footprint, so he knew who was in
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the area or not. He didn't kill any deer by the
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way, but he would just track them.
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Who? That's a relief.
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Did you say a hoof there? No pun intended, Yeah.
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It's classic Dear Lewis. He'd be still out there now if
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you had to be. Probably.
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But yeah, as people probably expect, Daniel D Lewis, he did
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go method for this. So we've got a bit more on that
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later on. Yeah, he really did.
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And Chinkak, Truck and Uncas are played by Russell Means and Eric
10:42
Shrieg. Shrieg was a Canadian actor who
10:44
had played Native Americans before and auditioned.
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But Russell Means actually wasn't an actor.
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He was not for his activism as the director of the American
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Indian Movement and in 1973 was involved in the Wounded Knee
10:55
occupation, where the American Indian Movement occupied the
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town for 71 days. It protested civil rights
11:01
violations against Native Americans.
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Michael Mann new means from this incident and approached him
11:06
about planching Gatrook. Nice.
11:08
Yeah, well mean said that what room to the film was their
11:10
chores natives and non natives interacting and being like
11:13
integrated together. So it kind of proves that it's
11:15
possible. Yeah, yeah.
11:17
And also Dennis Banks who plays on Get was gone, The Who Run
11:20
tribe leader towards the end man knew him from that wound in the
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incident as well. Yeah, he's brilliant.
11:25
Yeah, I don't think you can tell.
11:26
They were like activists first, I believe both of them in the
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roles. Yeah.
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Absolutely. Yeah.
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It feels like they've both just come through a time machine.
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Yeah. It does.
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It works great, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So after the meal at the Camerons, when the Sea Hall guy,
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some Native Americans and few white settlers play in lacrosse.
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This was a sport invented by Native American tribes in the
11:43
12th century, and tribes were played in the 18th century.
11:46
I mean, one of my favorite things sports, especially
11:48
lacrosse. I was going to say every years
11:50
with his sports. Every other Saturday, I'm the
11:52
lacrosse. Yeah, the creators game, Native
11:56
Americans would call it apparently right.
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But yeah, nice touch of historical accuracy, I think
12:00
with that visual message, because it sure was the blend of
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cultures happening where man's, I think telling us this isn't
12:04
going to be a simple Cowboys and Indian story.
12:06
As well. Not exactly.
12:08
Yeah, yeah, it looks a bit rough for me that.
12:09
Yeah, just a bit, just a bit. And then from here we'll meet
12:13
Cora and Duncan. And it always feels quite jar in
12:16
the scene because we've been in the Wilds of the American
12:18
wilderness and now we're watching this very English
12:21
scene, genteel T on the lawn. But I think that's the point,
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You know, point of the film is about this clash of cultures.
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And here it's drawn because I think they're trying to recreate
12:30
one culture in place of another. And it doesn't work because it
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shouldn't be there at all. Yeah, but I just want to shrivel
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up and die of cringe when Duncan just cannot take chorus
12:41
rejection of that marriage proposal.
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It's horrific. Or like.
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Just have some dignity man, just take it on the chain.
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But your gentleman about it because he basically says
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straight, well, if you can't make your mind up to see what
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your dad tells you, that's fine. That's how marriage works.
12:55
Yeah. But I just want to quickly talk
12:57
about Stephen Wadden because I think he's so good in this
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because Duncan is a massive asshole for most of the film.
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Yeah, but he would even himself right at the end.
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And I think Wadden makes all of it really believable.
13:08
Yeah, I agree. I mean, that shift from the
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frontier to the British Garrison, the first thing I
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know, it is kind of how authentic it all still looks.
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Yeah, I think the costume design, the production design,
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it's all brilliant. Yeah, but a key thing as well is
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those character intros where we need Coran, Alice, 2 likable
13:22
sisters and then Duncan, Big Dunk.
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He is a walking red flag. He does ask Corinna Marion.
13:29
Crazy. Just proposing marriage to
13:31
someone he's not even going out with.
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Yeah. When she obviously says no, he's
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like, I think I know what's best for you better than you do.
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Yeah. Unbelievable.
13:38
Piss off, Duncan. Right in the middle of a field
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as well as. I know well, so a good character
13:44
set up so because we get a sense of core strength as well as
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Duncan being kind of sympathetic but also a problematic and that
13:50
all becomes important later on. Yeah, very much, yeah.
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But Richard E Grant and Hugh Grant were both considered for
13:56
the role of Duncan Heywood before Stephen Waddington was
13:58
cast. And he'd worked on stage with
14:00
the Royal Shakespeare Company and man thought he captured the
14:03
British obsession with honour and duty that he wanted in the
14:05
role. Just all the grunts.
14:07
Do you not fancy Russell Grant? Grant Mitchell, get him in
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there. Grant oi Cora.
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I think you can see that RSC training in Wellington's
14:20
delivery at times, I think. Yeah, yeah, every time.
14:22
I'll have you shot, man. Yeah, I don't think you have
14:25
actually says that. I just hear it every time you
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shout. Yeah, pretty much.
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I'll have your hand. I'll have you shot.
14:29
Yeah. But imagine you Grant in there,
14:31
though, stuttering his way through the marriage proposal.
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Yeah, that would be great. Well, that's our opening.
14:36
The Frontier and the British Empire at odds.
14:38
Already we've met some of our main players, and the first
14:41
physical collision is about to come.
14:46
The Monroe sisters are being escorted to Fort William Henry
14:49
by Major Duncan, his troops and their guide, the mysterious who
14:52
run warrior Magua Magua. The What are the plans?
14:55
His war party pounds and Hawkeye Chinga Chugungas swoop in to
14:59
save the day. Time for heroes to make a big
15:02
entrance. Westy.
15:02
It really is. What do you make of it?
15:04
I mean, this is fantastic stuff in it.
15:07
It's not seen in the period to totally RIP this off.
15:09
Yeah, right. Yeah.
15:10
Whole ambush scene, it's just this, but the build up of this
15:13
is incredible. When Magua just turns around and
15:16
starts walking back, all of it drops that tomahawk just down
15:19
and you just know, all right, And there's that poor kid who's
15:21
just on the left of the column. He just smiles at him.
15:24
He's like. Tomahawk in the neck.
15:27
Tomahawk right in the face, he's out of there.
15:31
And then it just goes into this absolute savage carnage.
15:33
Just smashes in and it's just so much confusion and you know, the
15:37
muskets are going off and they try to get it some kind of
15:39
formation and the firing and the nothing.
15:41
They don't know who's attacking them.
15:42
They don't know how good they are.
15:43
The bet that gets me is when the hammering the English to the
15:45
ground and it's when the guy just gets scalped so quickly.
15:49
Yeah, in one shot it's just. And it's just like, whoa, whoa.
15:51
That's how it would look. Because normally it's like,
15:53
we'll take more time and we'll just kind of, yeah, milk it a
15:56
little bit. That was like, bang, incredible.
15:59
I mean, I'm just going to call them the lads because they are
16:01
the lads, but absolutely classed by the lads turn up.
16:04
The last of the lads. The last of the lads just from
16:07
behind the tree, you know there's just this efficiency to
16:10
them and they've just got this incredible psychology between
16:13
them where they're almost like telepathic with each other.
16:15
They know where each of them is going to be and then each of
16:17
them is going to operate. It's just absolutely wonderful.
16:20
But absolutely love the point where it just goes to that
16:23
Michael Mann slow more and you're like, right, it's Michael
16:25
Mann and you've got all guy and he just spins that rifle in the
16:29
the bottom of the frame and it just fluid.
16:32
Great shot. It's just absolutely fantastic.
16:35
And then Duncan puts the aim on Chinggatkook and he's like, no,
16:38
your judgments probably as good as your the first of all these
16:41
wonderful quips. It's a great line now, yeah.
16:43
And he just throws that. I don't even know what that
16:45
thing is. I've never seen one before.
16:47
It's just like more he can snook a bat.
16:49
Just this year he just launches it through the air.
16:52
You are right. Well, these guys are really
16:54
fierce now. We've kind of seen them moving
16:55
out and see what they can do. I think this is just an
16:57
incredible scene that really, really heightens attention.
17:00
It really does. I think my favorite thing there
17:02
was he was you referring to a snooker key was a snooker bat.
17:08
I don't know why. But, yeah, we know what, early
17:12
on, the mug was the right one when he's muttering away to
17:15
Duncan in his own language and he's talking about putting his
17:17
tomahawk down when white women get hungry.
17:19
Yeah. So literally got Max to grind
17:21
with core analysis from the start.
17:22
But I think the ambush itself is so well staged.
17:25
Yeah. Yeah.
17:25
It reminds me of, like, a horror film, almost, the way the
17:27
forest, like, erupts with the war cries.
17:30
Yeah, that must have been terrifying back then to hear
17:32
that. Oh yeah.
17:33
I mean, the action is great. Not the best battle sequence we
17:35
get by any means, but as a first one it's a good taste of what's
17:38
to come. Oh yeah.
17:39
That's the first of two massacres, right?
17:40
I mean, the film with two massacres in it is going to be
17:43
good. There's your poster quote.
17:47
Loads of massacres. Last of the massacres.
17:52
The Horan ambush isn't based on an actual event, but the Horan
17:55
tactics are based on reality. Native American war parties
17:58
would tend to attack British columns in places of dense
18:00
forestry where the British muskets will be less effective.
18:03
Yeah, the soldiers don't stand a chance.
18:05
No, they're fighting by like European rules in columns and
18:08
ranks, which just doesn't work here at all.
18:10
Not at all, I would not be able to run fast enough.
18:12
Soon as I hear that war cries, I'm fucking bye.
18:18
And then we get one of the many emotional blows he had in the
18:22
film, where they'll go back to the Cameron's homestead in this
18:25
scene. Or such a heavy debt to the
18:26
searchers, doesn't it? Yes, it does, yeah.
18:28
This is Ethan returned to the homestead.
18:31
Yeah, yeah. To find it's been bird of the
18:33
ground. It's the same, isn't it?
18:34
Basically, yeah. It's pretty much exactly the
18:36
same and his his family's been murdered and I think the same
18:39
place of the difference between the Mohicans and the Colonials
18:42
really smartly because you totally understand why Chorus
18:45
first reaction as well. We have to bury these people
18:48
before we move on. But when Hawkeye and his family
18:51
refused to for a minute, it plays into the opinion that
18:54
Duncan has that these people are just savages and they don't care
18:57
about anything. And I think that's really smart
18:59
writing because it makes that later saying when Hawkeye
19:02
experienced A coronal, the reason we didn't bury them is
19:04
because that's going to let the hero ones know that we are in
19:06
the area and they're going to come after us.
19:08
It makes it all the more effective because it just
19:10
punctures any prejudice that she has towards Hawkeye and
19:13
therefore any residual prejudices that the audience
19:16
has. These people aren't savages,
19:18
they're smart, and it did hurt. Let them emotionally to leave
19:21
those bodies out in the open. Yeah, it's the same as Ethan,
19:23
isn't it? When he finds her in the
19:24
outhouse, he's like, don't let him in there.
19:26
But it's actually saying the stay where the lay.
19:28
Yeah, she apologizes to him as well for it, which is fantastic.
19:31
Yeah, it's great to chat. So we get back the cameras, and
19:33
we realized that spending time there wasn't just about setting
19:36
up the world. Mum was getting us to know this
19:38
family so we can then brutally murder them with more impact.
19:40
Yeah. And that first exchange between
19:42
Cora and Hawkeye, I think it's really good.
19:44
Cora wants to bury the victims, like you said.
19:46
Hawkeye says no. And she's, like, almost as cruel
19:48
as your indifference. And he's furious.
19:51
Yeah. Yeah.
19:52
But that's a really smart piece of writing because even though
19:54
they totally disagree, it's obvious to share the same
19:56
values. Yeah.
19:57
Cora's angry that Hawkeye's seeming lack of compassion.
20:00
Hawkeye's angry at Cora accusing him of a lack of compassion.
20:03
Yeah. And that's then developed
20:04
further when Hawkeye tells Cora and us his back story in the
20:07
forest, how his family was killed, He was raised by Ching
20:10
Gadgook. But I think their relationship
20:11
is developed really nicely in the writing.
20:13
Certainly as well. Yeah, it is subtle.
20:15
I'll tell you what I don't like though.
20:17
At the Fort a bit later, when Big Dunk just bulked, Face lies
20:20
about what he saw in the form that is outrageous.
20:24
It's the worst thing he does. Although setting up his art
20:26
nicely as well, so it is all for a reason.
20:28
It is, yeah. Yeah, but does he get the
20:29
explanation as to why they left the bodies there?
20:31
Because Cora does. I don't think he does.
20:33
No, maybe not. That's good point.
20:35
Yeah, it is kind of justified because he doesn't get that
20:37
level of attention from whole guy, does he?
20:39
Well, would you give him that level of attention that you give
20:41
to Cora? No.
20:43
Wouldn't give that to you. So the film is set in Albany,
20:49
NY, but man decided to shoot in North Carolina instead and
20:52
that's because he felt the woods there looked more like the
20:55
Adirondacks forest did in the 18th century.
20:57
And the red brick bridge we see the British Soldiers crossover
21:00
is the Bass Pond Bridge on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC
21:04
and that was built in 1893. How good is that bridge shot
21:08
though? Beautiful.
21:09
Yeah, straight out of Barry Linden.
21:10
It really is. It's wonderful stuff.
21:12
I could have watched that for another 20 minutes.
21:14
Just people. Just.
21:15
Going over it, just going over. The bridge, if it was in barrel
21:17
and then you probably would probably.
21:20
But yeah, some beautiful locations.
21:22
Yeah. On the.
21:22
Yeah. I think this is one of those
21:23
films that makes you think, where was this shot when you
21:26
watch it? Yeah.
21:26
Because I'm going, Yeah. And that's the beginning of The
21:29
Last of the Mohicans. We've met all our main players,
21:32
Mohican who run, and British alike, the frontiers erupting in
21:35
violence, and our characters are heading right into the heart of
21:37
it. Should we talk about the man
21:39
orchestrating all the chaos? Let's do it.
21:42
Literally the man the. Man the man Manfred.
21:44
Man, the director. The director of The Last of the
21:54
Mohicans was, as we've been talking about, Michael Mann.
21:57
This was his fourth feature film, and at the time he was
22:00
mostly known for slick thrillers like Thief, Manhunter, and he'd
22:04
exactly produced classic 80s TV show Miami Vice.
22:07
Yep, Yep, bit of a departure. Stylish crime flicks to the
22:10
colonial frontier Mat. And he wrote the film as well.
22:13
But first of all, how was Michael Mann's work as director
22:16
on The Last of the Mohicans? It's the least Michael Mann film
22:20
he's ever made. Like if his name wasn't on the
22:22
film and I didn't know and I went in, it's not on the single
22:25
thing about it. See what chance I've got.
22:27
That's Michael Mann from that. Because so many of his
22:30
trademarks are absent from this. It's not set in the 20th
22:32
century. It's the only period film he's
22:34
ever made, I think. And so many of his films are
22:37
about these kind of singular, very tough brewed and macho men
22:40
at the Harvard. And that doesn't really apply to
22:42
Hawkeye. Yes, he is tough, obviously, but
22:45
he's also just really open about his feelings.
22:47
You know, he's a romantic figure as well as an action figure, and
22:51
this doesn't take itself seriously in the way that is
22:54
other films. So yes, it is serious, but it's
22:56
got real emotion to it. At the same time, it's probably
22:59
the only Michael Mann film that's got a real beaten heart
23:02
to it. And obviously you'd expect
23:04
Michael Mann to nail the action sequences, which he does and
23:07
then some. You wouldn't necessarily expect
23:09
him to nail the romantic scenes, which he also does.
23:12
And it is, as we've been saying, it's a very romantic film, both
23:15
in terms of the love story that comes out, but also in the more
23:18
general sense, in that it's beautifully shot and it's
23:21
romantic about a way of life that simply doesn't exist
23:23
anymore. So in a way, I don't quite
23:26
understand how or why this is a Michael Mann film, but I'm very
23:29
glad that it is. Oh, as a man, I mean, yeah, he
23:32
was very much known for working on pretty hard hitting thrillers
23:35
at this point, like we said. So people must have been
23:37
thinking this heist guy is doing a historical epic.
23:40
Nah, a bit weird, yeah. But I think it does still work
23:42
in his filmography because he brings out, like, intensity I
23:45
think he's known for to the 18th century.
23:47
I think you can see some of his thriller sensibilities and how
23:49
he stages the action. It's visceral.
23:51
It's a media. It's brutal at times.
23:54
I mean, we'll talk about it as we go, but the siege of the
23:56
Ford, I think, does feel a bit like a Michael Mann shoot out,
23:58
just with muskets and cannons instead of machine guns and Val
24:01
Kilmer. Yeah.
24:03
But what I love is his attention to detail and all that.
24:05
He spent months researching that period in place and getting as
24:08
much right as he could. I mean, that's man the writer,
24:10
really, but man the director then puts that on the screen
24:13
about as well as he could. He does it brilliantly from the
24:15
costume design through production design, location
24:18
shooting, it all looks authentic and excellent.
24:21
I mean, this isn't some Hollywood backlog version of
24:23
colonial America. When they're in the forest or
24:26
when they're in the Fort, you feel the weight of it.
24:28
Yeah. And I think the way that handles
24:29
the romance is interesting as well because one of the biggest
24:32
challenges the film's got, I think, is this is part action
24:34
film, part love story. So tonally, he's got a balance
24:37
that, and I think he treats the romance scenes almost like
24:40
action scenes because he makes them really visual.
24:42
Yeah. There's not many long speeches
24:44
or conversations between Core and Hawkeye.
24:46
It's all in looks and then braces and ripping each of those
24:49
clothes off. And I think it works.
24:51
Yeah. The only thing for me is I don't
24:53
think it's long enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:54
The three cuts of the film and the role between 112 and 117
24:57
minutes, Less than two hours. Yeah.
24:59
And I think this would benefit from at least another 20 minutes
25:01
or so in development. I'd love that.
25:03
Yeah. I'll go into specifics on what a
25:04
bit later. But does it feel to you like
25:06
some scenes have been like cut out when you watch?
25:08
It Oh yeah, massively. You feel like a bit like ITV,
25:10
you've got the hands on it and went, oh, this is a bit long.
25:12
Got to feel the advert. Yeah.
25:14
Edited. For television, yeah, yeah,
25:15
yeah, yeah. So not perfect, but in taking
25:17
what is apparently a fairly turgid source novel and turning
25:20
it into this really lean, really visual story, I do think this is
25:24
top tier. Michael Mann for sure.
25:25
Oh yeah. Yeah, like Matt said, like when
25:27
I put this on, I would never in a million years have thought,
25:30
oh, this is a Michael Mann film, Fantastic.
25:31
And especially at that time, I would have thought this is more
25:33
like Peter Weir. Yeah, yeah.
25:36
It could have been Weir, yeah. Yeah.
25:37
You know, it's, it's got that kind of softness to it in that
25:40
sense of adventure and that sense of romance that I just
25:43
would not have put Michael Mann part of, especially at that
25:46
point of his career. But I think he just goes in 100%
25:50
with this opening with them vistas.
25:52
Brilliant. Just beautifully done.
25:54
You know, Mel Gibson saw this and went, that's what I'm doing.
25:57
I'm doing Braveheart, I'm making it longer.
25:59
I'm making the romance as intense, but I'm taking that
26:01
away. I'm going to Add all the
26:02
violence. I'm going to ramp that up and
26:03
I'm going to have these vistas in a huge soundtrack.
26:05
I think maybe PR Jackson as well to tell us stuff like that
26:08
doesn't. It that's me.
26:09
Second one to reference was Lord of the Rings.
26:11
It's like the way that opens up, it's fantastic.
26:13
It's just got such a style to it that people are looking at
26:16
going, why didn't I think of that, you know?
26:18
And everyone just started to copy it afterwards.
26:21
And the thing with Michael Mann is that he loves style, and he
26:24
always has, but he also loves substance.
26:27
Yeah, the shoot out from Heat is stylish, but it's also used to
26:31
teach people how to act within a shooter, how to reload a gun
26:34
realistically. He loves a bit of research man,
26:37
doesn't he? Massively, this film is a lovely
26:39
match of the both of them. It's a lovely marriage between
26:42
the style and the substance because I feel it's very
26:44
authentic. You can kind of smell it, you
26:46
can feel it. It's got a lot of respect to the
26:48
subject matter. But at the same time, it's got
26:50
that spin on it, that Michael Mann's spin on it.
26:53
And we're going to talk about the ending and I'll talk about
26:55
now because I'll probably just cry, won't talk about the end
26:57
layer on. So that's fine.
26:58
I've seen it a million times with, you know, a protagonist
27:01
get killed and fall off a mountain.
27:02
Fair enough. But have you ever seen a body
27:04
slide to be on cast slides at the end?
27:06
Oh, it freaks me out. That's Michael Mann.
27:08
Yeah, because you don't need that particular element to
27:11
happen, but that just slams the emotion home.
27:14
And that's what I mean about style and substance.
27:16
That doesn't need to happen. But it's just this sense of
27:19
tremendous scale. And he's not afraid of the
27:21
scale. It's almost not big enough for
27:23
him. I don't think the lenses are
27:24
wide enough for him. I don't think the screens big
27:26
enough. But at the same time, it's very
27:28
intimate. He punches in really close to
27:30
human relationships, to human struggles, to the history of the
27:35
whole country and how that was dealt with for everybody.
27:39
And it just really hits home. You learn a lot from this film
27:41
and you rent attained and you really moved.
27:44
It's an incredible achievement. I think it's just pure Michael
27:47
Mann and I wish he did this a little bit more.
27:49
Yeah, yeah, me too. Yeah, me too.
27:51
Well, the film is based on 1826 novel of the same name by James
27:55
Fennimore Cooper and Man's adaptation is the best known
27:58
screen version now, but it was far from the first.
28:01
Yeah, that's right, because before this there were ten other
28:03
adaptations of the book and the first was the silent film in 19
28:07
O 9 that was directed by DW Griffith.
28:10
And then there were two silent adaptations in 1911 and 1920.
28:14
Yes, mostly known nowadays for The Birth of a Nation.
28:17
DW Griffith. Yes, regarded as maybe the most
28:19
racist film ever, so let's not get too much into that.
28:22
We'll leave that one there. Yeah, that's not going on the
28:24
Paul. We'll put a discreet veil over
28:26
that one for now. Yeah.
28:27
And then between 1920 and Michael Mann, there were seven
28:30
other adaptations, and the most well known of these came in
28:33
1936. Yeah, that one was directed by
28:35
George B Site and starred Randolph Scott as Hawkeye.
28:39
Right. Yeah.
28:39
He became better known as like, a Western star in the 40s,
28:42
Randolph Scott. He did.
28:43
Yeah. And in the 70s, Columbia
28:44
approached Lindsay Anderson, you know, the director of IF.
28:47
Oh yeah. Yeah.
28:48
About making a modern version of Last of the Mohicans.
28:50
But he apparently went. Forget that.
28:52
How about we adopt the grand bubble on Hotel instead?
28:54
And then neither of them got made.
28:56
Fantastic. There's been no adaptation since
28:59
this one though, right? Not on the big screen.
29:02
Perfect. So this really is the Last of
29:03
the Mohicans. I love that.
29:05
Yeah, yeah. Perfect.
29:06
That way. The Last of the Last of the
29:08
Mohicans Let's. Repeat that 10 times and talk
29:13
about the earlier versions. Michael Mann said he saw the
29:15
1936 version when he was three years old.
29:19
I saw films. I was three years old.
29:21
I don't remember him, but he said it rattled around his brain
29:23
for 40 years. He realized that there hadn't
29:25
been a great historical epic made in a long time, and that
29:29
last, the Mohicans wins important part of him.
29:31
So he bought the rights to the novel in 1988.
29:33
What a nightmare. Then Dances Rules comes out in
29:35
1990. Yeah.
29:36
Bastard. Yeah, of three years old.
29:38
I can't remember a single thing from being 3.
29:41
Maybe Taylor from Jason the Argonauts?
29:43
Yeah, Yeah, that's about it. Yeah.
29:45
Something like that. So Man developed Mohicans on and
29:48
off over the next few years and pitched it to Morgan Creek
29:51
Productions and 20th Century Fox.
29:53
They liked the idea and had faith in Man after seeing
29:56
Manhunter and the fact that thought his background meant
29:58
he'd be able to adapt it from a more modern audience.
30:02
Yeah, I mean, Manhunt, there was a big flop at the box office, so
30:04
there must have been hoping to be for more like Miami Vice or
30:07
something. Yeah.
30:08
Yeah, poor guy. You know White Blazer loves
30:09
that. There's bare chest though.
30:14
But yeah, like you said there, Wesley, Dances with Wolves was
30:16
huge a couple of years before this.
30:18
It was. That must have made it an easier
30:19
self in the studio, I'd imagine. Got to be, Yeah, surely.
30:22
It must have been more of a positive form than a negative,
30:24
really. Yeah, Michael Mann already had a
30:27
reputation for being a perfectionist as a filmmaker,
30:29
and that carried into Mohicans during filming.
30:31
Apparently every scene was taken at least 20 takes before man was
30:35
happy with it. So that guy got scalped 20
30:37
times. I mean, in the production
30:41
quickly fell behind schedule. Fox sent an executive to the set
30:44
whose job was basically just to say to Michael Mann, that's
30:47
enough Michael. Move on after a certain number
30:49
of takes. Imagine that job, man.
30:52
Just one more every time. Yeah, yeah.
30:54
Imagine having that job in the James Cameron film.
30:59
Fare worse than death. Yeah, you would get scaled off,
31:01
James. The release was delayed though
31:04
with you to come out summer 1992 but the late of September, so
31:07
maybe the studio were right to be concerned with the schedules.
31:10
Yeah, yeah. But something the studio didn't
31:12
have a problem with was Man's commitment to authenticity, and
31:15
some of the things he did included the main cast and
31:18
extras who played British soldiers were all trained in
31:21
historic military combat for three months, and they were
31:24
trained by a military advisor called DL Die.
31:26
And some of the cast and crew spent a month in the North
31:28
Carolina woods before shooting began.
31:31
He'll die the military guy. Yeah.
31:33
Is there anything he hasn't done?
31:34
He's a go to for Hollywood, isn't he for?
31:36
Everything, yeah. Platoon born the 4th of July.
31:39
Casualties of war? Saving Private Ryan.
31:41
Saving Private Ryan. He's written them all.
31:43
Forrest Gump. He's a cameo as well, I think,
31:45
doesn't he? But there's nothing here.
31:47
He wouldn't have fit anyway. Yeah, one of The Who run Big
31:52
Tash. And the period weapons were all
31:55
made by specialists. The Tomahawks and knives were
31:58
all custom made for each character by two expert Blair
32:01
Smiths called Daniel Winkler and Randall King.
32:04
Yeah, so Magua tomahawk was an exact replica of a tomahawk the
32:07
found in the French and Indian War Museum in New York.
32:09
And you mentioned it Westie, but that close up shot before the
32:12
1st battle where Magua dropped his tomahawk ready to use it.
32:15
Brilliant. Terrifying.
32:17
Yeah, and then the guns, they were created by three American
32:20
guns and it's called Herschel and Frank House.
32:22
Dafde Pedisoli and Wayne Watson in the made over 400 muskets for
32:27
the production. Yeah, I mean, not that many kind
32:29
of final guns, far from it. But Hawkeye's rifle, they killed
32:32
you, it's called. That is a beautiful prop.
32:35
It's wonderful, isn't it? It is, and you might have
32:38
noticed there aren't any American accents in the whole
32:40
film. And this is because in 1757,
32:43
those accents simply didn't exist at the time.
32:46
Yeah, of course. No, Yeah, yeah.
32:47
Nice detail that. It's great detail, although I'm
32:49
not sure what accent dear Lewis is doing exactly.
32:52
He sounds part English, part Irish.
32:54
A little bit, yeah. Throwing some Scottish she'd be
32:56
Sean Connery. The first costume designer was
33:01
James Atrizon, but he left early on when he didn't like man's
33:04
hands on style. Well, I mean, you have to, don't
33:07
you? He was replaced by Elsa's and
33:09
Perily and she was responsible for dressing about 800 cast
33:12
members, Mohicans, Hurons, French and British.
33:15
The research period clothing, historic documents and paints
33:18
from museum collections and based their designs on that
33:21
research. Yeah, we've got a bit more than
33:23
those paintings in the DP section, which is pretty
33:25
interesting. Yeah, but also I saw interview
33:27
with Dear Lewis and he said they were wearing moccasins but they
33:29
were adapted to the bottom of the shoes.
33:31
Were like modern trainers with rubber souls, right?
33:33
Like clocks? Yeah, high techs.
33:37
Like the verve ocean? Can I see?
33:41
No wonder resource drift through those trays they like got pair
33:43
of like Reeboks on. Lovely.
33:45
Before we finish on Michael Mann, we have an ATRM PH1
33:48
question, so one of the ever increasing benefits of joining
33:51
up if you answer your questions on the show and we have one now
33:54
from Gareth Bin Moore. Hello, Gareth.
33:56
Hello, Gareth. So Gareth says another bang out
33:59
of a movie. My question is how does The Last
34:01
of the Mohicans portray Native American characters and
34:04
cultures? And does the film challenge or
34:06
reinforce the stereotypes we often see in Hollywood?
34:10
Huge question from Gareth. So what are your thoughts, Matt?
34:14
I think the first thought is stereotypes often do have a
34:17
grain of truth in them at the very start.
34:20
And then as well, as he said, do you challenge that or do you
34:23
reinforce that? And I think I think the first
34:25
good thing this doesn't obviously it's not the first one
34:27
to do it, but obviously were far away from Native Americans being
34:30
portrayed by white men and brown face a horrific relic of the.
34:34
Past. So it's moved on now,
34:36
thankfully. But then you do have elements
34:38
like as well, as he's been saying, when you see someone
34:40
getting scalped now obviously you might think, well, that's a
34:42
stereotype, isn't it? But that is how they fought and
34:44
that is how they killed people back then.
34:46
So I think what it does is it just gives it more context.
34:49
And I think it says by saying, you know what, They weren't all
34:52
one homogeneous tribe. You had various different tribes
34:55
who wanted different things. And some of them got on well
34:57
with the colonials. Some of them wanted to fight
34:59
them. So I kind of feel like I'm
35:01
sitting on the fence, but I think it was both.
35:03
I think it does reinforce them, but then it gives more context
35:06
to the stereotypes which probably just challenge them in
35:09
the end. Yeah, I'm similar to you, Matt.
35:11
It's a big question, like Native American representation in
35:14
Hollywood, and I think Mohicans does this better than most
35:17
productions of its time, but it is pretty complicated.
35:20
On the positive side, like we said, man cast actual Native
35:23
American actors in the major roles.
35:24
Whistle means Dennis Banks W duty and he gave them strong,
35:28
complex characters. Yeah.
35:29
Also, it's not just Cowboys and Indians.
35:31
Man shows us different drives with different agendas, not just
35:34
one like it usually get in Hollywood films.
35:36
And as Muslim said, he was drawn to the film because it showed
35:39
natives and non natives integrating and working
35:42
together. Yeah.
35:42
So that's all great, but it's still at its core.
35:46
I mean, it's a white savior narrative, isn't it?
35:48
Yeah. Hawkeye's the hero still the
35:50
white guy saving the day. And despite the title of
35:53
character being Ching Gachgook, he calls himself Lost the
35:55
Mohicans in the final scene. Yeah.
35:57
Yeah. The film is really about Hawkeye
35:59
and Cora's romance. The Mohicans are very much
36:01
secondary. So I'd say to step forward for
36:03
sure. Sure.
36:04
Native Americans, actual people who are individuals but still
36:08
does reinforce some Hollywood tropes that are a bit
36:10
problematic. I think.
36:11
So I'd say it's progress, but not perfect, yeah.
36:16
So I mean, I agree with both of you on certain points, but I've
36:19
went back to kind of the Hollywood stereotypes and
36:22
Hollywood depictions that are new because obviously being from
36:25
where we're from, I'd haven't got a lot to draw on with, you
36:29
know, Native Americans or Native American history or we're not
36:32
taught anything about that. Not many people are
36:34
unfortunately in there should be no, but that's not something
36:36
that you can kind of delve into unless you have a real interest
36:39
in it. And you know, it's about 6 years
36:41
ago I read Bury My Heart, Wounded Knee.
36:43
Oh. Yeah, great.
36:44
All right, nice. Open my eyes a lot to kind of
36:46
the culture and everything that went through.
36:48
It's incredible book. If you get the chance to read
36:50
that it really it really does open your eyes.
36:52
But what I was put into was the John Ford's was the searches,
36:57
was the John Wayne's was the Comanche that just the absolute
37:01
savages. There was no explanation
37:02
whatsoever. Every time they were on screen
37:05
that was it was just this evil that was portrayed on screen.
37:10
Fast forward to this, and I think this is a very progressive
37:12
depiction. I think especially from 92,
37:14
we're forgetting that this was quite a while ago now, 92, this
37:17
is quite ahead of its time. And I think what man does is he
37:20
brings that style to their history as well as the
37:24
substance. Everything feels authentic.
37:27
And I would go to this and Dances With Wolves easily over
37:31
like any John Ford or anything further back.
37:33
If my kids wanted to know anything about it, I would kind
37:35
of start here and say, you know, this is safe to say.
37:39
It has enough respect. I think what people are missing
37:41
out, the point is that it's more stereotypical of the French and
37:44
the English of the time, and that's good.
37:47
If it's honest about that, then it's obviously honest about the
37:50
Native American side of it as well.
37:51
So if it's going to portray everything to the point and
37:54
everything truthfully, I think it does that.
37:56
What man does is I think he keeps everything on a level.
37:59
He takes the politics out, but he adds in the emotion.
38:02
You feel emotional for the people and it makes you want to
38:04
go away and find out more. And for me, that's always a
38:06
progressive take on it. So I think for me, this is a win
38:10
for factual stereotypes that actually work in a positive way.
38:14
I think it's a real step forward, especially in 92.
38:17
I think man certainly comes across respectful of the Native
38:20
Americans. That's what I get from it.
38:22
It's very respectful, yeah. Well, for his work on The Last
38:25
of the Mohicans, Michael Mann wasn't nominated for any Oscars.
38:29
The winner of Best Picture that year?
38:31
So it's a couple years after Dancers as Wolves, so
38:35
Schindler's List. 94. I was 94.
38:38
It was unforgiven. Huge.
38:41
A worthy winner, as we've talked about we have here, and the
38:44
other nominees were A Few Good Men, Howard Zen, Scent of a
38:46
Woman and The Crying Game. I think in retrospect, Mohicans
38:49
might have been worthy of a nom. Yeah, I think so.
38:52
Definitely. Yeah, a cheeky nom.
38:54
Yeah, I think so, yeah. Either way, for us this is
38:56
Michael Mann bringing his classic attention to detail and
38:59
intense filmmaking style to the historical epic genre, and
39:02
mostly succeeding. Very much.
39:04
Still stands up now for me, so that's a win.
39:10
The cast. Michael Mann assembled quite the
39:15
mix of actors for The Last of the Mohicans.
39:16
We've got Oscar winners, Method Masters, Native American
39:19
activists and RSC actors all sharing the screen.
39:23
Yeah, we're going to be talking to you about Madeleine Stewart,
39:25
Cora Monroe and West Studio is the villainous Magua.
39:28
But we have to start with the man of the sender, don't we?
39:31
Oh yeah. We do.
39:32
So Daniel Day Lewis plays Hawkeye, also known as Nathaniel
39:35
Paul, a white man adopted and raised by Mohicans.
39:38
We follow Hawkeye as he guides the Monroe sisters through the
39:41
war-torn frontier, falls in love with Cora, and ultimately faces
39:44
off against the Huron in the film's climactic battle.
39:47
Yeah, no matter how long it takes, no matter how far he will
39:50
find you, Westie. Good.
39:52
I mean, not you specifically, but how was Daniel D Lewis as
39:58
whole guy? I mean, how's Daniel D Lewis as
40:00
whole guy? I mean, how's Daniel D Lewis in
40:02
anything? I mean, it's just a silly
40:03
question, isn't it? He's just absorbed in the role.
40:06
He disappears into the role as usual.
40:08
I don't know if this is my favorite performance by him.
40:11
To me, this feels more like he is leaning on the other guys.
40:14
It's more of an ensemble kind of thing.
40:16
They are all part of the group and that group really works
40:18
because you need that group dynamics so that end and really
40:21
hits and he's the last person on that end and he's not front and
40:25
center, he's not leading. In the charge, he's just part of
40:28
a group and it really works. But Christ Almighty is here yet
40:31
magnificent lookout on screen. He's just so magnetic.
40:36
He's just so passionate about every line.
40:39
He's so passionate about the performance and the way he pours
40:42
that into this character. I mean, he does it with every
40:44
character, but I think he's just got such an incredible presence.
40:49
You can see he's taking the time.
40:50
There's not a part of him where it, oh, we're going to cut a
40:52
wide shot. There's a stuntman, you know,
40:54
everything's like put that on deal.
40:56
Lewis, 100%. Even stuff he didn't have to do,
40:58
I would imagine he's doing. I don't know anyone at the time
41:01
who could have done this because to me it seems very selfless as
41:05
a performance. I think he's totally given
41:07
himself to the film. I'd like he does with pretty
41:09
much every film he's in, to be honest.
41:11
And that's exactly what he does here.
41:12
He absolutely elevates all of the material, all of them little
41:16
quips, you know, like if you know, got anything better to do
41:18
on what a day if they're trying to get away from the run.
41:21
It's just that level of realism that he brings to everything,
41:24
especially here. I don't think it's my favorite
41:26
performance because it doesn't stand out as much as everything
41:29
else that he's done. It might be my favorite Daniel
41:32
Day Lewis as part of a cast. Though he doesn't just run away
41:35
with it. Yeah.
41:36
He doesn't. He keeps up with everybody else.
41:37
He actually lets them two guys run first and he's always
41:40
behind. Yeah, literally.
41:41
I literally feel like that's his performance.
41:43
Everyone else shines. And I'll be honest with you,
41:45
dear Lewis doesn't really need dialogue in this film.
41:47
No. Give him 2 lines and he still
41:49
nails it. Yeah, yeah.
41:50
That's how good his performance is.
41:52
Yeah, I mean, not the kind of role you associate with dear
41:54
Lewis. Really the action star.
41:56
No, he does. He does it very well.
41:58
He does that stoic hero thing believably and doesn't look out
42:01
of place in the action scenes. I mean, knowing them like we do
42:03
now, I think it's kind of fascinating watching D Lewis in
42:06
the kind of role you'd normally see, like a a Tom Cruise or a
42:09
Mel Gibson. Yeah.
42:10
Yeah. We've just seen DDL as Christy
42:12
Brown or Daniel Plainview. Like intense character studies.
42:14
Yeah. But here, sprinting through
42:16
forests, he's diving through waterfalls, He's romancing the
42:18
leading lady, and he makes it work.
42:21
I think that might be the keyword.
42:22
He made it work. Yeah.
42:23
I'm not sure it came naturally. It was.
42:25
There was like, Shia commitment as always.
42:27
Yeah. And we'll talk about his method,
42:29
Madison, a bit. But while, like is how he plays
42:31
Hawkeye's kind of dual nature. He can track you through the
42:34
forest with the lads, but he can also seduce the most beautiful
42:37
woman in the world at the Fort. And I believe both sides of it.
42:40
Yeah. And I think it's just chemistry
42:41
with the cast member that kind of brings it all together.
42:44
He sizzles with Store as Cora. Yeah.
42:46
He works for what Russell means as Ching Gachkook.
42:48
He bounces off Steve Wallington as Big Dunk.
42:50
So he drives the whole film as a great lead performer does.
42:53
So yeah, I think he's excellent. Yeah, it's definitely his
42:56
fastest character he's ever played.
42:57
All of the other ones are a slightest.
42:59
Yeah, yeah, this is the fastest. One he's ever played.
43:03
I think it disappears. A truly great actor can make
43:05
anything work if they really commit to it.
43:07
And you know, I'm just going to borrow.
43:09
Wesley's ready because he is magnetic here.
43:12
You just can't take your eyes off him.
43:13
And the one thing you're always going to get with Dale Lewis's
43:17
authenticity and research. And when I'm watching him as
43:20
Hawkeye, there's no doubt in my mind this is the lifestyle this
43:23
man has been brought up in. When he's running and he's
43:25
loading his rifle with gunpowder at the same time and he doesn't
43:28
break stride. How to think?
43:31
Of course he can do that. Yeah, of course he can.
43:33
When he's thrown himself into action with rifles and daggers
43:36
and axes again, I'm just completely convinced by that.
43:39
And then when it's not the action, and I think we're all
43:41
seeing this, when you see the man underneath that car Will
43:44
falls in love with again, completely convinced by that as
43:47
well. And I know Tom Cruise has
43:49
cornered the market on running in films lately, but sorry, he's
43:52
got nothing on Daniel de Lucy. Yeah.
43:55
When he takes off, he's like using Bolt.
43:57
I mean, he's just so compelling. He's so authentic.
44:00
And in a couple of episodes time we're going to be talking about
44:02
Lord of the Rings. And when my talk about day lose
44:06
because I believe he was in the fame for Aragon at one point.
44:09
And you watch this and you go, yeah, I can see why Peter
44:11
Jackson went to this performance straight off and thought he'd be
44:15
good. Aragon.
44:17
Yeah, Michael Mann said that he wanted to cast de Lewis as
44:20
Hawkeye after seeing him in My Left Foot, where he won an
44:22
Oscar. Man knew he wanted the actor who
44:24
played Hawkeye to do a lot of training, and My Left Foot
44:27
showed how Dear Lewis was able to commit to a rule.
44:29
Dear Lewis wasn't keen on the part at first, but said he
44:32
changed his mind when he read the script.
44:33
The Deer Hunt open and drew him in and he said he'd do it.
44:37
Can't blame for that. No, not at all.
44:38
But the idea was said that he didn't read the book until after
44:40
I read the script, which was a good thing because he said if he
44:43
read the book first he wouldn't have taken the part, right?
44:45
Because whole guy in the books like a white supremacist
44:47
apparently. All right.
44:49
Wow, always like bragging about how there's not a drop of Native
44:51
American blood in his veins. So sounds like a nice fella.
44:55
And as we all know, Dillu is known for going to extremes in
44:58
preparation for his roles, and this one was no different.
45:01
So he went through a lot of weapons training, starting with
45:03
modern firearms and then working back to muskets.
45:06
And he also lived in the North Carolina forest, hunting and
45:09
fishing and living off the land for a few months before
45:11
shooting. A few months, a few.
45:14
Months. Just do it for a week.
45:16
A week's fine. I saw an interview with man
45:19
where he said if Daniel didn't shoot I'd drop anything.
45:21
He didn't eat nuts. Daniel Boone.
45:27
The specific thing he trained in was firing his rifle while
45:31
running. He was trained by a historical
45:33
reenactor called Mark Baker how to reload a flintock rifle while
45:37
run. This is something from tears
45:38
meant at the time had to train specifically how to do as it was
45:41
so difficult and we see Hawkeye do it in the film.
45:44
Yeah, he does it in the opening C in the DA Hunt, so look out
45:47
for that. Also, apparently at the time the
45:49
film was made, there were only three people in the world
45:52
capable of reloading A flintlock rifle while running.
45:54
Yeah, and one of them was Daniel Dale Lewis.
45:58
One of the other ones was made. And the custom director was
46:04
Bonnie Timmerman, and she said whether Dale Lewis was running,
46:08
eating or making love, it didn't matter.
46:10
He was always in character and after the shoot he said he had a
46:13
hard time shaking the character and suffered hallucinations and
46:16
claustrophobia because he wasn't used to being endorsed so much.
46:19
Wow. Yeah, I mean, that's probably
46:21
why you only did one film every few years, the prep and then
46:24
like the D acclimatizing afterwards probably took longer
46:27
than the shoot, definitely, but also making a living character.
46:30
Yeah, sounds like she might be giving away too much there,
46:32
Bonnie. I'll.
46:33
Take her word for that. Of his performance as Hawkeye,
46:37
Daniel D Lewis, receiving the Oscar nomination winner that
46:40
year was Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman.
46:42
Right. Yeah, yeah.
46:43
But for us, this is Daniel D Lewis, proving you can do action
46:46
hero as convincingly as he does, well, everything else.
46:49
Everything else he's ever done yet?
46:50
Yep. Moving on from our male to
46:54
female lead and Madeleine Store plays Core on Monroe, the elder
46:58
daughter of Colonel Monroe. Grey hair to his enemies.
47:01
Yeah, we follow Cora. She rejects the safe choice in
47:04
Duncan, falls for Hawkeye and shows kindness and courage
47:07
aplenty as she navigates the frontier wall.
47:10
Yeah, she's better looking than Jack Winthrop, that's what.
47:14
She. Always did.
47:15
How was Madeline store and Cora? I mean, Madeline still in this
47:19
film is just unapologetically beautiful.
47:22
She really is. Florida State Beautiful like an
47:26
oil painting beautiful. Yeah, yeah, it.
47:28
Doesn't even matter how she's lit like it really doesn't
47:32
matter like Michael Mann just but look at any frame and just
47:34
be like that just really works. Just fill the frame with her
47:37
face. But even in wide shots, just a
47:39
whole presence really works. And she sells this character of,
47:43
you know, the protector. And she has a real maternal kind
47:46
of instinct, but also this kind of misspent youth.
47:49
You feel like she spent a lot of her time looking after Alice.
47:51
You get all that back story, and she brings all of that without
47:54
any dialogue whatsoever. There's a real regret and a real
47:57
weight that she brings to the character, especially just
47:59
talking to Duncan at the start. It's like, this isn't the place
48:02
I need to be. It's not a place I want to be.
48:03
And she's always looking for a way out, but she's always trying
48:06
to do the right thing. I mean, when she get to the Fort
48:08
and she immediately just turns into a nurse and just starts
48:11
helping people. Yeah, but it's not a pretentious
48:13
nature. She's not like out of place
48:15
doing it. She doesn't get squeamish by it.
48:17
And I think Madeline Snow plays this with a real ferocity.
48:20
Oh yeah, She is beat for beat with dear Lewis that you can
48:23
understand them to fall in love with each other totally on a
48:26
parallel. Not because of he feels sorry
48:28
for her or she's completely taken by him and he's he's going
48:32
to protect her forever. You can see them just like on a
48:34
level, and I would like to see another cutter this way.
48:37
You know, the stand at the end and they're looking out at the
48:39
Vista, but instead of cutting to the credits, she's running
48:41
through the forest. She's got a fucking headband on.
48:43
And there's a big rifle and she's in the front and she's
48:46
like whipping it over and shooting the deer.
48:48
And he's like, yes. And she's the last of them all.
48:50
He can get out of your face. You could kind of maybe see
48:54
that. Not to that degree, but you can
48:56
see a fitting in and that she's not out of place anywhere.
48:59
Oh, yeah. Her rule is not to be where she
49:02
is, and I think she plays it really well.
49:04
Like I say, our character has conviction, she has confidence,
49:07
she has the look, she has the style.
49:09
Every single thing that she does, every kind of single hit
49:12
that she plays is perfect. It really does work for the
49:15
character. It's it's of the time, it's of
49:17
the period, but at the same time, it does have a very kind
49:20
of positive female message and that's just not going to be
49:23
fucked about. She's not going to be messed
49:24
with. She can stand up for herself and
49:26
I really like that, bringing that sensibility to it and she
49:28
really does bring that. She does for sure, like a part
49:32
romance film, obviously, and that's where most the coral
49:34
scenes come. But she's not just some please
49:36
save me damsel in distress. No, I think she's a great
49:39
character. She's like, strong and soft.
49:41
She's tough and romantic. And Madeline Store definitely
49:44
has acting shops to pull off the dramatic scenes that she gets.
49:47
And there's a few. But I think her best moment
49:49
might come when Cora's arguing with Duncan and her father and
49:52
she shouts, I know exactly what I'm saying.
49:54
And if it's sedition, I'm guilty of sedition, too.
49:56
Yeah. Great delivery always, I think,
49:58
but especially there. Yeah.
50:00
And she has a quite a lot of the film really.
50:02
She's the emotional center. She's the person whose journey
50:04
we're following from British lady to frontier survivor.
50:08
She's probably the character we relate to most.
50:10
I mean, unless you spend a few months in the woods and she
50:13
makes that pretty big arc, like believable.
50:16
I think what works well and that I like is the Core as
50:19
intelligent. She's probably the most
50:21
intelligent person in the film. She sees right through big
50:24
dunks, nonsense in the first act, she challenges her father.
50:26
She recognizes what Hawkeye is immediately.
50:29
And like you're saying, Wesley, that attraction between Core and
50:31
Hawkeye works so well because she's is equal.
50:34
Yeah, but she does have action to do as well.
50:36
Running through the forest and there was massive period
50:38
costumes going to be an easy no. And she's like a lady who wasn't
50:41
afraid to get a hands dirty, which is pretty classic stuff.
50:44
I think Core was one of the best examples of that kind of
50:46
character. And I think Madeleine Store is
50:48
really, really good in the part, Yeah.
50:50
And I don't know if this is related either, but I mean 1993
50:53
we had that massive series which was Doctor Quinn, Medicine woman
50:56
with GNC more. And Oh yeah, yeah, I remember.
50:58
That and I feel like this is a massive influence on that kind
51:01
of character. I think she plays very much into
51:04
this exam, exactly what Cora's character is.
51:05
Yeah. Yeah, it's around about that
51:07
same time. They hear that as well, wasn't
51:08
it? Yeah, it was massive.
51:10
I think there's a real balance in that team because with Cora,
51:13
on one hand, you have to be realistic to the time in the
51:16
setting and who Cora is. And the fact is back then, women
51:19
would be taking a backseat you in a war.
51:21
People like Cora and Alice, they would be protected and shielded,
51:25
so you can't have Car just charge and interaction like
51:28
Kevin Knightley in Pirates Caribbean, because that would
51:30
just destroy the realism. But on the other hand, you want
51:33
Car to have agency as a character, not just be a damsel
51:36
in distress. And I think they get that
51:37
balance spot on because yes, she's out for comfort zone here,
51:41
but she adapts very quickly and she's just so resourceful.
51:44
She immediately realizes that Hawkeye knows what he's talking
51:47
about because this is his territory.
51:49
And so she mainly sought to defer to his authority rather
51:53
than Duncan. I say she sees straight through
51:54
him. And she learned some Hawkeye saw
51:57
doing the the ambush. We're going to talk about later
51:59
when she picks up that gun and shoots the hue on Rory with one
52:02
shot. I totally believe she's smart
52:05
and brave enough to do that class.
52:06
That could be really cheesy. It could have been a cliche, but
52:09
it's not totally by that moment. And the scene you've talked
52:12
about, John, when she stands up for Hawkeye to her father, it's
52:15
so powerful because I believe she's brave enough to do that.
52:18
Yeah. And so much of that is down the
52:20
store. And I think she's great in this
52:22
and her hair almost as magnificent as DDLS.
52:25
You're not wrong. Almost.
52:28
Almost been knocked by it. Yeah, she doesn't wash it in a
52:31
waterfall. You can tell he definitely uses
52:34
Timothy. Well, the casting of Madeleine
52:38
Store wasn't a formality. Some pretty big names were
52:40
concerned to play a Cora. Andy McDowell was 1.
52:44
OK, right, could see her. She likes a good reigning scene,
52:46
so she'd been good into that waterfall.
52:48
She. Does.
52:48
Yeah, she does, yeah. Kim Rave was screen tested and
52:51
apparently the part was turned down by two very big names and
52:54
Jodie Foster and Sigourney Weaver.
52:57
Wow. Right.
52:58
Weaver would have kicked Mag Razzas up and down the Hudson
53:00
River. And she initially said she
53:04
wasn't interested in the film at 1st until a man told her to read
53:08
the script as a love story, not an action film.
53:10
And then she was cast after auditioning and making it
53:13
through the screen testing process.
53:15
And Man said she embodied the intelligence and passion he
53:17
wanted for the role. And actually, in 1978, Store had
53:20
appeared in ATV movie called The DA Slayer, which is also based
53:24
in a James Fenny Mark Cooper novel about Hawkeye.
53:27
And she said that meant she had an understanding of what that
53:29
world was like going into the auditions.
53:32
Which you can tell, I think she fits into the period pretty
53:35
seamlessly, doesn't she? Yeah.
53:36
Yeah, reader is a romance. No, it's an action.
53:39
For what do you do? Just blast the soundtrack
53:41
through a letter book? Wouldn't put it past Michael
53:46
Mud. The store said she didn't tell
53:49
Daniel D Lewis why Cora fell in love with whole guy and asked
53:52
him not to tell her why all guy fell in love for Cora.
53:56
She said she wanted it to feel natural and not rational, which
53:59
definitely comes across. Yeah, animal attraction, isn't
54:02
it? Good looking girl, good looking
54:03
guy straight in there. But.
54:05
It does work really well despite there not being much at all
54:08
explaining the bond between them.
54:09
I totally believe it. Yeah, just moments, isn't it?
54:13
Kind of like what you're looking at.
54:14
I'm looking at you, miss. What a line.
54:16
Fantastic, right? But try doing that.
54:20
If you're not Daniel de Lewis. If you're not Daniel De Lewis,
54:22
you are getting arrested. And behind the scenes store and
54:29
De Lewis said they got on really well and were often playing
54:31
practical jokes with each other. It started off the food fights
54:35
and apparently peaked when De Lewis in the chauffeur staged a
54:38
car crash whereby stalwart stumble Bond Daniel De Lewis all
54:41
bloodied in the wreckage. Mid fall maybe.
54:43
Probably traumatized. That I don't know.
54:46
Do you think? Again, I'm not sure how much the
54:50
off screen plays a part, but there's definite chemistry
54:52
between them I think isn't. There real chemistry, yeah.
54:54
Yeah, I mean, if De Lewis is going to play a joke like that,
54:56
he would have just crashed it for real.
54:58
He probably did. He's in the hospital for six
55:00
months just for a joke. Well, as with the rest of the
55:04
cast, Madeleine Store received no major award recognition for A
55:07
Workers Cora, but for us providing the emotional heart of
55:10
the film and holding her own opposite D Lewis.
55:12
Yeah, very good stuff from Madeleine Store.
55:15
Oh, fantastic stuff, yeah. She's great.
55:19
That's all good guy and a good girl.
55:21
And now we're going to talk the villain of the piece in West
55:23
Duty as Magua, a Who run warrior he was.
55:26
Quest for vengeance drives the film's conflict.
55:28
We see Magua as he infiltrates the British ranks, pursues the
55:31
Monroe sisters and kills on gas before meeting his own maker at
55:35
the hands of Chinga Chkook. Yeah, Magua's heart is twisted.
55:39
According to Hawkeye Westy, it is.
55:41
But how was W Duty as The Who Run war leader?
55:44
He's perfect for me. Yeah, he's fucking excellent.
55:48
Because he's terrifying. Yeah, he's filled with hate and
55:53
vengeance and fire. Yeah, And this absolute need for
55:57
bloodthirsty carnage. Yeah.
55:59
And you can see it written all over his face.
56:02
You don't know where he's been. You don't know what he's done.
56:04
You don't know what you've seen. But you're quite aware that it's
56:06
horrendous and he wears that all the way through.
56:10
Like everyone around him is shit scared of him.
56:13
He moves through his whole crew of everybody, the whole war
56:16
party and everyone's out of his way.
56:19
And Wes Doody just brings this 100%.
56:22
I mean, it should be really quite cringe when he's talking
56:26
about himself in the third person, but you realize that
56:29
he's just completely detached from reality.
56:31
He's completely detached from who he is and he's living as
56:35
this kind of like Ghost or most of his former self.
56:38
But the way he sells, I mean, some of these lines are just
56:40
incredible. He just ignores everything
56:43
that's going on. That's like where studies just
56:44
ignoring the script, like he's got to kill Gray hair and these
56:48
two daughters. That's it.
56:50
And he's just not fazed by anything else that's going on.
56:53
He brings a darkness to the screen.
56:55
Whenever he's on the screen, it's just a shadow that's just
56:58
cast over the audience. He's incredibly, incredibly
57:02
terrifying. And I'm so surprised that W Duty
57:05
didn't get more horror rules off this to me.
57:07
I mean, he has such range here and he's very, very exciting to
57:11
watch again and again because no matter what you think of this
57:14
film, that is a villain and it's a really good villain and it's a
57:18
really well played villain and it's not one I've seen before
57:21
and I very much doubt it's going to be what I'm going to say
57:23
after. Tell you what though, hates the
57:25
Gray hair, doesn't he? He fucking hates a man.
57:29
Furious about the grey hair. I mean, Monroe's men killed
57:32
Magua's family, so it's fair enough.
57:34
That is fair enough. But the French captain goes, so
57:36
why did you hear the grey hair so much?
57:37
And then he goes, when the grey hair is dead, Magua is going to
57:40
cut his heart out, meet his heart.
57:41
And then he's going to bring his children to the knives so that
57:42
his seed is gone from the earth forever.
57:44
And the guys like, well, yeah, that's cool, but why do you?
57:48
I'm going to start putting myself in the third person like
57:51
W, He's going to do this. Yeah, but going after our poor
57:54
core analysis and justice, and that's where you can't have
57:57
sympathy for him. No.
57:58
So as a villain, he's nicely written, Hardly anything we
58:00
haven't seen before Vengeance. But it does work.
58:03
I do love how he talks about himself in the third person.
58:05
Fucking great. Magua said understand English
58:07
very well, so that's a nice touch in the writing.
58:10
But the thing that elevates them for me is where Studi playing
58:12
him. Yeah.
58:13
I think his biggest dramatic moment maybe comes in that scene
58:16
where Magua explains himself to Montcalm, the French general.
58:19
He gives us the back story why he wants vengeance.
58:21
Studi is excellent. And for a moment, you to feel
58:24
for Magua. There's more there than just,
58:26
like, bad guy. Yeah.
58:27
And just the way he carries himself.
58:29
I feel this constant tension that he could unleash at any
58:31
minute. Yeah.
58:32
But he's also calculating his intelligence.
58:34
His great villains usually are. He fools the English at the
58:36
start by getting behind their lines.
58:38
Seems to have Montcalm wrapped around his finger as well.
58:41
Yeah. So really good bad guy.
58:43
And I think W Duty is massively memorable playing him.
58:46
Yeah. Definitely.
58:47
Just a great, great villain. I mean, he never seems to come
58:51
up on the lists of great cinematic villains.
58:53
He doesn't, and I've no idea why he brings so much to this.
58:57
I'm constantly tense whenever he's in the same because the
58:59
brilliant thing about him is he's playing.
59:01
Everyone fulfills. He's playing up that dumb native
59:04
trope because he knows that's all anyone thinks he is.
59:07
And by playing that up, he can get himself in exactly the
59:10
position he wants to be, which is Neil Munro completely plays
59:13
the British fools. Yes, he's a bit more honest with
59:17
the French, but Even so, he's still using them to get him on
59:19
RAW. He's not working for them by any
59:21
stretch of the imagination. And every threat he issues, you
59:25
fully believe he's capable of doing it.
59:27
You know, you fully believe he's going to take out Monroe's art,
59:29
which he obviously goes and does.
59:31
So you're completely in fear for Cora and Alice if he does get
59:34
hold of them. But I think what elevates them
59:37
for me is that as much as he's terrifying and an absolute
59:39
bastard, and you've touched on a drunk, there's a tiny, tiny part
59:43
of me understands where he's coming from because only this is
59:46
his land that's been invaded and being taken over by the British
59:49
and French and they've killed his family, You know,
59:51
colonialism. It's one of the great stance on
59:53
human history. And obviously he takes his
59:55
revenge to horrific extremes. But a little part of me just
59:59
goes, I see where he's coming from.
1:00:02
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think a big part of it
1:00:04
is because he just looks so great as Magua.
1:00:06
Oh, he's got his great villains face, doesn't he?
1:00:08
He does that. Fantastic.
1:00:10
Yeah. And when they punch in closer,
1:00:11
it's just. Yeah, great.
1:00:13
But I mean, he makes his question Elmo's motives, because
1:00:16
that's the only one I can think about, talks in the third person
1:00:18
about themselves. What do you really want, Elmo?
1:00:21
Ask Elmo what you think to the grey hair.
1:00:23
You might change character. Elmo doesn't like to grab a beat
1:00:25
his heart. What the fuck?
1:00:28
So as we mentioned a few Times Now, Dancers with Wolves have
1:00:31
been released in 1990 and had won seven Oscars.
1:00:34
And that was also a film set on the American frontier and
1:00:36
featured a tribe of Native Americans where one of the
1:00:39
attackers was played by West Studi.
1:00:41
And man wanted somebody who could talk the Huron language
1:00:43
believably to play Magua, so had studio audition until he won the
1:00:46
role. Yeah, kind of supporting
1:00:48
antagonist to the main villain, so nice career progression
1:00:51
there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:00:52
And man did cast him in Heat as well, didn't he?
1:00:53
He did, yes. He's one of the LA cops.
1:00:56
Yeah. Yeah.
1:00:57
Tomahawk into his desk, probably.
1:01:00
Like Russell Means, where Studio had been an activist before he
1:01:03
became an actor, he was also at the Wounded Knee incident and
1:01:06
was arrested. It was the late 80s when he
1:01:08
turned out. Yeah, he also been in the doors
1:01:11
as and this is the character name in the credits as the
1:01:14
Indian in the desert. All right, OK, not Wayne's will
1:01:18
too. Didn't reprise the role for
1:01:19
Wayne's will. Too and.
1:01:23
It wasn't just the activists. In total manhide about 900
1:01:27
Native American actors from all over the US to play extras.
1:01:31
And another bit of authenticity around Magua is that his face
1:01:33
tattoo wasn't an original design.
1:01:35
It was based on a famous painting called The Death of
1:01:38
General Wolf by Benjamin West in The painting depicts the death
1:01:42
out of an American general when Iroquois warrior watches him die
1:01:45
and he has face markings the same as Mike was.
1:01:48
Yeah, 1770. That painting is from the Battle
1:01:51
of Quebec it's based on, right? I love it when directors take
1:01:54
from paintings. Oh, it's brilliant, yeah.
1:01:56
Mine does that quite a lot, doesn't he?
1:01:57
Yeah, yeah. And we'll be talking about
1:01:59
another example or two in this film as well coming up.
1:02:02
Yeah, yeah. Where Stewie didn't receive any
1:02:04
Oscars recognition for his work as Magwa bought in creating a
1:02:07
memorable villain one of the stand outs in the film for us.
1:02:11
Really underrated I think. Yeah, massively.
1:02:13
So. That's our main cast.
1:02:14
Daniel De Lewis going full method as Hawkeye, Madeline
1:02:17
Store providing the heart as Cora, and Wes Doody creating a
1:02:20
great vengeful villain in Magwa. Yeah, some whiter cast members
1:02:23
were mentioned as well. And a roster that brings both
1:02:26
authenticity and movie star power, which I think is what man
1:02:29
was probably going for. That's exactly what he's going
1:02:31
for and he nailed it and. That's what he gets.
1:02:36
The middle. Heading into the middle of the
1:02:41
Last of the Mohicans and we arrive at Fort William Henry
1:02:43
where relationships deepen and we see the brutality of 18th
1:02:46
century warfare. Yep, we're going to look at the
1:02:49
massacre that follows the Fort. Surrender, obviously, but first
1:02:52
it's life at the Fort. It is.
1:02:54
So our party arrives at Fort William Henry to find it under
1:02:57
siege by the French. Inside, tensions rise as Colonel
1:03:00
Monroe, played by Morris Roves, refuses to release the colonial
1:03:04
militia despite their promises. And romance blooms between our
1:03:07
leading man and lady. Yeah.
1:03:09
Yes. Mortars and trenches, Westie.
1:03:10
Yeah. How is it all working for you?
1:03:12
I mean, there's a lot going on here, isn't it, when they first
1:03:14
arrived? I think that wide shot is
1:03:18
fantastic. Lighten up the sky, then red
1:03:22
flashes, there's smoke everywhere.
1:03:24
It's all just so well done. And you can just be like, well,
1:03:27
this is dandy. Espionage all over because this
1:03:29
Fort is red, orange, dangerous from that wide shot.
1:03:34
We're thinking that's where they're going.
1:03:36
Yeah, great. Let's just go there then.
1:03:39
Fantastic. You've got that incredible kind
1:03:42
of tracking shorts or it's a Dolly shot where it's just
1:03:44
coming across and you see in this the scale of everything
1:03:47
that's going on. It kind of reminds of the start
1:03:49
of Gladiator, but it's in the dark.
1:03:51
It's quite reminiscent Spartacus as well.
1:03:53
Then battle scenes where there's always something happening, no
1:03:55
matter where the cameras looking away, you're looking, there's
1:03:57
always something going on and it's so well planned out and
1:04:00
it's so well blocked. But we're not in the action.
1:04:04
This isn't our fight. This is more an observation of
1:04:06
what's going on. Yeah, it's almost like we're
1:04:08
skirting past it because the way the camera moves.
1:04:11
It's some seed to have in the background, isn't it?
1:04:13
Exactly. It just feels like, oh, this is
1:04:15
happening. Just have a look at that if you
1:04:16
want to. It's not that important.
1:04:19
Yeah, Because you could just have them flashes from outside
1:04:21
and have them arrive at the boat and see a couple of bits of
1:04:23
cannon fire and they're trying to dig the trenches.
1:04:25
That's fine. You don't need these massive
1:04:27
sweeping vistas of like the depth in the frame with all
1:04:30
these people happening. You don't need them.
1:04:31
But when you see them, you definitely want them.
1:04:34
Oh, yeah, You're just absolutely.
1:04:35
Pardon. It gives us like, you know, how
1:04:37
terrifying it must have been that you're going to siege that
1:04:39
Fort, that you have to go in front of it and put up wooden
1:04:43
fences basically and dig a trench.
1:04:45
It's just absolute madness. But you get what's going on and
1:04:48
how close they are and how determined both sides or want to
1:04:51
defend and want to attack. And we're moving around the side
1:04:54
of it. We're not going through it.
1:04:56
And that's what man does with this.
1:04:58
It's not our fight. We're not part of it, but we
1:05:00
soon will be. Yeah, I mean, it does look
1:05:03
massive, the siege, doesn't it? Yeah, there is a great tracking
1:05:05
shot when we first get to the Fort, which moves across the
1:05:07
whole battalion set and shows us how big it is.
1:05:10
Brilliant. Reminds me of Past the Glory,
1:05:12
the tracking shots in No Man's Land.
1:05:14
Yeah. Oh yeah.
1:05:15
Yeah. And I know that historians have
1:05:16
said this is one of the most accurate 18th century battles
1:05:19
ever put on film, The way the French battlements are like
1:05:21
built on a slope to deflect the mortar fire.
1:05:23
It's realistic, apparently. So they've definitely done their
1:05:26
homework, which is great. But love as well how Manchu was
1:05:28
inside the Fort. Is this like kind of pressure
1:05:31
cooker? Everyone's trapped, the walls
1:05:33
are getting pounded and inside people are really starting to
1:05:35
like crack and still managed to get some romance going in the
1:05:39
middle of it all. The old dog.
1:05:41
That's the best place for it. The heart of the storm.
1:05:45
Yeah, fire everywhere. Yeah, and then they're in the
1:05:48
Fort and you get the culmination of the love triangle.
1:05:51
And I just think, Oh my God, what is it going to take for
1:05:54
Duncan to take the hint here? CEO interested in him.
1:05:58
She's already fogged him off once.
1:05:59
He's flat out lied about the bodies at the farm to screw
1:06:02
Hawkeye over, who's basically saved the lives of the past.
1:06:05
However many days have been on this journey and he's trying to
1:06:08
get in there again. What an absolute idiot.
1:06:11
Because at this point now, I mean, it's so clear now we've
1:06:14
talked about, but that chemistry between Cora and Hawkeye, I
1:06:17
mean, you talk about a relationship on screen that's
1:06:20
born out of smoldering glances and body language around each
1:06:24
other. And does she a chemistry?
1:06:25
And that is absolutely these two.
1:06:27
I mean, fair play, of course. She knows exactly who she wants
1:06:30
and she doesn't shy away from getting them.
1:06:32
But I'm just glad that Michael Mann shows some restrain to you,
1:06:35
because if you look at Manhunt, if you look at Heat later on,
1:06:38
there's some very cringey sex scenes he does, which are very
1:06:41
overdone. And I'm so glad we don't get
1:06:43
that. Hey, it's just done with real
1:06:45
sensitivity. You know, once they embrace,
1:06:47
it's just that cut to Cora in Hawkeye's arms, where they're
1:06:50
just lit on that one side by the orange that is so effective.
1:06:54
That tells you everything about those two and the chemistry
1:06:57
between them. It's just radiating off screen.
1:06:59
Yeah, it's wonderful. I mean, Hawkeye's in character,
1:07:01
isn't he? It's not allowed to be cheesy.
1:07:04
Yeah, exactly. I mean Cora finally putting
1:07:07
Duncan out of his misery like the doggy is.
1:07:09
Yeah, yeah. And thank God, yeah.
1:07:11
He takes it about as well as he'd expect, gets hysterical.
1:07:13
Not well, yeah. Not well at all.
1:07:15
But that moment in the barracks between Hawkeye and Cora, What
1:07:18
are you looking at, Sir? I'm looking at you, miss.
1:07:20
Absolutely massive. Yeah.
1:07:22
It is massive. It's some lingering look that on
1:07:24
the back of it, Cora dumps Duncan Hawkeye, abandons his
1:07:27
men, and then the steam straight in there.
1:07:30
There's no other words but I buy it, DL Lewis install, make it
1:07:34
work and in the love scene it touched that like as well.
1:07:37
Is that the love theme is playing obviously, but it's
1:07:39
diegetic. The band in the Fort are playing
1:07:41
it so the characters can hear it as well, which is nice.
1:07:43
Yes, that's right. Yeah.
1:07:45
But it works really well. It feels like a proper classic
1:07:47
movie romance to me, which I think is surely what man's going
1:07:50
for. Definitely 100%.
1:07:52
And the seeds of Fort William Henry that we see, that was a
1:07:55
real historical event during the French and Indian War.
1:07:58
The French forces were led by Louis Joseph de Montcalm, who
1:08:01
was seen in the film, and the siege resulted in the British
1:08:04
surrendering and then being massacred as the left default
1:08:06
like in the film. Right.
1:08:08
Spot that's not not got to that bit yet, sorry.
1:08:10
Yeah. I'm the one that massively
1:08:12
criticized when Hollywood moves away from the truth for dramatic
1:08:15
purposes. But it's also a good when you
1:08:16
know the events you're watching are kind of close to how that
1:08:19
happened as well. Yeah.
1:08:20
The real thought was destroyed by the French immediately after
1:08:23
the British left in 1757, but a full size replica was built on
1:08:26
the same site in the 1950s and it's still there today.
1:08:29
Well. Man said that wasn't suitable to
1:08:32
film. A full size replica was built in
1:08:34
1950 and that's not suitable. Not good enough.
1:08:38
Not good enough well to be faced.
1:08:41
The area wasn't isolated enough, so the set about recreating the
1:08:44
Fort as a set. Yeah, just didn't tell the
1:08:47
studio about the replica that was already built.
1:08:49
Never heard of it. Got to build our own.
1:08:50
Sorry, yeah. Sorry, it's done now.
1:08:55
So they built the set on the show of Lake James in North
1:08:57
Carolina, and they managed to get the hands on the real plants
1:09:01
and specifications that were drawn up for the Fort in the
1:09:03
base, the set on those plans. Nice.
1:09:05
Wow. 1755. The Fort was built originally
1:09:08
for those plans were almost 250 years old.
1:09:10
Wow. He loves it, man, doesn't he?
1:09:13
Of course he absolutely does. He loves it.
1:09:15
I love that he loves it, of course.
1:09:16
Yeah, it. Wasn't even in the script until
1:09:18
he saw the plans. And the Fort was built at full
1:09:24
scale, taken about two months. It was built using timber taken
1:09:27
from the local forests and the set had bastions, log,
1:09:30
Palisades, barracks and the parade ground, just like the
1:09:33
real Fort. Wow. $6 million it cost to build
1:09:36
that set and were there like what, half an hour, yeah.
1:09:39
I don't remember seeing the parade grounds, I'll say that
1:09:41
much. Colonel is played by Morris
1:09:43
Rhodes, the Scottish actor. The real Monroe never married
1:09:46
and didn't have children and he was Irish, not Scottish.
1:09:49
And the first person offered the part was Brian Cox, but he
1:09:52
turned it down. Imagine him in the Fort.
1:09:54
I fucking love it in here. Fucking love it.
1:10:00
Yeah, meeting Monroe's crucial as well, and Morris Rhodes I
1:10:02
think plays him really well, like gruff Scotsman.
1:10:05
Yeah, he's good. Yeah.
1:10:06
He's really good. I mean, if he was Irish though,
1:10:07
they could have got Connery in there.
1:10:08
He loves an Irish accent. That would have been great.
1:10:10
For like a couple of scenes before he ditches it, obviously.
1:10:13
And the scene where the Courier runs from the four to get
1:10:15
reinforcements and the Hawkeye covers them with his rifle,
1:10:18
That's also based on reality. In the real Seeds, Monroe did
1:10:21
send 3 curries to General Webb at Fort Edward asking for
1:10:24
reinforcements and Webb sent letter backs.
1:10:26
And no, he should surrender instead.
1:10:29
Thanks. Yeah, but nice election scene
1:10:33
that isn't it when Hawkeye protected the runner.
1:10:35
I think it's really well shot that's.
1:10:36
Great. Yeah, so the siege obviously was
1:10:39
shot over a few nights. Man wanted the cannon fire to be
1:10:41
realistic and leave trails of smoke behind when they fired.
1:10:45
So the painted basketballs black and fired them from the cannons
1:10:48
should have like baskets at the other side. 6,000,000 you can
1:10:51
get a couple of them surely. Jordan just slam dunk and
1:10:55
there's a well known anecdote that after one long night of
1:10:57
shooting, man got so furious and yelled at the crew to turn out
1:11:02
that large light and the crew member said that's the sun,
1:11:05
Michael. Don't care, get rid of it.
1:11:09
Ruining the shot. Get us a flag right now.
1:11:11
Scribb it out. The Canon fire does look great
1:11:14
though, with those massive plumes of smoke we get.
1:11:16
Yeah, that's how it really looks apparently at the time.
1:11:18
Yeah. Yeah.
1:11:19
That's related. And that is Fort William Henry.
1:11:21
Spectacular warfare, blossoming romance and tensions rising.
1:11:25
But the real devastation is about to come.
1:11:28
Oh yeah. Oh.
1:11:31
From the siege, we moved to the most brutal sequence in the
1:11:34
film. Montcalm offers terms, Monroe
1:11:36
accepts and the British March out afford William Henry.
1:11:39
Mike was not having it though. Definitely not under who run
1:11:41
attack, massacring the British line.
1:11:43
Yeah, it's all going wrong. Matt.
1:11:45
How was it all play out for you? I mean, you can feel the
1:11:48
exhaustion in the British when the court will accept those
1:11:51
terms or discuss the terms, but it's really funny when Monroe
1:11:54
and Montcalm come face to face for the first time because
1:11:57
Montcalm gives that incredibly flamboyant bow when he takes his
1:12:01
hat off. He really does.
1:12:03
And Monroe? Just takes his head off and then
1:12:04
just nod to them it. Reminds me of Pepe Le Pew when
1:12:07
he does. Like Christophe Waltz would be
1:12:11
amazing than that. Oh.
1:12:12
He would really be an incredible It's like, sorry, we're British,
1:12:14
we don't do any of that nonsense.
1:12:16
We are proper blocks. An odd will do.
1:12:18
We don't Make Love with with faces.
1:12:20
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
1:12:22
I think it's just the madness of war summed up here though,
1:12:25
because they spent however many days trying to blow each other
1:12:27
to pieces and now they're trying to act like gentlemen.
1:12:30
And you can see Margaret is seething at this, like Monroe's
1:12:35
in his sight and he wants bloodshed.
1:12:37
I mean, we know what he wants to do to him, but he's having to
1:12:39
watch this like charade play out in front of him and said, but
1:12:42
Duncan is almost as bad. Like when they find out Web has
1:12:45
told them to surrender, Web can burn in hell and we'll go back
1:12:48
and dig our graves behind those ramparts.
1:12:51
It's like, calm down mate. All right, man.
1:12:53
You've got an out here, you should take it.
1:12:55
So I think the scene and moves the narrative along nicely.
1:12:58
Really great visual. Obviously involved the British
1:13:00
leave in the Fort, but it feels like quite a cut in scene as
1:13:03
well as like point out the ridiculous nature of it all.
1:13:06
Yeah, I think Duncan lying to Monroe earlier about the
1:13:08
frontier attacks comes back to horn everyone, because if Monroe
1:13:11
known the truth, you might make different decisions.
1:13:14
Yeah, and he surely wouldn't March his people out into a
1:13:16
likely ambush like he's about to.
1:13:18
Oh God no. Well done, Doug.
1:13:19
Yeah, Duncan, go nuts. I think he'll say Duncan good
1:13:23
you there. I don't know who that is.
1:13:28
The terms Montcalm gives to Monroe are very close to the
1:13:31
ones given in real life, though not exactly right.
1:13:34
They were allowed to March out of thought, unharmed by the
1:13:36
French troop in their colours, but they weren't allowed to keep
1:13:39
their weapons that had one cannon and that was all.
1:13:42
Yeah, I mean, Monroe is not happy, but to be honest, I think
1:13:44
the terms that Montcalm gives them are more than generous.
1:13:46
It's pretty good. March out with full on us.
1:13:48
Keep your weapons. Which is mad.
1:13:50
Yeah. And safe passage to Albany.
1:13:52
I don't know why he's complaining about no.
1:13:54
When they leave the Fort, they've still got the weapons.
1:13:57
False sense of security, I think.
1:13:58
Yeah, just a bit. And then they come to this kind
1:14:01
of clear, and it's an incredible wide shot because we just see
1:14:04
them so small in this landscape, but they're surrounded by these
1:14:07
tree lines either side. And we've seen that before in a
1:14:10
smaller ambush and earlier on in the film.
1:14:12
And this is just exactly the same thing, just on a much
1:14:15
larger scale. And when you hear them cries
1:14:18
from the inside of the trees and you just think a whole guy, he's
1:14:21
in chains, like, what's he supposed to do?
1:14:23
How is this going to work? And just to add the tension, add
1:14:26
to the realism, and just to add to the sense of dread, Man just
1:14:29
leaves the score off. Yeah, great.
1:14:32
For the start of this and all the muskets just start firing
1:14:35
and it's just pandemonium. It is chaos.
1:14:37
Just absolutely fly into the and start hacking everyone to pieces
1:14:41
left, right and centre. And then thankfully, just the
1:14:44
right time, the music starts, kind of creep back and you're
1:14:47
like, oh, OK. And then you see the chains hit
1:14:50
the ground, you see the lads all together.
1:14:52
He's got his rifle back. Then they're going for it.
1:14:55
And from that moment on, this is an absolute joy of an action
1:14:58
sequence. It's an absolute joy of a
1:15:00
romance sequence. Yeah, it's absolute joy of a
1:15:02
thriller. It's just got all of these
1:15:05
elements to it which really, really work.
1:15:07
And man's going right. What have I got in my toolbox
1:15:10
here to make this work? And he uses as much as possible.
1:15:12
He uses tracking shots, he uses handheld shots.
1:15:15
He's got slow motion in here. He's got character reveals from
1:15:18
nowhere, He's got close-ups, he's got stunt work.
1:15:22
Everything works. But from the moment when he
1:15:24
comes out of nowhere and he grabs Alice's face and Cora
1:15:27
straight in and you see, I just scream my name and you know he's
1:15:32
shouting. Cora just falls to her knees and
1:15:34
there's the nice to her through. It's just an incredibly
1:15:37
brilliant action sequence and a build attention.
1:15:40
And like I said earlier, when he actually connects that Tom Hawk,
1:15:43
that guys face. I'm not an advocate of violence,
1:15:46
but fucking yes man. It's wonderful because the
1:15:51
sounds perfect and he stands up. There's that like wide shot
1:15:55
where the both in there and he turns and faces Cora and the
1:15:58
music just swells. Great.
1:16:00
Oh, when the embrace? Brilliant.
1:16:02
And it's just, and it's just incredibly powerful.
1:16:05
It's just like, wow. Yeah, that moment there.
1:16:08
Embrace. To do that without it being
1:16:10
cheesy but modern sensibilities is really hard I think, but he
1:16:13
pulls off. Really hard.
1:16:14
And to be surrounded by what's going on.
1:16:16
Yeah. And for them to just focus on
1:16:18
each other and not think, well, you're in the middle of a
1:16:19
massacre. This is unrealistic.
1:16:21
Exactly. It really works because it feels
1:16:23
like a dream sequence almost. Yeah.
1:16:25
And they see the canoes and then say, right, we're going to
1:16:27
finally get away. But from that moment, like the
1:16:29
never, ever free from that moment, they're always on the
1:16:32
run. From that moment, you never,
1:16:33
ever know how this is going to play out.
1:16:35
But that whole massacre sequence, from that wide shot to
1:16:38
that embrace, that's an incredible 6 or 7 minutes.
1:16:42
It really. Is of Michael Mann, and he's
1:16:43
very, very best. That white shot that starts it
1:16:46
all off, It shows the trailer about to walk down huge trees
1:16:49
either side. Yeah, it's like, don't go down
1:16:51
there. You know, these guys love hiding
1:16:53
in the bushes. They love it.
1:16:55
Sitting ducks. Well, she could go just.
1:16:58
Go round, just go round. Don't go through go between
1:17:01
about you crazy. Well, it's great how we get the
1:17:05
shot of The Who run in the trees, creeping along with the
1:17:08
party. I love how all starts so
1:17:10
quietly. Just one guy comes running out
1:17:11
with this tomahawk. Yeah.
1:17:12
And they can't tell what's going on at the other end of the line.
1:17:15
And then total chaos, the war cries and the gunfire and
1:17:17
people, like, running everywhere.
1:17:19
I mean, it's horrific. It's terrifying but great film
1:17:22
making. Oh yeah, fantastic stuff, I
1:17:23
think. This is maybe the first time the
1:17:25
two sides of the film and the action and the romance really
1:17:27
come together. Yeah.
1:17:28
Core does get a moment. I like it when she blows that
1:17:30
who run away right between the eyes.
1:17:32
Yeah. Yeah.
1:17:33
And Hawkeye spreading up the battle.
1:17:34
Only interest in getting the core.
1:17:36
That's great. And then when he gets there and
1:17:38
that who run has he hits him with about five death blows,
1:17:42
he's dead dead. Yeah, yeah.
1:17:44
But I mean, we've seen this before, characters trying to
1:17:46
save people in the middle of a big battle, and it sometimes
1:17:49
doesn't work because it's just like abandoning all their
1:17:51
principles. But yeah, Hawkeye has no
1:17:53
allegiance to either side, so it makes total sense he'd make a
1:17:56
byline for Cora. And the way it's shot, like wide
1:17:59
shots and slow motion handheld cameras, the smoke everywhere, I
1:18:03
think it's fantastic. It's one of my favorite ever
1:18:05
battle scenes I think. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
1:18:07
Yeah, just completely agree. I mean, incredible build up us
1:18:10
have set, the lack of music, just the fleeting glimpses we
1:18:13
can see if the Hurons in the trees.
1:18:15
And to go from those isolated attacks with no way of knowing
1:18:19
where they're going to come from next and then the whooping
1:18:21
started feels very Zulu to me, like the first attacks in that
1:18:24
film. Yeah.
1:18:25
And then they break the lines because of the British response
1:18:28
is so clumsy and the Huron are just running riot.
1:18:31
Magua does exactly what he said he was going to do to Monroe,
1:18:34
which is horrific. Everyone's getting slaughtered.
1:18:37
But it is that one where you see one of them grab Cora, and then
1:18:40
that cut to that slow MO of Hawkeye just charging through
1:18:43
everyone to rescue A, wiping out the Huron left, right and center
1:18:48
just to get there. It's so exciting.
1:18:50
And then they're in the canoes, but they're still being pursued.
1:18:53
But you've got Duncan still banging on about Hawkeye.
1:18:56
I'll have you hanged. I know.
1:18:58
Like shut up. Piss off, Duncan.
1:19:00
Bigger things going on here, but then they have to go over the
1:19:03
Rapids. I mean, this whole sequence,
1:19:05
it's just one of the most purely thrilling scenes you'll ever
1:19:08
see. I mean, we'll talk about the
1:19:09
influence of the film later, but so many films of this nature or
1:19:13
huge debt just to this one scene in particular, it's incredible
1:19:16
stuff. Oh yeah, I think you're right.
1:19:18
Yeah. I mean from the wide shot to the
1:19:19
canoes. That is the equivalent of trying
1:19:21
to get a taxi through the big market on a Saturday.
1:19:25
Westie with this flintlock. Just trying to find the business
1:19:29
and get a fucking canoe over the time.
1:19:33
So the 4th William Henry massacre is something that did
1:19:36
actually happen, but there are changes as well.
1:19:38
The Horans attacked the people at the back of the line, and the
1:19:41
people at the front didn't actually know what was happening
1:19:42
until they arrived at Fort Edward.
1:19:45
Yeah, So James Fennimore Cooper, he wrote his book, and it was
1:19:47
about 50 years after the actual events, right.
1:19:50
And apparently, he based his research on report from the
1:19:52
1750s. And they've been written to,
1:19:54
like, sensationalize what happened to stir resentment
1:19:57
against the French in The Who runs, right?
1:19:59
Right. So tell you what, I'm glad that
1:20:00
doesn't happen anymore. Yeah, thank God.
1:20:02
They've died in the bud, didn't we?
1:20:04
Yeah, yeah. Which was civilized, yeah.
1:20:06
Definitely. So some specifics about what
1:20:08
they changed in the film that Maguire gets his revenge on
1:20:11
Monroe by cutting out as hard as we've just seen.
1:20:14
But in reality, Monroe didn't die at the musket.
1:20:16
He made it to Albany but died three months later after an
1:20:19
epileptic seizure. That shot where Magua holds up
1:20:22
his heart, Absolutely brutal. Yeah, yeah.
1:20:26
I don't think it's beating at the time, but it's like one step
1:20:28
away from it. It's not far off as that load's
1:20:30
trickling down his arm, which is really cool.
1:20:32
It's nearly Templar doing but not.
1:20:33
Quite. It's nearly template.
1:20:34
It doesn't catch fire. No, that's the only thing I'm
1:20:38
not sure. And the reason the Hurons
1:20:41
attacked the British wasn't through revenge, it was because
1:20:44
there were few years with the deal Montcalm had struck with
1:20:46
the British, because usually after a battle the Huron would
1:20:49
plunder things to take back to their villages, but Montcalm
1:20:52
still meant they couldn't do that.
1:20:53
Right. Yes, of what I read, that's how
1:20:56
it started. The Who 1 was just trying to
1:20:58
take things off the British and when some objectors it got a bit
1:21:00
out of hand to say the least. But like the estimated death
1:21:04
rates are anywhere between 70 and 1500, so no one really is
1:21:08
certain kind of what happened. I don't care.
1:21:10
It's a big jump, that is. Yeah, just a bit.
1:21:13
And most inaccurate of all is there is an unfortunate shot
1:21:17
during the battle of a crew member holding a blue cap and
1:21:20
screaming into a megaphone. And apparently, that's Michael
1:21:22
Waxman, the assistant director. Right.
1:21:25
Crazy. Don't worry about the sun.
1:21:27
Get this guy out of the way. But also the Mohicans and the
1:21:32
Monroe was get away. Who runs canoes.
1:21:33
Like I said, he what follows them as a battle still going on.
1:21:36
Surely that's desertion. Yeah, so he shouts a whole guy.
1:21:39
I'll have you hanged. Yeah, surely he's the one
1:21:41
getting the news. It must be.
1:21:43
Yeah, good point. Yeah.
1:21:44
And that's the middle act of The Last of the Mohicans.
1:21:46
From the spectacular siege of Ford William Henry to the
1:21:49
horrific Mass together follows it.
1:21:50
Manchu was both sides of frontier conflict, and it's not
1:21:53
over yet. No, not by a long stretch.
1:21:59
The crew. Michael, meticulous man, was all
1:22:04
over The Last of the Mohicans, as we've been talking about, and
1:22:07
that included working with his wider crew.
1:22:09
So we're going to be getting into some of those people now.
1:22:11
Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman as composers, the two of them,
1:22:14
and Dante Espinati as director of photography, is another.
1:22:17
But we're going to begin with the screenplay.
1:22:20
Yes. So they are two credited
1:22:22
screenwriters on The Last of the Mohicans, Michael Mann himself
1:22:25
and Christopher Crow. Man had three previous screen
1:22:28
writing credits, Thief, The Keep, and Manhunter, all of
1:22:31
which yours were directed. Christopher Crow had writing
1:22:34
credits on five features before this, which were The Last Chase,
1:22:37
Nightmares, The Mean Season, Off Limits and Whispers in the Dark.
1:22:40
All those. Right.
1:22:41
Which all have titles like episodes of The X-Files, so I'm
1:22:44
going to watch them. Yes they do.
1:22:46
Was he just writing for The X-Files?
1:22:50
He was mostly known for his work in TV though, which is how man
1:22:52
knew him and why he brought him in.
1:22:54
He had to help with the writing workload.
1:22:55
Right, OK. So 2 writers taking on a
1:22:58
famously dense novel. Matt, how did they do with the
1:23:02
screenplay? It feels like the work of people
1:23:06
who really understand the book, but also understand what they
1:23:10
need to change to make it work on screen for a different
1:23:13
audience. Yeah.
1:23:14
That would translate it properly.
1:23:15
They could have got so lost with this.
1:23:17
Yeah, it's really interesting, for example, what we said about
1:23:20
Madeline Stoke being told read. It is a love story, not an
1:23:23
action film. Yeah, because they bring out
1:23:25
those two elements really well in the script.
1:23:27
It clarifies all the information and audience needs about the
1:23:30
time period. You understand the British point
1:23:33
of view, the French point of view, and the Native American
1:23:36
point of view. But more than that, it makes you
1:23:38
understand the different point of views from the different
1:23:41
Native American communities. It doesn't just portray them as
1:23:44
a homogeneous mass. They've got their own
1:23:47
perspective on these events, and it also balances that with a
1:23:50
modern day perspective. We understand who he was on why
1:23:53
they appeal to us, but it doesn't underplay the fact that
1:23:56
this is all taking place on land that's been stolen from its
1:23:59
people. So there's a lot of
1:24:01
perspectives. The writings got to make clear
1:24:03
perspectives that were from a very different era.
1:24:06
And there's a balance not going on here between an epic action
1:24:09
film and a love story. And I think the writing is very,
1:24:12
very concise and crystal clear and what it wants to do.
1:24:16
Yeah, I love that overall concept, making it love story
1:24:19
every bit as much as like action film.
1:24:21
And it lends itself to that visually, just with the period.
1:24:24
You see the sisters in the long dresses and the hats in the
1:24:26
first act, it's kind of reminiscent of like Jane Austen
1:24:29
style romance or something. Yeah, just need Colin first to
1:24:32
show up. But then other side of the coin,
1:24:34
there's hearts being cut out and people being burned at the
1:24:36
stake. So just making that all work
1:24:38
together I think is impressive. And what Man and Crow did really
1:24:41
well, I think was strip the novel down to, like, it's bare
1:24:44
bones. I mean, I've not read it, but by
1:24:46
all accounts I've seen the book is.
1:24:48
It's a slog, apparently. Yeah.
1:24:50
Someone's like James Fanny more. Cooper's one of those authors
1:24:53
who writes like he's being paid by the word a bit.
1:24:55
Yeah. But buried in there is this
1:24:57
great story of, like, survival and love and revenge.
1:25:01
And that's what the focus on. So they'd made smart changes.
1:25:04
We'll talk about what some of them were, surely.
1:25:05
But the shift of the narrative a bit, the focus on different
1:25:07
characters that change the relationships between some
1:25:09
characters. Monroe dying in the massacre,
1:25:12
like we said. So the streamline it, make it
1:25:14
more personal and all of it works.
1:25:16
I think the dialogue's handled really well too.
1:25:18
It feels like period appropriate, but without being
1:25:21
too stagy. Yeah.
1:25:22
I mean, stay alive no matter what occurs.
1:25:24
I will find you. That's theatrical as hell,
1:25:26
obviously, but it works in that moment.
1:25:28
Totally. So great setting, great story.
1:25:31
Only thing I would say is I'm not sure the writing takes full
1:25:33
advantage of it in some ways. I think how it looks like
1:25:36
locations, the design work does quite a lot of heavy lifting.
1:25:40
I think there's some storylines are given short shrift to say
1:25:43
the least, which I think has an impact towards the end, so I'll
1:25:45
talk about it then. But in terms of the plot points,
1:25:48
it is just a bloody good story set in a fascinating time in
1:25:51
place and that is executed really well and carries us
1:25:54
through it, I think. Yeah.
1:25:55
Yeah, I have a feeling this screenplay would have been just
1:25:59
as substantial as the novel. I think when they'd finished it,
1:26:01
this would have been about a 400 pager.
1:26:04
It could be easy, yeah. I would imagine it was and there
1:26:07
would have been a lot of themes running through.
1:26:08
I know the amount of times that he had had to recut this, the
1:26:10
amount of times that they went over time, over the budget.
1:26:13
I think man's put everything into this and Crows put
1:26:16
everything into this as a screenplay.
1:26:18
But for me, looking at the finished film and then looking
1:26:21
at what the screenplay could have been, I think there's a lot
1:26:23
missing from the finished film. There's a lot of elements here
1:26:26
where man just expects you to understand the characters.
1:26:32
There's no real back story. There's just a little bit
1:26:33
touched here and there. He expects you to understand the
1:26:36
period, understand what happens, understand the convictions,
1:26:39
understand the French versus the English, and then, you know, the
1:26:42
Native Americans and how they reacted to everything.
1:26:44
He kind of expects you to understand what's happening in
1:26:46
it and then places and kind of an action love story in the
1:26:49
middle of that. You can tell that from the
1:26:51
opening blurb of like, you know, three men of running through the
1:26:53
forest. Basically come and have a look.
1:26:55
You know, it's kind of where it starts.
1:26:58
And I think a lot of this is visual, a lot of it is down to
1:27:02
Spinati and it's down to man style that he brings to the
1:27:04
film. And I think that's the whole
1:27:05
point of the screenplay. I think there would have been
1:27:07
loads in there, but again, it felt like a work in progress.
1:27:11
I don't feel like this was written and they're going to
1:27:13
have to stick to it like a Coen Brothers script.
1:27:14
We're going to have to stick to this, to the letter.
1:27:16
I think there was room to move things around.
1:27:18
But a lot of this, I think I would love to read this
1:27:21
screenplay in its original format because I think there
1:27:23
would be a lot in here that has been left out of the finished
1:27:26
film. I'm not sure.
1:27:27
The novel was massive, apparently.
1:27:29
So yeah, there would have to be, I think.
1:27:30
Yeah, it would have been a huge screenplay.
1:27:32
And then in terms of his research, Man said that he read
1:27:35
the book and took the major plot points and characters from it,
1:27:38
but was more influenced by the 1936 film by George B Seitz.
1:27:42
And he said he wanted to know what life was really like in
1:27:45
Albany, NY, in 1750 when the film was set.
1:27:48
And he came across the diary of Louis Antoine de Bougainville,
1:27:52
who was a French writer. And he had served at the Ford,
1:27:54
William Henry Seeds and MASCA. And he took a lot from that to
1:27:57
create the world and societies we see.
1:28:00
Right, yeah, you said that book could have been written like 3
1:28:02
weeks ago. It was all for the sarcasm and
1:28:05
like modern wit and pretty similar to how things are now.
1:28:08
OK, But he was more interested in the differences so LED into
1:28:11
that, right? Lacrosse being one of them,
1:28:13
presumably. Yeah, yeah.
1:28:14
And so in the scene where we talked about the French and
1:28:17
British discussing terms, the letter from General Webb to
1:28:20
Colonel Monroe is read out by a French officer called Capitan de
1:28:24
Bougonville, a reference to Louis Antoin de Bougonville.
1:28:27
Nice reference that. Yeah.
1:28:29
Apparently those Diaries focused quite a bit on American colonial
1:28:32
families who were living, like, all out alone on the frontiers.
1:28:35
And that's where the idea of the cameras came from, Right.
1:28:37
So and all that's kind of real world weight, I think.
1:28:40
Yeah. And man was also influenced by
1:28:43
the writings of Francis Parkman. And he was a Harvard historian
1:28:46
who in the 1860s wrote about the French and Indian War.
1:28:50
And he actually walked the path to Fort William Henry.
1:28:52
He met people who were in their 70s who had been told stories by
1:28:55
their own parents and grandparents, so therefore first
1:28:58
hand accounts to the war and he took a lot from that about the
1:29:01
relationship between the French and Indians being tense and
1:29:04
having to be tightly managed by the French.
1:29:06
And Francis Partman, there's an award named after him called the
1:29:08
Francis Partman Prize, which is awarded to the best book in
1:29:12
American history every year. All right, so credible source
1:29:14
for man it seems like. Yeah, Man's research included
1:29:18
diving into the cultures of Native American tribes, and not
1:29:20
just the Mohicans. He included elements from the
1:29:22
Iroquois as well. He said he had a free love kind
1:29:25
of environment. This is where he got the idea
1:29:27
for this. I'm looking at you Miss
1:29:28
Sequence. Free love.
1:29:30
Free love. The 1750s were swinging,
1:29:32
apparently. Free love on the Free Love
1:29:33
Freeway. Hendricks in there.
1:29:37
Imagine on the doobies. And as we mentioned, man made
1:29:42
quite a lot of changes from the novel by Cooper, and some of
1:29:44
these changes are in the novel. It's uncast, not Hawkeye, who
1:29:48
has the relationship with Cora, but it's very subtle.
1:29:51
Man switched this to Hawkeye, presumably as he thought Western
1:29:54
audiences might identify more with Hawkeye.
1:29:57
Yeah, and hence the white saviour criticisms, I think.
1:30:00
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, quite a lot of big
1:30:02
changes from the page to screen wasn't there.
1:30:04
Yeah, and Hawkeye was inspired by a real American Frontiers
1:30:07
man, Daniel Boone, which is why his real name is Nathaniel.
1:30:11
He's called Nathaniel Bumpo in the book and man changed that to
1:30:14
Nathaniel Poor for the film. Yeah, he said.
1:30:17
They thought Natty Bumper, which is what the column in the book,
1:30:20
would have, got laughs from the audience, so he changed it.
1:30:22
Definitely would. God damn that seriously?
1:30:25
There he comes, Natty Bumble. And at the end of the film,
1:30:31
Sachem, the tribe leader refers to Cora as the dark child of
1:30:34
Monroe, and this is because in the book Cora was the daughter
1:30:37
of Monroe and the black woman. So it was therefore mixed race.
1:30:40
Right. Yeah, I mean, it works because
1:30:42
Madeline stores like a brunette, but not quite the same thing, is
1:30:45
it? Not really, no.
1:30:47
And in the book, it's not Hawkeye who was in love with
1:30:49
Cora, it's Magua. Right.
1:30:51
That'll be weird based on what we get.
1:30:52
Yeah, that's really where you'd imagine his lingering looks.
1:30:55
Oh God no. The book sounds totally
1:30:58
different in this life. Yeah, yeah.
1:31:00
And in the book, Heywood is an American colonist who joined the
1:31:03
British Army, and he, Monroe and Alice all survive until the end
1:31:07
of the story, whereas they all die in the film.
1:31:10
And in the book Cora is actually Kildo.
1:31:13
Yeah, in the book, Big Dunk has a thing with Alice, and they end
1:31:16
up together, right. So I thought he was going wrong.
1:31:18
Yeah. He went for the wrong sister.
1:31:20
Yeah. For their work on adopting The
1:31:22
Last of the Mohicans, Michael Mann and Christopher Crowe
1:31:25
weren't nominated for any screenplay awards.
1:31:27
But for us, in taking what's been critiqued as a not great
1:31:30
novel in some ways and turning it into a lean, well researched
1:31:33
narrative. Some impressive screen writing
1:31:35
here. Yeah, it's pretty impressive.
1:31:37
Yeah, really good. Like I say, I'd love to read the
1:31:39
actual first draft of it. I think it'll be very, very
1:31:41
interesting. It would.
1:31:45
We're diving deep into the music now, and the composers on The
1:31:48
Last of the Mohicans were Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman.
1:31:51
Jones had written for 22 films before this, including The Dark
1:31:54
Crystal Labyrinth, Mississippi Burning and Arachnophobia.
1:31:58
Nice, did he do dance magic dance or was that just Bowie?
1:32:03
Edelman had 16 future credits, including Twins, Ghostbusters 2,
1:32:07
Kindergarten Cop, My Cousin Vinny and Beethoven.
1:32:10
Right. So an eclectic filmography to
1:32:13
this point, Matt, How did Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman do with
1:32:17
the music? I mean, none of those films give
1:32:19
you any clue as to how good this is going to.
1:32:21
Sound No. You would think what the issue
1:32:23
would Stephanie, those guys. Imagine this in Beethoven.
1:32:26
Exactly. Yeah.
1:32:28
I mean, this is just wonderful. It's majestic, it's emotional,
1:32:31
it's exciting, it's romantic, it's sweeps.
1:32:33
He belong with the visuals. It enriches every action scene,
1:32:37
every theme for every character. Just sounds correct.
1:32:40
Like, I'll go back to what I said about the top, this film
1:32:42
being underappreciated. I think that's true of every
1:32:45
element, but definitely the squad.
1:32:46
I don't think it gets the Cudus that James Horner gets for
1:32:49
Braveheart, for example, but it should because it's just so
1:32:52
packed. And as soon as you hate this,
1:32:54
you'll be home it for days after.
1:32:56
You know, scenes like the Promontory, which we'll talk
1:32:57
about and like he ever done the dishes and had this one in the
1:33:01
background. It just makes it epic.
1:33:03
You'll get like the housework done so quickly.
1:33:05
Just listen to this. Smashing them.
1:33:07
I buy new ones. Fucking.
1:33:10
Exactly. Yeah, just gets you really
1:33:12
pumped up for it. I just think it's incredible
1:33:14
stuff. And I tell you, who else loves
1:33:15
this? Tristan Howe?
1:33:16
It's because I think his soundtrack for First Man takes a
1:33:20
lot from this, right? Yeah, yeah.
1:33:22
If you go back, listen to the piece, I'll just the moon
1:33:23
landing that's really, really influenced by this.
1:33:26
But yeah, love it. Yeah, I think when you talk to
1:33:28
anyone about The Last of the Mohicans, one of the first
1:33:30
things that comes up is the music, mostly that main theme.
1:33:34
But it's not just that. We hear music, like, almost
1:33:36
constantly, and it's always helping with the tone.
1:33:38
And the world building is this blend of like 18th century
1:33:42
period music and almost modern Celtic music, it seems like.
1:33:46
I mean, why Scottish folk music is playing over colonial
1:33:48
America, I'm not sure. But it captures that sense of,
1:33:50
like, romanticism that we get all the way through.
1:33:53
In fact, I think the music is a key part of that.
1:33:55
But yeah, it is the main title theme that people usually talk
1:33:58
about, and for good reason. It's absolutely massive.
1:34:01
Yeah. Right from the start, the score
1:34:03
builds with that back story titles that we talked about.
1:34:05
And then when it kicks in, we get the logo, The Last of the
1:34:07
Mohicans, huge on the screen. It's crazy.
1:34:11
But what I love is how kind of following the narrative
1:34:13
structure. There's two main themes, the big
1:34:15
action one and the softer romance one.
1:34:18
And what works really well is that they're both based off the
1:34:20
same piece of music. The romantic piece is the melody
1:34:23
and the action pieces, like the harmony.
1:34:24
Yeah. So in a film that's part love
1:34:26
story, part action epic, if you had two very distinct themes, it
1:34:29
might be a bit divisive maybe. But that link, I think, is one
1:34:32
of the things that helps bring everything together.
1:34:34
Yeah. And when the music does come
1:34:36
together, like in the climax, we're going to talk about when
1:34:38
we hear the romance theme and the action theme at the same
1:34:41
time. Oh yeah, I mean, get out.
1:34:42
Who's not liking that? Forget about it the first time I
1:34:45
had The Beatles, because the love and the action are harmony
1:34:50
together on the inside. The upper third.
1:34:52
Yeah, they are. It sits perfectly well.
1:34:54
Yeah. Yeah.
1:34:54
I mean, the music is the film, isn't it?
1:34:56
For me, yeah, it is so, so important.
1:34:59
It's almost up there with like Star Wars and how it turns it
1:35:03
into this absolute epic because the shots are great.
1:35:06
Yeah. But to have the melody go the
1:35:09
same speed as the camera pan. Yeah.
1:35:11
When they're running and you have the and it's the same beat
1:35:14
as the steps, it just integrates so well into the whole tapestry
1:35:19
of the film. But this is so noticeable as
1:35:22
well as doing that like it really stands.
1:35:24
It was like a spotlight on the music.
1:35:26
You know you're listening to it. Oh yeah.
1:35:28
But at the same time, it's not taking you out of the film.
1:35:31
This is 2 separate things. Then visuals and that music, but
1:35:35
the way that the layered and the way that they put on top of each
1:35:37
other, it's two different flavors, but they work so well
1:35:40
when you get through them and they just melt together.
1:35:42
Yeah. I can't even think of half of
1:35:45
these sequences without that music.
1:35:48
Yeah. Like this just picks it up and
1:35:50
just puts it in the spotlight. It doesn't just whisper.
1:35:52
This is what you're watching. It screams like this is romantic
1:35:56
house book cry. I mean, if you're watching this
1:36:01
and all you're watching is words, like you said, the main
1:36:04
titles comes up, it fills the screen and you get.
1:36:09
If you don't like that, just turn it off because that's what
1:36:14
you're in for for the next two hours.
1:36:16
You really are. That is, it's unabashedly,
1:36:19
brilliantly done, and it's so on the nose that I want to get
1:36:23
punched in the face over and over and over again.
1:36:25
I love it. I really love it.
1:36:27
It on the nose, the romance is on the nose.
1:36:29
Of course it is, but it all kind of works.
1:36:31
But it's that on the nose that I want it to be.
1:36:33
I want to be like head butted by it.
1:36:35
The music really, really, really reinforces that.
1:36:38
It absolutely does. And Man said he hired Trevor
1:36:40
Jones to write the score because of his reputation for writing
1:36:44
epic, sweeping scores on films like Excalibur and The Dark
1:36:47
Crystal. But the main theme actually came
1:36:49
from Man's wife, Summer. They were struggling to come up
1:36:52
with a melody for the main theme, and Summer told Man to
1:36:55
listen to The Gale, which is a modern Scottish folk piece of
1:36:58
music written by Dougie McLean in 1990.
1:37:00
Man listened to it, loved it at the studio, licensed it and then
1:37:04
gave it to Trevor Jones to adapt for the film.
1:37:07
Yes, that's the GAIL Gael, if anyone wants to listen to it.
1:37:10
Yeah, it is both the main theme from the film, basically, and
1:37:13
the guy playing the fiddle on there, the main melody for the
1:37:15
Love theme. That's Alistair Fraser, like a
1:37:17
renowned Scottish musician, right?
1:37:19
I mean, you pay for the best, you kind of get the best, don't
1:37:22
you? Yeah.
1:37:22
Absolutely. When the film's release was
1:37:24
moved from summer 1992 to September, Man realized he
1:37:28
needed some new pieces of music written for the score.
1:37:30
Trevor Jones had other commitments by then, so that's
1:37:33
when Randy Andelman came in. He had a reputation for working
1:37:36
very, very quickly, so it was hired to complete what man
1:37:38
needed. Yeah, So they didn't actually
1:37:40
work together, Jordan Edelman and the Edelman wrote some of
1:37:43
the more restrained pieces like Cora Poly were written by him,
1:37:46
right. And he wrote the Courier the
1:37:48
piece for the sniper sequence we talked about.
1:37:49
OK. Yeah, yeah.
1:37:50
Which is good as well. Yeah, that's great.
1:37:52
The worst job in colonial America?
1:37:54
The Korea really is. Horrible.
1:37:56
Terrifying. Yeah.
1:37:59
And there's also a piece of music not composed by Trevor
1:38:02
Jones or Randy Edelman that plays over the montage towards
1:38:05
the end when the Mohicans attracting Hue on to rescue Cora
1:38:08
and Alice. That song is called I Will Find
1:38:10
You and was written and recorded for the film by contemporary
1:38:13
Irish folk group called Clanad. Nice.
1:38:16
Yeah. How good's it?
1:38:17
Yeah. Like Clonard make.
1:38:19
Yeah, it's clearly a more modern piece, but I kind of, Yeah,
1:38:21
ethereal pipe and percussion sound to it works great.
1:38:24
Yeah. And again, there's a TV
1:38:25
connection clad. We're known for writing the
1:38:27
theme from Harry's game and also the main theme to Robin of
1:38:30
Sherwood from the 80s. Ah, yes, that's right.
1:38:33
That's very serial. Yeah, Robin, that one.
1:38:37
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one, yeah, I've just went
1:38:39
straight back when you did that. It reminds me of, you know, may
1:38:43
it be again Lord of the Rings. Yeah, yeah, Lord of the Rings.
1:38:45
Totally. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
1:38:47
What was that, Enya? That was Enya, yeah.
1:38:49
Well, there you go. She was in Clanard, wasn't she?
1:38:51
She was, Yeah. There.
1:38:52
We're cool, you see, We're putting it all together.
1:38:54
Yeah, guess what? Episode's coming up soon
1:38:56
everyone. There's been a few references.
1:38:58
Yeah. Isn't it?
1:38:59
Yeah. It's the one on Clanard.
1:39:05
Or they work on The Last of the Mohicans.
1:39:07
Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman received new Oscar nominations
1:39:10
for The Score. The winner that year was Alan
1:39:12
Menken for Disney's Aladdin, right?
1:39:14
Was it because Trevor Jones was brought in later though that was
1:39:17
the reason why they weren't nominated for an Oscar?
1:39:19
Trevor Jones was the one in first and Randy Edelman came in
1:39:21
after. I think that's why it was kind
1:39:23
of disqualified because it needs to be 1 concise piece by 1
1:39:26
composer I think because it definitely would have been up
1:39:28
there for a nomination. This Oh.
1:39:29
Yeah, it would have been a contender.
1:39:30
Yeah, surely. Chris Jenkins, Doug Hemphale,
1:39:32
Mark Smith and Simon Key. They did win an Oscar for best
1:39:35
sound though, right? The sound design is pretty
1:39:36
great. Brilliant.
1:39:37
Yeah, but All in all, music and sound design, some great sounds.
1:39:41
And last, the Mohicans. Oh yeah, yeah, easily.
1:39:46
A first time collaboration with Man on the writing and mostly on
1:39:49
the music, but not on the cinematography.
1:39:52
No, the director of photography was Dante Espanotti, who'd shot
1:39:54
25 films before this and was working with Man for the second
1:39:58
time after Manhunter. Yeah, shooting firefights on the
1:40:02
frontier this time we're steep. Sure.
1:40:03
So what are your thoughts on Dante's Inferno?
1:40:07
It's a beautiful thing. I warm my hands on it.
1:40:10
It's just great. It's really, really accomplished
1:40:11
work and done this, but not he was Spider man's go to.
1:40:14
He did he as well. That's you know, forget about.
1:40:16
But even Manhunter. It has these stylistic
1:40:18
flourishes where I feel like Spinati lights not with light,
1:40:22
but with color. It's the color of light or the
1:40:24
color of the atmosphere that he uses to connect with the viewer
1:40:28
and that emotion. So I've mentioned the thought
1:40:31
that's the warm orange, but he goes for these amazing Blues of
1:40:34
the landscape. They've got that real contrast
1:40:36
between, you know, the blue and the orange kind of work together
1:40:38
and the harmonious. And like we said with the love
1:40:41
story and the action, that's a harmony.
1:40:44
And I think the Blues and the Reds in this film are
1:40:46
incredibly, incredibly powerful and it works really, really
1:40:49
well. That's just one element of it,
1:40:51
though. He really loves saturation and
1:40:52
he really loves color, and it really works because this should
1:40:55
be quite desaturated. It should be quite dour for the
1:40:58
natural light that's being used a lot of the time, but it
1:41:00
really, really works. But what he also does really
1:41:03
well is how to tell a story with the camera.
1:41:05
And Michael Mann knows that. And I'll just give you a little
1:41:07
bit of an example about the two relationships that are in the
1:41:10
film. So you've got Cora and Duncan.
1:41:11
So when they meet, everything's telephoto, everything's on the
1:41:14
long lens, the cameras away from them.
1:41:16
There's always distance. Look at them when they sat in
1:41:18
the field and they've got the table, they're apart from each
1:41:20
other. Even later on, they're always
1:41:22
separated by a telephoto. Once you first meet all guy and
1:41:25
the family's being killed at the farm, that shot in a telephoto
1:41:28
when they disagree, as they get closer, the lens gets shorter,
1:41:32
so their chemistry and their connection gets closer together,
1:41:35
right? So they keep shooting on shorter
1:41:37
lenses and it goes shorter and shorter and shorter.
1:41:39
And then I'll cut straight to the final shot when they embrace
1:41:42
on that mountaintop. That's a wide angle lens.
1:41:44
So he's bringing in the whole environment and they're in the
1:41:47
middle of that environment together as one, and the
1:41:49
environment has surrounded them. So they're now complete as a
1:41:51
couple. So he's gone from a long lens to
1:41:54
a shorter lens. And their relationship is
1:41:57
basically built on the focal length and how close they get is
1:42:00
then reflected in the camera movements and in the camera and
1:42:03
the lens choices. Amazing.
1:42:05
So Dante, espionage and cinematography and camera work
1:42:08
and lens choices, this just shows how important that is to
1:42:11
tell a story. And that's just one little bit
1:42:13
of it. Yeah, that's a really good
1:42:14
example in this film though of how we do it probably.
1:42:17
Amazing. Beautiful and yeah big fan of
1:42:20
the cinematography here as well. As I said about everything else,
1:42:23
the challenge is kind of covering 2 genres at the same
1:42:25
time in action and love story and having to blend it all
1:42:28
together into one like cohesive piece of work.
1:42:31
And but not he does that. I think he leads quite heavily
1:42:33
on some classic techniques. This reminds me of like your old
1:42:36
Hollywood action and adventure movies going back to the 40s and
1:42:39
50s with huge white establishing shots of misty forest saw.
1:42:43
Yeah, sweeping landscapes of the mountainsides and then lots of
1:42:45
very intimate close-ups for character moments.
1:42:48
Very different tones and feels in those scenes.
1:42:50
But the cinematography always feels very much of a piece, I
1:42:53
think. I think it's great how natural
1:42:55
it all looks with minimal lighting.
1:42:57
It seems like to maintain all the authenticity, and that
1:42:59
works. The woodland scenes always pull
1:43:01
me in the way the sunlight light peeks through the trees.
1:43:04
Yeah, yeah. The mud and the rain feel like
1:43:06
you can touch it. And there was some real
1:43:08
dedication. No, but.
1:43:10
And his crew had to hike their equipment into the forests and
1:43:12
the mountains for 45 minutes at the start of every day.
1:43:16
Wow. Yeah.
1:43:17
So it's classic stuff. And I've seen people compare the
1:43:19
visuals to David Lean, and I see why.
1:43:21
Yeah, but the filmmaker reminds me of most is probably John
1:43:24
Ford. Like, natural settings,
1:43:26
energetic camera moves, intimate and epic at the same time.
1:43:30
Yeah. But I mean, either way, if
1:43:31
you're tapping into classic era Hollywood and you pull it off,
1:43:34
you're probably gonna get something pretty special.
1:43:36
Yeah. And I think Spot only gives us
1:43:37
that here. Oh yeah.
1:43:38
Definitely. I mean, obviously the location
1:43:40
shooting itself is incredible, but all the same, that's not
1:43:43
enough. I mean, I could put a camera on
1:43:45
a tripod and pointed at some mountains and I'm not going to
1:43:47
make it look like less the Mohicans.
1:43:49
So for me, it's all the logistics that Spinotti has to
1:43:53
work with here. It doesn't look an easy place to
1:43:55
put a camera, but Spinotti makes it look easy, No.
1:43:57
And he moves it as well. It's not stationary the way that
1:44:00
he gets that camera going. It pace over and across this
1:44:04
rugged landscape through the forest.
1:44:06
Yeah. Cross water.
1:44:07
All the potential problems of not the light ebbing and flowing
1:44:10
of clouds of changeable weather. They're finding somewhere to put
1:44:13
the camera and put the lighting set up in places where you think
1:44:17
there's barely any room for the actors, let alone a camera rig.
1:44:19
Surely, like the up the side of a mountain.
1:44:22
Yeah, like, say the up and down the crossing rivers, the running
1:44:24
through thick forests and Spinod, he keeps up and he makes
1:44:27
it look easy, which is the thing that like, blows my mind about
1:44:30
this. I mean, I would describe the
1:44:31
Cinema Trophy in this as invisible because it doesn't
1:44:34
feel like Cinema trophy, just feels like real life that he's
1:44:37
captured. And that is just the highest
1:44:39
compliment I could give him. Yeah, I mean, a few years later,
1:44:41
if you look at the woodland shots or the jungle shots, I
1:44:43
guess in thin red line they're pretty close.
1:44:46
Yeah, he's kind of set the benchmark.
1:44:48
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And man, it's been running.
1:44:50
Agreed that a subdued monochromatic look for the film
1:44:53
would work best to make it look more authentic.
1:44:55
The lighting came from period accurate sources.
1:44:57
Wherever possible would light scenes by sunlight or torch
1:45:00
light if they could make it the work.
1:45:01
But again, there's colour added to that as well.
1:45:03
Definitely. Some clever lighting as well.
1:45:05
Yeah, I'll let the lighting in the waterfall scene that we'll
1:45:08
talk about because they couldn't film into actual waterfalls,
1:45:10
obviously. So that kind of pounding water
1:45:12
lighting effect was done by bouncing light from the lamps
1:45:15
under these huge reflective screens and then shaking the
1:45:18
screens to create the effect of running water.
1:45:20
Yeah, I never even questioned. It just looks great.
1:45:22
Definitely. Looks fantastic.
1:45:23
And Spinodi said he was inspired by famous landscape painters.
1:45:27
Thomas Call and Albert Bierstadt were 19th century American
1:45:31
painters. We were both part of the Hudson
1:45:32
River School, and that was an art movement known for its
1:45:35
landscape painters who focus on the beauty of the American
1:45:38
wilderness, especially the Hudson River Valley.
1:45:40
Yeah, if you look at their work, those painters, the influence is
1:45:43
pretty obvious. Yeah, it is.
1:45:45
The framing of stuff. The color palette as well.
1:45:48
It's all very wide, isn't it? And the people are tiny in the
1:45:50
frame, like the start of the massacre shot or the bridge
1:45:52
shot. Exactly.
1:45:53
Yeah. The shots, yeah, that are like a
1:45:55
Thomas Cole painting come to life.
1:45:56
That shot at the start of the massacre is one of them.
1:45:58
Yeah, Yeah. Before we finish on Dandy
1:46:00
Spinotti in the cinematography, we have another ATRM page, one
1:46:03
question, this time from Jacob Perry.
1:46:05
Hello, Jacob. Hello, Jacob.
1:46:07
So Jacob says Man and Spinotti shot this film in upstate New
1:46:10
York in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
1:46:13
Both of those regions have a rich indigenous history for
1:46:16
Native Americans, which lends the film a level of
1:46:18
authenticity. What are some of your favorite
1:46:20
movies where the shooting location has offered the same
1:46:23
effect to the film? Right.
1:46:25
And then Jacob says thanks again for the best movie part in the
1:46:27
business. Oh, it's very nice.
1:46:29
Very. Kind of him.
1:46:30
Yeah. Thanks a lot, Jacob.
1:46:31
And that's a great long question, Jacob's Ladder, that
1:46:33
question. Nice.
1:46:35
Yeah, Yeah. So what do you think Westie?
1:46:37
Great location shooting in the film.
1:46:39
I mean this right up my street, to be honest, but I've tried to
1:46:41
think of ones that really out of flavor and without the location,
1:46:44
it just really, really wouldn't work.
1:46:46
So I didn't want the location to necessarily be a character, but
1:46:48
I wanted the location to really affect the visual of the film.
1:46:51
So the first one, I'll always go to his Days of Heaven, which I
1:46:54
think shows like the American Midwest of Texas is just like
1:46:58
without that setting, without that light and you know, it just
1:47:00
wouldn't work at all. Fargo, I think you need that
1:47:04
dark cold, that Minnesota, that's snow.
1:47:06
You can feel it. That's, you know, it really,
1:47:08
really adds to the pool vision. That's the proposition which I
1:47:11
think shows the Australian Outback.
1:47:14
Oh yeah. Before anyone had been there.
1:47:16
Better than anything else I've seen, to be honest.
1:47:18
I think it's just really, really powerfully done.
1:47:20
Your favorite Christmas film? That one W season.
1:47:22
It's up there. Yeah, it's definitely up there.
1:47:25
Yeah, I'm not going to argue with that.
1:47:26
No, yeah, all of them. Films really work for me.
1:47:28
I could be here for hours, so I've just read it in a little
1:47:30
bit. But yeah, there are some main
1:47:32
ones for me. Nice for me.
1:47:34
Have you seen In the New World by Terrence Malik?
1:47:37
Oh yeah. Of course I have, yeah.
1:47:38
Of course you are worthy. I mean, not one of his best
1:47:40
probably, but it's about the Jamestown, Virginia settlement
1:47:42
in America and was actually shot in Virginia where the settlement
1:47:45
was. Yeah.
1:47:46
I mean, knowing that, watching it and it looks like it as well,
1:47:48
it gives it this authenticity but also feels kind of weird and
1:47:52
ghostly. Yeah.
1:47:53
And the Revenant 2 in your retail shooting in the actual
1:47:56
wilderness where the real huge glass survived.
1:47:58
Authentic and brutal. It makes surviving on the
1:48:00
frontier look like the hell I'm sure it was.
1:48:03
And I think an obvious 1. Lawrence of Arabia.
1:48:05
Yeah, Lean filming. Not actually in like the Arabian
1:48:08
Peninsula, but in actual deserts.
1:48:10
Well, it's done well. I think the landscape can become
1:48:12
like a character like we talk about.
1:48:14
And I think man pulls it off here as well.
1:48:16
Yeah. Definitely, yeah.
1:48:18
I mean, like you 2 fellas, my head automatically goes to
1:48:21
Thames Malacanat. See the thin Red Line, the
1:48:23
shooting in that, the heat, just that sense of those soldiers in
1:48:28
such a foreign land that they can't make sense of nothing.
1:48:31
Location shooting really emphasizes that.
1:48:34
One film I've already mentioned, but again, I would mention the
1:48:36
search is just that Monument Valley location for John Ford is
1:48:40
incredible. And then at the other end, the
1:48:43
scale, I'd say The French Connection.
1:48:44
You can smell that film. You feel how cold and miserable
1:48:49
it is there. So yeah, French Connection as
1:48:51
well, I think from New York. Yeah, I can't believe none of us
1:48:54
have mentioned New Zealand Lord of the Rings.
1:48:57
Well, that's coming. Up saving it, yeah, yeah.
1:48:59
Saving it. Yeah, fair enough.
1:49:00
I went to Australia instead with the probably just over the
1:49:04
water. No Oscars for Dante's for not
1:49:06
even his work on the last The Mohicans.
1:49:08
Winner of Best Cinematography that year was Philippe Rusolo
1:49:11
for A River Runs Through It Right.
1:49:13
Still, for us, this is a great example of some beautiful
1:49:16
location cinematography. Incredible.
1:49:18
Yeah, it's really up there for me.
1:49:20
And we are through the crew section on The Last of the
1:49:22
Mohicans, from Michael Mann and Christopher Cross stripping the
1:49:25
novel to its essentials. Trevor Jordan and Randy Edelman
1:49:27
creating one of the 90s most epic scores on Dante Espinati,
1:49:31
painting the frontier in torch light.
1:49:33
Adding the others were mentioned.
1:49:34
And you've got a crew working very much together to bring
1:49:38
Michael Mann's vision to the screen.
1:49:39
Very much. Everyone working in harmony, you
1:49:41
might say. You might.
1:49:46
The end. The final act of The Last of the
1:49:50
Mohicans sees man stripping everything down even more to its
1:49:54
essentials. We're going to talk about the
1:49:56
climactic battle on the mountainside, but first it's the
1:49:59
aftermath of the massacre and a journey into Huron territory.
1:50:03
Yeah, it is. So, following the massacre at
1:50:05
Fort William Henry, The Who Runs track our heroes through the
1:50:08
wilderness. It all leads to a cave behind a
1:50:10
waterfall where Magua gets his hands on Cora and Alice before
1:50:13
arriving at The Who Run village, where some character fates are
1:50:16
decided. Yeah, enemy territory.
1:50:18
Matt, how does this all play out?
1:50:21
I mean don't go chasing waterfalls right?
1:50:23
Just stick to those rivers and they say used to 1 for the TLC
1:50:29
fans. Nearly as good as westies who
1:50:30
run run run or who run run that you just did.
1:50:35
I think though this. Is maybe the same everyone
1:50:38
remembers the most because it's absolutely massive.
1:50:41
I mean, and this is where I want to talk about how good the sound
1:50:43
design is, which we've mentioned won the Oscar.
1:50:45
Because the boom of that water, which makes everyone have to
1:50:50
shout their lines, which then in turn emphasizes the emotion of
1:50:53
the performances, is incredible. The tension is still unrelenting
1:50:57
because they've bought themselves a couple of minutes,
1:51:00
but they've also discovered all the gunpowder is now soaked in
1:51:02
useless. But Margaret is still on the
1:51:05
tail, so Hawkeye has to leave them.
1:51:06
Like, everything about this just resonates so well.
1:51:09
I think that's a good bit of foreshadowing where Alice seems
1:51:12
to be in a trance, nearly falls, but to see if by Uncas.
1:51:14
And I think, yeah, that's the first clue that mentally she's
1:51:18
just broken now by what she's seen in being through, which
1:51:21
obviously leads to her tragic end and which we'll talk about.
1:51:24
But it's those visuals of Hawkeye and Cora framed against
1:51:27
the backdrop of that water thundering down like that might
1:51:31
be the most romantic visual I think I've ever seen.
1:51:33
Oh, yeah. And then the way that Mantis
1:51:35
punches into those close-ups of them.
1:51:37
Yeah, it works so well. And the dialogue, which I think
1:51:40
we've said could be cheesy, but, you know, you stay alive.
1:51:42
I will find you great. I.
1:51:45
Don't think I've ever been more convinced by any character
1:51:47
saying they're going to do something than I am here.
1:51:50
I believe him. He will find you.
1:51:52
Oh, definitely. Are you not more convinced when
1:51:54
Ethan Hunt does it in Mission Impossible?
1:51:56
Woo, stay alive, I'm not going to lose you.
1:52:00
And that jumps out the window. Total RIP off.
1:52:04
And then just when you think he can't get any more convincing,
1:52:06
he jumps in that waterfall. And we talked about the fugitive
1:52:09
couple of episodes go. I mean, this puts the fugitive
1:52:11
in the absolute cheer without similar scene.
1:52:13
It does. Yeah, I mean, The Cave behind
1:52:14
the waterfall, it's a beautiful setting for a scene.
1:52:17
The water thundering down as a backdrop, everyone's soaking
1:52:20
wet. And that show of The Who runs
1:52:22
approaching. We're going to see their torches
1:52:23
on the way through the tunnels. Yeah, yeah.
1:52:25
Great moment that So it's a great place and a great way for
1:52:28
the sisters to finally get caught.
1:52:30
Only thing for me, I'm not sure I totally buy Hawkeye's reason
1:52:34
for leaving Cora behind. I mean, I understand the logic.
1:52:37
They've got no gunpowder either. Wrong number, they'll die of the
1:52:39
fight. Fine, just take the women with
1:52:42
you, surely through the magic waterfall, take your chances.
1:52:46
I mean, not your typical Hollywood heroics, but maybe
1:52:48
that's the point. To be fair, I don't know.
1:52:50
Well, yeah, I'm glad you're not in charge for that.
1:52:55
But the moment the Koran hawk I say goodbye to each other is
1:52:58
massive. Stay alive.
1:52:59
I will find you. That's great.
1:53:01
Yeah, it's great. Dia Lewis sells the hell out of
1:53:03
it and stores great as well, because she has to do it mostly
1:53:05
through reactions, not dialogue and her lingering looks to
1:53:08
Hawkeye while also getting across that she's pretty
1:53:10
terrified. Yeah, I mean, that could have
1:53:12
been like Vivian Lee in the 40s or something.
1:53:14
Yeah, yeah. Looks brilliant, don't just
1:53:16
leave the girls but some great acting in there.
1:53:19
Yeah, but don't take them with you to sudden death.
1:53:21
They can't swim in them dresses. For a star, he's just left them
1:53:24
the near certain death. He actually says if they don't
1:53:27
kill you. Exactly, this is what it is.
1:53:28
Do you know when he jumps out you see a shot of them going
1:53:30
down? I just think that Waterfall
1:53:32
doesn't stand a chance. So the exterior waterfall
1:53:38
scenes, they were filmed at Hooker Falls and Bridal Veil
1:53:41
Falls, but The Cave was a set built in a warehouse in North
1:53:44
Carolina and this was the only in TV set built for the film.
1:53:48
What was that? In the used recycled river water
1:53:50
to create the fallen water in front of The Cave and it was the
1:53:53
last sequence shot D in production.
1:53:56
Makes sense. I mean, taking all that
1:53:57
equipment behind the waterfall will be asking for trouble,
1:54:00
surely. Yeah, surely.
1:54:01
Yeah, I think so. I think they enhanced the shots
1:54:03
of the real waterfalls with digital effects as well to make
1:54:05
them look even more thunderous. Right?
1:54:07
Wouldn't have had the same effect if it was just trickling
1:54:09
over the edge, no? To be there watching that.
1:54:12
Stay alive, bloop. The original novel does have a
1:54:18
scene behind a waterfall as well, which is where man got the
1:54:21
idea. Apparently.
1:54:22
In the 1820s, James Fenimore Cooper took some English
1:54:25
aristocrats on a trip around New York.
1:54:27
They went to a waterfall cave called Glens Falls, and one of
1:54:31
the group said this would be a great setting for a romance
1:54:33
novel. Yeah, he'd be right.
1:54:35
He was right. Not the whole novel.
1:54:37
Or she'll just shout, I think I love you.
1:54:40
That'll be nice. Well, that person was Lord
1:54:44
Edward Stanley, future British Prime Minister.
1:54:46
No or less. All right, all right.
1:54:48
I think politicians tend to inspire Hollywood in slightly
1:54:50
different ways. Now it is.
1:54:52
I think they do, yeah. And there's a moment under the
1:54:55
waterfall where we see Uncas and Alice together, the idea being
1:54:58
that they've got their own relationship and there was
1:55:01
supposed to be more made of that as well with the love scene
1:55:03
written between them. But Jodie May, who plays Alice,
1:55:06
she was only 17 at the time and her mother was on set and
1:55:09
completely vetoed the scene. Yeah, there's another deleted
1:55:12
scene as well where Uncas bridge Alice's hair, right?
1:55:14
I mean, the love scene, yeah, fair enough, but they could have
1:55:16
kept the other one maybe. Yeah, that would have worked
1:55:18
because I think the youngest knowledge relationship is
1:55:21
definitely underserved in the story.
1:55:23
A. 100% so they don't kill them thankfully.
1:55:26
Thankfully. Yep, the tip of the hill.
1:55:28
So you know everything pays off. All guy knows what's going on.
1:55:31
But this is genuinely terrifying.
1:55:33
When Nathaniel walks in there, you know you can feel this
1:55:35
animosity. You don't feel like there's an
1:55:39
unnecessary hatred, you feel like this is really, really
1:55:41
historical hatred, like they've got a reason to hate these
1:55:45
people. This is the reality of the
1:55:46
situation. And I honestly find that this
1:55:49
sequence, now, I'm not saying it's better and more
1:55:52
entertained, but I find it more engaging than some of the early
1:55:54
action sequences. Yeah, I know what you mean.
1:55:56
Yeah. I'm drawn into it.
1:55:58
Oh, yeah, It's got an incredible way to it and it shows.
1:56:01
Magua has lost his way. His heart is twisted, and that's
1:56:04
what is being said. The sachems brought in, Who's
1:56:07
the chief of the Huron? Who sits down?
1:56:08
This is to everything. And I'll be honest with you, I
1:56:11
think he's pretty accommodating. To.
1:56:13
Everyone's wishes. He's kind of like, right, OK,
1:56:16
you're pissed off, but you're in love with her so, well, I'll
1:56:20
burn her. She can go.
1:56:22
He can go back to the English and house about that.
1:56:24
Everyone's down with that. And everyone's like, no, I'm
1:56:27
like, oh for fuck's sake, just take me.
1:56:29
Then he said, yeah, whatever, whatever.
1:56:30
I'm old. Is that great twist as well.
1:56:32
Was that the sacrifice of poor guy where he's like, take me and
1:56:35
you as an audience. Never going to happen in a
1:56:37
million years. No, no.
1:56:38
And then when Duncan says British officer, take me, you're
1:56:40
like, yes, that'll do that. But Duncan, when he's getting
1:56:45
taken away, I mean, it is a hard breaker, but he can't help it,
1:56:48
can he? He's like, well, did you tell
1:56:50
him? He's like, no, I said take me
1:56:54
and then says, my, what do you see?
1:56:55
My compliments. My compliments to you, Sir.
1:56:58
Compliments to you, Sir. Like, oh God, it is fantastic.
1:57:03
And then that music kicks in and you're like, oh, yes, right.
1:57:08
And we are just in from that moment, the minute that music
1:57:11
starts. Yeah, yeah.
1:57:12
I just kind of stand up out me chair, lean forward a little bit
1:57:15
and I'm kind of just at the edge of my seat and I'm leaning
1:57:17
forward and I'm going. This is the end of last
1:57:19
Moheaton's and know for a fact I'm going to be reminded that
1:57:22
this moment five more times. Oh yeah, it's great when Hawkeye
1:57:27
comes in and dunks fans leading for him.
1:57:29
Hawkeye's trying to be a dip of the March, but he's clearly more
1:57:31
comfortable with action, so that's good, yeah.
1:57:33
But yeah, it's Big Dunk going for me.
1:57:35
I mean, it's a bit of a classic trope.
1:57:36
The guy who's been a bastard all the way through turns out to be
1:57:39
honourable after all. Yeah, he's like Gorman and
1:57:41
aliens. Yes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:57:43
Of course I should have said you always were an asshole.
1:57:45
Big dunk. Just like.
1:57:50
Everywhere it's done well, it's always good, and I like it.
1:57:52
Yeah. Yeah.
1:57:53
I would say I find the pacing a little odd.
1:57:55
We spend ages at 4, William Henry, and then the final act is
1:57:58
all these huge moments, feels a little bit crammed in.
1:58:01
We go from the waterfalls straight to the village,
1:58:03
straight to the climactic showdown.
1:58:05
I mean, let it breathe a little bit maybe.
1:58:07
But the first time I saw this film, the image in the moment
1:58:10
that stayed with me afterwards was Hawkeye's mercy killing of
1:58:13
Big Dunk, being burned to the stake.
1:58:14
It's massive. Absolutely massive.
1:58:17
But in the original script when Hawkeye shoots Duncan, he fight
1:58:20
immediately and the historical advice once set was Mark Baker
1:58:24
and he said that Hawkeye should take careful aim and firing soon
1:58:27
was more realistic to firing that kind of rifle.
1:58:30
Oh, nice. I mean, that shot itself, when
1:58:32
he kind of lifts that rifle up, I mean, look at that as a
1:58:34
composition. It's just done in one frame.
1:58:37
It's the shot on a wider lens. So Cora's in there, she's in the
1:58:40
kind of in the background, incredible shot and a whole
1:58:43
guys, he's just lining up the shot.
1:58:44
She turns around just as he fires.
1:58:47
She can't just see the final moment because this is riddled
1:58:50
with guilt. It's brilliantly done, but he
1:58:52
just takes his time. Like Matt said, they just takes
1:58:55
his time to get the shot right. And I'm pretty sure I've watched
1:58:58
it a couple of times. I don't know if it's a chest
1:58:59
shot, I don't know if it's a headshot.
1:59:00
I'm just going to have to pause it and kind of zoom in and see
1:59:02
if I can do it on the on the 4K if there's one.
1:59:05
Well, he's a pretty good shot, and he's called Hawkeye for a.
1:59:07
Reason he is called Hawkeye and he's been sniping from a Fort of
1:59:10
using a massive long musket which I think is pretty
1:59:13
impossible. Anything's possible to be
1:59:15
honest. He's probably shot him back to
1:59:16
life, and apparently it would have been more accurate to have
1:59:21
this meeting take place in a longhouse, but man decided to
1:59:24
have an exterior set built instead.
1:59:26
It was created just South of Lake James where they were
1:59:28
filming, and the set remained there as a tourist attraction
1:59:31
for years afterwards. They even installed an elevator.
1:59:34
Take tours of the Cliff trail where the climax takes place.
1:59:36
Love to go there. Oh, I'd be going on that for
1:59:38
sure. It's your own Christmas weekend
1:59:41
away. Another. 1.
1:59:44
Just makes lighting of a Cliff more.
1:59:49
And the sachem is played by Mike Phillips, who was a respected
1:59:52
Mohawk leader who occasionally acted in TV projects before
1:59:55
this. But the characters in the scene
1:59:57
are all speaking different languages.
1:59:59
Magwa is speaking Cherokee, which is where Studi's native
2:00:02
language, while Phillips is speaking Mohawk and some French.
2:00:06
Absolute chaos. It's great though, the
2:00:08
authenticity is just fantastic. Yeah, it's wonderful.
2:00:11
I think Mike Phillips is really good as the sachem as well.
2:00:13
Well, he's wonderful. Yeah.
2:00:14
Got a real dignity, hasn't he? Yeah.
2:00:16
Yeah. So that's a set up for our
2:00:17
climax, the waterfall, Duncan's redemption and Magua taking
2:00:21
Alice while Cora goes free. But the chases Nova yet is it?
2:00:25
It's not. No.
2:00:28
The climax of The Last of the Mohicans is frenetic, to say the
2:00:31
least. Magua and his warriors head to
2:00:33
their settlement with Alice, pursued by Hawkeye Kora
2:00:36
Chingachgookadungas. What follows is an epic final
2:00:39
confrontation on the mountain. Yep, Magua kills Uncas, Alice
2:00:43
takes her own life, and Chingachgook kills Magua.
2:00:46
Yeah, the conclusion is yeah. Matt, how does it all work for
2:00:49
you? I mean, it's just an absolute
2:00:52
bloodbath. It really is.
2:00:54
Is that it? Yeah, that's it.
2:00:56
We're done. So you need know about the end
2:00:58
of Last the Mohicans. I mean, Uncas Thorn himself in
2:01:01
the Maguas party like an absolute hero, but then he's out
2:01:04
of there. Yeah.
2:01:05
I think after everything Alice has seen and she has no idea
2:01:08
that there's a rescue party just around the corner.
2:01:11
And I think she's suffering PDSE at this point to a completely by
2:01:13
her decision to throw herself off the Ridge rather than submit
2:01:16
to Magwa, which is an absolute heartbreaker.
2:01:20
But it's the fury that this sets off in Hawkeye and Tinker Truck.
2:01:24
Like Hawkeye charging up that mountain, taking out Hurons all
2:01:27
over the place, firing with two rifles at the same time.
2:01:30
Cinema has peaked at this scene by this point.
2:01:33
Like, it's not going to get better than that, but I love how
2:01:35
it up ends expectations. Because you would think, well,
2:01:38
the final battle's obviously going to be between Hawkeye and
2:01:41
Magua. And even when Chinga Truck gets
2:01:43
to Magua first, you think, oh, he's going to get killed and
2:01:47
it'll be all down to Hawkeye to avenge his family.
2:01:49
But it's not. It's Chinga Truck who gets to
2:01:51
avenge his son. And I think that works so well,
2:01:54
just like the fact that it doesn't become a big drawn out
2:01:56
battle between them like you might expect.
2:01:58
To me, when they confront each other, Magua is so cocky that
2:02:02
he's got this swagger about him. He thinks he's invincible.
2:02:05
But no, he doesn't lay a finger on Chinker Chunk.
2:02:08
It just takes him out no problem.
2:02:10
And it's so satisfying how he outclasses him so easily.
2:02:14
And all this is going on to that piece of music.
2:02:17
Like I said, cinema picked at this point.
2:02:20
There's a great shot that takes us from the village into the
2:02:22
climax. It's another epic wide shot
2:02:24
where we see the mountains, a bit like in the opening.
2:02:26
Yeah. And it pans across the range.
2:02:28
It almost was like it could be stock photography or something.
2:02:30
But then ends with The Who run coming into frame on the left.
2:02:33
Yeah. Yeah.
2:02:33
Incredible establishing shot. Yeah.
2:02:36
And it's an outstanding climax in my eyes.
2:02:38
I love how the score is used. It starts to play the village
2:02:41
when The Who run like Cora go, and it's just like, relentlessly
2:02:44
driving away all the way through.
2:02:47
Between Duncan giving himself up and Magua being killed, it's
2:02:49
about 10 minutes. Yeah, Lords happens, Hawkeye
2:02:52
kills Duncan, Magua kills Uncas, Alice leaps to her death, and
2:02:55
then Chingaju kills Magua. And there's not a word of
2:02:58
dialogue? No, just those strings going
2:03:00
round and round. It's so weird, but so great.
2:03:04
It's also a little confusing when Uncas and Alice go off the
2:03:07
Cliff. It cuts the reaction shots of
2:03:08
Chingajuku and then Cora, but it's like, where are they?
2:03:11
How can they see that from where they are?
2:03:13
I don't really get the logistics of it, but the moment Alice
2:03:16
goes, we get that close up of her and it's like she's looking
2:03:19
into the camera. Yeah.
2:03:20
It's genuinely upsetting. It's horrible, but I mean, great
2:03:23
filmmaking. Jodie May's best moment, I
2:03:25
think, as well. Oh, yeah, yeah.
2:03:26
But all together, that's brilliant.
2:03:28
When you climb up just 10 minutes with no dialogue, just
2:03:30
music and just action, you know, the man must trust his visual
2:03:33
storytelling. And for me, his greatest ever
2:03:36
sequence, I think it's that good.
2:03:37
Wow. Yeah, yeah.
2:03:39
I mean, this music should come in.
2:03:41
It's like a rave. The matrix.
2:03:47
I'm surprised it was like this is early 90s.
2:03:49
I'm surprised on sample this is put a beat in the.
2:03:51
Probably did. Probably.
2:03:53
Did somewhere if anyone can find it to send us on Patreon?
2:03:55
I'd love that. It's my Friday night sword.
2:03:58
It's. Absolutely incredible.
2:04:00
It's that shot of Chinga Choo when he just comes out and he
2:04:03
screams. Yeah, as he falls, you can just
2:04:07
see the pain on his face and the fury that's going to happen.
2:04:11
And just the nonchalantness of Magua just stabbed him in the
2:04:15
throat and thrown him away as if he's nothing.
2:04:17
That's pure Michael, man. That doesn't really need to
2:04:19
happen. I don't know if Alice, when she
2:04:24
falls off, I don't know if that shot from the bottom where she's
2:04:27
just falling over the top of the camera kind of pulls me out
2:04:30
slightly. Yeah, I know what you mean.
2:04:31
That's my only kind of gripe with it.
2:04:33
Slightly jarring that bit, isn't it?
2:04:35
And that moment after Uncas has died and Alice is looking over
2:04:40
and like you said it, they, John, you touched on it, the
2:04:42
mag, what drops the knife when she looks back to the camera and
2:04:46
that light kicks and you just get that catch light in our eye.
2:04:50
That's one of my most favorite frames, I think in any film.
2:04:55
It's beautiful because you've got the separation of the
2:04:58
background, you've got a hair in exactly the right place.
2:05:01
You've got the rain coming down in front of it, which
2:05:03
accentuates her emotion and our tears and our face is perfect.
2:05:08
She just looks beautiful and empty and gone, and I think it's
2:05:12
just an incredible, incredible shot.
2:05:15
It's a sensational close up, isn't it?
2:05:17
Because there's like a whole story going on in that one shot.
2:05:20
It's unbelievable. And that he cuts to a knife
2:05:22
being lowered in between them. Two shots, right?
2:05:25
And there's just that, come here, come this way.
2:05:27
Yeah, yeah. There's so much going on, but in
2:05:30
our eyes, when they got that shot and she looked in the Cam
2:05:33
Michael, Mama just spent. I'm not doing that 20 times
2:05:36
because the way that rains coming down, that separation,
2:05:39
the light and everything is just perfect.
2:05:41
Eyes are just perfect. I mean, I would have that framed
2:05:43
in me house if it wasn't weird. People like you know her.
2:05:47
I was like, no, not really. Don't really a little bit.
2:05:51
I've seen the film that many times.
2:05:52
I feel like I know. And then you get, you know,
2:05:56
Hawkeye, 2 guns coming out of there.
2:05:58
They're a blazing and it's just Jingle just slicing through them
2:06:01
as if the children. And he's just furious.
2:06:04
And that music is just. And he's just like, right, and
2:06:07
I'm having you. I don't care.
2:06:09
I am absolutely having you. And you know it.
2:06:12
I think they could have shot him and he would just keep going.
2:06:14
Yeah, yeah. He's not stopping until Mag was
2:06:17
dead, no matter what happens to him.
2:06:18
And then you get that amazing moment where he just stops and
2:06:20
just rolls underneath. Yeah, great.
2:06:22
Bang, it's in the back. Yeah, Bang.
2:06:24
He breaks his arm. The thing that takes me out a
2:06:26
little bit, then hits on hard enough, they're not powerful
2:06:29
enough that I wanted to be fucking bang.
2:06:33
Just be furious. It's the fury to wipe the seed
2:06:38
from the earth is what Michael wanted to do.
2:06:39
That's his gun. Now he can't have that back.
2:06:42
His stuns gone. And what you've both haven't
2:06:45
touched on, which I am amazed at, is that two shot where Magua
2:06:48
knows he's beaten. Oh, it's incredible.
2:06:50
And Chinga cheeks just looking at him.
2:06:52
He's looking at him going, you fucking idiot, you piece of
2:06:55
shit, because you know for a fact I'm absolutely solid and
2:06:59
you've killed me so. And for me, when he turns
2:07:02
around, does that spin and buries that into him.
2:07:05
That could cut on that two shot, right?
2:07:07
Buries it into Magua, Just bang, cut the black.
2:07:10
Written and dreaded by Michael. Man, like the way Fincher one of
2:07:15
the N7, but it's great the way that his body just drops.
2:07:18
He doesn't push him off, he doesn't give them any kind of
2:07:20
ceremony, he just leaves them there.
2:07:22
What an incredible sequence. And it kind of spoils the film
2:07:26
for me now to get to that point when Magua hits the ground and I
2:07:29
rewind it back to Duncan Burn. It's a great 10 minutes.
2:07:33
I do that three or four times. I'm not even bothered about the
2:07:35
end. Yeah, I'm the last.
2:07:36
The more he can see. Whatever.
2:07:37
Let's see you kill some more people again.
2:07:40
It's fantastic. It's not my favorite Michael
2:07:42
Mann sequence. It'll always be the heist from
2:07:43
Heat, the gunshot. There's always going to be up
2:07:45
there for me. But I mean, it's a very fucking
2:07:47
close setting. Yeah, so man knew how we wanted
2:07:50
the setting for the climax to look.
2:07:52
And it took three weeks to find the mountainside Ridge.
2:07:54
They were flying over Blue Ridge Mountains in a helicopter,
2:07:57
looking for an area untouched by modern civilization.
2:08:00
And then they spotted this Cliff trail.
2:08:02
It's an incredible setting. That's amazing.
2:08:04
Not just funny to look at, but creates this real jeopardy where
2:08:07
they're fighting, like, literally on the edge of a
2:08:08
Cliff. I think it's a huge part of what
2:08:10
makes it all work. Yeah.
2:08:12
Oh yeah. The ending of the book is
2:08:13
different from the film, obviously.
2:08:17
Why wouldn't it? Be well of course.
2:08:19
In the book, Cora is the sister who dies.
2:08:21
She's the one taken by a Magua, and she's killed by a Huron
2:08:24
warrior when the Mohicans try to rescue her.
2:08:26
In the book Magua does kill Uncas, but then a tall guy who
2:08:30
kills Magua, not Jingaju. It's much better the way it's
2:08:33
Chingatu getting revenge surely. What it is?
2:08:36
And it's great how Chingatu totally destroys Magua.
2:08:39
It's not even a contest. No, it's no.
2:08:41
No, no, he's like a child. Yeah.
2:08:44
That death blow, 360° swing, it's massive.
2:08:48
Love it straight through his back for these mohawks.
2:08:53
Snooker bat. We don't end on Magua's death,
2:08:57
though, despite what Wesley might want.
2:08:58
I. Love that.
2:08:59
No, we get the den you more Chingatchu, Kokai and Cora on
2:09:02
the mountain, mourning their loved ones and contemplating
2:09:05
their future. A good way to end.
2:09:07
I think so. I mean, unless you're Wesley,
2:09:09
obviously. Another thing is it could be
2:09:14
sore on the nose that the last line is basically, I am the last
2:09:17
of the Mohicans, but it's anything but because I think you
2:09:20
need this minute of just taking a bit of a breath after that
2:09:22
last battle. And I just think the emotion is
2:09:24
so well played here by them all. It's victory, but it's also
2:09:27
defeated the same time. Yeah, because they've saved
2:09:30
Call, but they've lost so much. It's the end of the bloodline,
2:09:33
and you've just got to end this film over one more shot of that.
2:09:36
Amazing. Landscape, yeah, man said that
2:09:38
the final shot is we'll look over that landscape as they're
2:09:40
looking at the future, like the future of America, not their own
2:09:43
futures. And I do get a bit of a sense of
2:09:45
that, yeah. And it's a pretty downbeat way
2:09:47
to end, which I quite like. Yeah, I would say I wouldn't
2:09:50
mind getting some indication of what Hawkeye and Cora future
2:09:53
might be. Maybe there's nothing yeah at
2:09:55
all, I don't think. Right, but the way the book ends
2:09:58
is actually Monroe giving his blessing for Duncan to marry
2:10:01
Alice, and the final scene is a joint funeral for Cora and
2:10:05
Uncas, where the Satcham comes back and he has a monologue
2:10:08
about how they're all now entering a new era.
2:10:11
Yeah, we get Shin Gashuk instead giving that monologue at the
2:10:13
end, calling himself The Last of the Mohicans.
2:10:16
I mean, that stuff's all really good.
2:10:18
Yeah, it's fine. He's just lost his son and he's
2:10:23
got Nathaniel next to him. He's adopted son who's grown up
2:10:25
with him and he's feeling the pain.
2:10:27
Just leave your ass alone for 5 minutes.
2:10:31
I'm literally dying here. I've lost everything.
2:10:34
I'm standing by myself, more or less, and you're.
2:10:36
Canoodling. Can I have a hug please?
2:10:41
And the last of the boheat is not the last of the emotions.
2:10:45
Then cut the black written and dreaded by my old man.
2:10:49
The man filmed a much longer monologue where Chingachuk
2:10:51
explained that after he was gone, the frontier would go and
2:10:55
men like Hawkeye and his white wife, as he calls her, would be
2:10:58
everywhere. Then one day they will go to.
2:11:02
Yeah, it's like, yes, I mean, you're right, Chingachgook, but
2:11:05
a bail on the nose predicts the next children 50 years, like
2:11:08
perfectly. And that is the end of The Last
2:11:12
of the Mohicans. A desperate chase to a
2:11:14
devastating climax. But it's an ending that stays
2:11:17
with you, I think. Yes, very much.
2:11:20
Absolutely. Reception and awards.
2:11:27
So that is the story of The Last of the Mohicans on the screen
2:11:30
and behind it, and it opened in cinemas on September the 25th,
2:11:33
1992. How do they do?
2:11:36
Well, no matter what occurs, Matt will find the box office
2:11:39
numbers so well. So take it away, Matt.
2:11:43
So production budget was $40 million and Mohicans ended up
2:11:48
grossing 75.5 million domestically and $143 million
2:11:53
worldwide. And at the Oscars, it won one
2:11:55
Academy Award. As we said, Chris Jenkins, Duke
2:11:58
Hemphill, Mark Smith, Simon Ker. Best Sound.
2:12:01
Must have been those basketballs.
2:12:02
Oh yeah, and believe it or not, that Oscar win is the one and
2:12:06
only Oscar ever won by a Michael Mann film.
2:12:09
What? Oh wow.
2:12:10
Really? Yeah.
2:12:11
Really crazy talk. Wow.
2:12:13
The film was originally scheduled for a release in the
2:12:15
summer of 1992, and you can find that date on all the posters.
2:12:19
But when the first version came in at 3 hours, Fox asked Man to
2:12:23
cut the film down and the release was postponed to
2:12:25
September. Yeah, so it was then that had to
2:12:28
bring Randy Edelman in to help with the score because Trevor
2:12:30
Jones had other commitments. But three hour Mohicans, I
2:12:33
definitely watch that. What the hell out of that?
2:12:36
If that first version came in at 3 hours an hour, we worked for
2:12:39
Fox, I would just say can you put it out now?
2:12:41
Yeah, yeah. Just stick with if.
2:12:43
You're listening, Fox. Get it out there.
2:12:45
Yeah, I need to see it. Hashtag release the man code.
2:12:48
Yeah. Under the critics, And we'll
2:12:50
start as we usually do, with Roger, Roger Rebut that is
2:12:54
talking about like he's one of the guys.
2:12:55
Yeah, Yeah. So what did Roger Enio make of
2:12:58
the film, do we think? 3.
2:13:02
I think he's going to give it a full whack, you know?
2:13:05
It was much right three out of four stars from Roger, and he
2:13:09
said The Last of the Mohicans is not as authentic and
2:13:12
uncompromised as it claims to be, but it's probably more
2:13:14
entertaining. As a result, the scenes of
2:13:17
forest fighting follow the usual Hollywood rules.
2:13:19
The hero rarely misses and the villains rarely hit anyone.
2:13:22
But I didn't care. It were the successor to the
2:13:25
Randolph Scott version. Yeah, uncompromised.
2:13:28
I mean, Maguire does RIP a guy's heart out and hold it up to the
2:13:31
camera. I mean, the villains hit a lot
2:13:32
of people, to be fair. Yeah, yeah.
2:13:34
Yeah, and someone gets burned alive.
2:13:36
What do you? Want Rog?
2:13:39
Gene Siskel gave the film a thumbs up and called it a little
2:13:42
messy, but nevertheless has some compelling characters and ended
2:13:45
up succeeding as an epic film. It's one of the most
2:13:48
entertaining modern westerns, right?
2:13:51
I do not think it was a western, mainly because there's no
2:13:53
Cowboys. Probably, but.
2:13:54
I don't think it was a western at all.
2:13:55
I guess it is though, isn't? It suppose technically, yeah.
2:13:58
Yeah, I think it's more of a frontier action.
2:14:01
It is that. I guess more.
2:14:03
Western inventing a super genre. Do what I want.
2:14:10
I'm usually platform for good. And Empire Magazine's Ian Nathan
2:14:14
gave it the full 5 star treatment and said The Last of
2:14:17
the Mohicans mind is a remarkable double life.
2:14:19
It is pure escapism, traditional heroics, red huge.
2:14:23
Yet it is also realistic, each and every inch imbued with
2:14:26
authenticity and conviction. Nice.
2:14:29
Yeah, escapism and authenticity. Couple of good words for this
2:14:32
film, I think. Yeah, definitely.
2:14:35
And today on Rotten Tomatoes, Last of the Mohicans has an 88%
2:14:38
Critics rating and 88% from audiences and on IMDb 7.6 out of
2:14:44
10. Nice critics and audiences
2:14:46
Perfectly In Sync, yeah. Yeah.
2:14:48
Just like the Mohicans, get them on the DI hunt drill.
2:14:51
Yeah, just like the action and romance, everything's
2:14:53
harmonized. Yeah, it is.
2:14:55
So the Last of the Mohicans did well and release more than solid
2:14:58
box office critical acclaim and 1O win for great sound design.
2:15:03
Fair to see it's Ng were better than most 1992 releases.
2:15:07
I would definitely, yes, definitely.
2:15:08
So. Better than most period films to
2:15:10
be honest. I mean, it's no California man,
2:15:12
obviously. Well, what is?
2:15:15
California Man is not even California Man sequels and
2:15:22
influence. Michael Mann never made a sequel
2:15:27
to The Last of the Mohicans. There was a 1994 TV series
2:15:31
Hawkeye that was nothing to do with the film but inspired by
2:15:34
his success. OK, right.
2:15:35
Also, there was a 1971 BBCTV series of Last of the Mohicans,
2:15:39
which is what introduced the term Mohican as in the haircut,
2:15:42
into the British kind of lexicon.
2:15:44
Oh, really? Well, really, that's.
2:15:45
Where it came from? Yes, we came from this novel.
2:15:47
Interesting. So there you go.
2:15:48
No sequels. Do we need one?
2:15:50
Would we want one? No, no.
2:15:53
Surely not. The film feels completely as a
2:15:54
story, I think, doesn't it? Yeah, it's a complete story,
2:15:57
Yeah. So nor the first of the
2:15:58
Mohicans, a prequel. No, none of that.
2:16:02
Just the three hour cut of this will be fine.
2:16:03
Yeah, yeah, that's what we want. Yeah, that's all we need.
2:16:06
But what about this film is impact?
2:16:07
What kind of influence and legacy has The Last of the
2:16:09
Mohicans had since 1992, do we think?
2:16:12
I mean, I think it's just the films we've been talking about
2:16:15
as we've gone through. I mean, Mel Gibson is definitely
2:16:17
a fan of this and he's watching this in preparation for Brea
2:16:19
Fart. I think this is runs through
2:16:21
that and then you go from that to Gladiator, as we've been
2:16:24
saying. Quite funny though.
2:16:25
We are talking about Lord of the Rings soon because that takes so
2:16:28
much from this. I mean the seeds of the Fort,
2:16:32
that's Helms Deep for me. Helms Deep takes loads from that
2:16:36
in The Revenant as well about getting out there in the
2:16:38
wilderness and shooting. So actually, I think it does
2:16:40
have a big, big influence was something that at the time was a
2:16:43
little under the radar. Yeah, I think an immediate
2:16:46
influence was they did show Hollywood the historical epics
2:16:48
could work in like the modern era.
2:16:50
This was 1992. Within a few years, we've
2:16:52
mentioned them. We had Braveheart, the Patriots,
2:16:55
Rob Roy as well. Rob Roy.
2:16:57
Yeah, historical action dramas. And I mean, not all great, but
2:17:00
the awesome thing that what man did I think take historical
2:17:02
events, make a brutal I love story and boom, you're aware.
2:17:06
Yeah, I think the way man and Dante Espinati shot, the actions
2:17:09
being influential as well, that handheld kind of in your face
2:17:13
approach to period battles, that's kind of the way it's done
2:17:15
now. It's probably more down a
2:17:17
Braveheart, to be fair. But like Game of Thrones, the
2:17:19
battle scenes there would fit into Mohicans, I think, not the
2:17:22
Dragons, maybe. But apart from that, Yeah.
2:17:24
And the music, obviously. That main theme's been borrowed
2:17:27
so many times. You still hear that kind of
2:17:29
thing in trailers. Yeah.
2:17:30
It's like epic historical drama. Mohican sail strings, please.
2:17:34
Yeah, I've heard that the Olympics before, which is mad.
2:17:36
Yeah. I mean, Dougie McLean must be
2:17:38
laughing all the way to the bank.
2:17:39
Yeah, he. Must be like the Two Towers
2:17:41
trailers, very similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2:17:44
I mean, I'm trying to think of films to say that you guys
2:17:46
haven't already. I mean, I've got Braveheart
2:17:48
there, but the period. I've got Gladiator, I've got The
2:17:50
New World, which we mentioned earlier, The Revenant, obviously
2:17:54
for the realism over the style. There's one film that we haven't
2:17:56
touched on that I think is the most influenced by this,
2:18:00
especially for Gibson. And I don't think it's
2:18:02
Braveheart, I think it's Apocalypto.
2:18:05
Great shout, yeah. All right.
2:18:07
Yeah, I've not actually seen that.
2:18:08
It's definitely more Apocalypto than it is anything else.
2:18:11
A. Lot of running in Apocalypto.
2:18:13
A lot of running. That's colonial America as well,
2:18:15
I think, isn't it? It is, yeah.
2:18:17
Which ends in a similar kind of vein to this, but with a lot
2:18:20
more of a good punch of like, what's going to happen next?
2:18:23
Yes it does. I'll not spoil it if you haven't
2:18:25
seen it, John or anybody else listening.
2:18:27
Is it worth watching? It's.
2:18:28
Brilliant. Really.
2:18:29
It is good, yeah. It's very, very good film.
2:18:30
Yeah. You know, it went underneath the
2:18:32
radar a little bit because people are expecting more of a
2:18:34
Braveheart kind of action or I think, again, it's very honest.
2:18:38
It's very respectful of the cultures and very respectful of
2:18:41
everything that happened at that time especially.
2:18:43
So I think if you're looking for a sequel to this, what's your
2:18:45
Apocalypto? Nice.
2:18:47
You'd be pleasantly surprised. That's great show.
2:18:50
So no sequels lost the Mohicans, but its influence on historical
2:18:53
filmmaking, on film music and on how to adapt classic literature,
2:18:57
I think it's still being felt. Yeah, I think some films don't
2:18:59
need sequels. This might be one of them.
2:19:02
Yeah, it definitely doesn't. It's all done and dusted, The
2:19:05
last of the adaptations. All the right movies ranking.
2:19:15
And we've cracked all the way through The Last of the
2:19:16
Mohicans. Now it's time for our final
2:19:18
verdicts, where we each rate the film out of 10.
2:19:22
Matt, you chose this one, so why don't you lead us off your
2:19:25
summary and score for The Last of the Mohicans, please?
2:19:28
Very simple one for me, really, no need to elaborate too much.
2:19:31
We've had to look really, really hard to find flaws in this I
2:19:34
think. And if the biggest flaw in the
2:19:35
film is it's just not long enough, I think that says a lot
2:19:39
about how good the film actually is.
2:19:42
Acting, direction, cinema, trophy music, that all
2:19:45
incredible. And like I say, I think it
2:19:47
deserves more peace than it gets and it is very, very
2:19:49
influential. Is that still enough for top
2:19:51
marks? It's just not quite in that top
2:19:54
echelon of films that mean a lot to me personally and I've got a
2:19:57
real personal for, and I think we'd find it hard to argue.
2:20:01
It's a really historically significant piece of cinema.
2:20:05
You know, he didn't reinvent the genre.
2:20:06
There's nothing technical going on that we've never seen before.
2:20:10
So overall it is a masterpiece in my eyes and it's very, very
2:20:14
close to the perfect mark, but it just doesn't quite get there.
2:20:17
So it's 9.5 for me. Right.
2:20:20
Still a great score. So yeah, for me, coming back to
2:20:23
this one for the first time in a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed
2:20:26
the rewatch when it confirmed why it's as popular as it is.
2:20:28
Yeah, Michael Mann taking his, like, intense modern style and
2:20:32
applying it to the historical epic.
2:20:34
That works far better than it usually does when directors do
2:20:37
that, I think. And it's in no small part down
2:20:40
to the crafts. The cinematography is part epic
2:20:42
sweeps of stunning landscapes and part intimate character
2:20:45
moments. The score massive, Yeah,
2:20:48
absolutely massive. The production design,
2:20:50
especially the build of four William Henry 2 historical
2:20:53
specifications. If you don't like that, then
2:20:55
this isn't for you. And the performance is all
2:20:58
excellent. DDL brings the intensity and the
2:21:00
commitment that's become his kind of trademark of really like
2:21:03
Madeleine's door as the emotional heart and where
2:21:06
studios Magwa. Yeah, one of the best films of
2:21:08
that decade, I think. Yeah.
2:21:10
I mean, like I mentioned, I find the pacing a little or even at
2:21:12
times we might spend too long at 4 William Henry, then rush
2:21:15
through the ending a little bit. And Alison Duncas I think
2:21:18
definitely needed more development.
2:21:20
Yeah, but looks great and massive.
2:21:22
It sounds great and massive. Not man's best for me, but one
2:21:25
of his best. And I do like it and respect it
2:21:28
a lot. And it's a nine out of 10 for
2:21:29
me. Lovely.
2:21:31
And Rusty, your Mohican summary and score please.
2:21:34
For me, we've mentioned a lot throughout the episode and we've
2:21:37
given a lot of praise. Much, right?
2:21:39
We have found little to say about it that's necessarily
2:21:42
negative or anything that brings out of the film.
2:21:44
And I think it is the person really.
2:21:46
And when you think about it as a whole, in people say about what
2:21:49
really happens in it, nothing much really happens in it.
2:21:51
It's always quite thin, isn't it?
2:21:52
Yeah. It's a very thin story and it's
2:21:54
a journey more than it is trying to explain anything else.
2:21:57
So it's putting you in the middle of this period in this
2:22:00
environment, but you are then expected to know a lot about
2:22:04
that period in that environment and then be taken on that
2:22:06
journey. If you're not happy about that
2:22:08
journey, then you're quite stuck.
2:22:09
Whereas a lot of films will have springs going off left, right
2:22:12
and center. It's all very linear.
2:22:13
It's they've been stuck in that canoe and you're going down that
2:22:15
river and you can't deviate from where you're going.
2:22:18
If you want to go off the waterfall at the end, that's
2:22:19
what you do when you're rewarded for sitting in the river for
2:22:21
that long, going off the end. But watching it again, I mean,
2:22:24
it's been a couple of years since I watched it and it was
2:22:27
top marks for me. A couple of years ago, I watched
2:22:29
you thinking that's fantastic. And then coming back to it and
2:22:32
watching it again two or three times over the space of a week,
2:22:35
I do feel like there's something missing.
2:22:39
And to realize that, you know, we've all discussed it, to do
2:22:42
research on it, to realize the first cup was 3 hours.
2:22:45
Yeah, isn't. It He's taken a third out of
2:22:47
this film. Yeah.
2:22:49
And I don't know if he's taking the right things out.
2:22:51
And it feels quite rushed. It doesn't feel like a final cut
2:22:53
to me. We've said this earlier.
2:22:55
It feels a bit edited for television.
2:22:56
That's where the advert needs to go.
2:22:58
You know, there's that Uncas and Alice relationship that needed
2:23:01
to have more to it, to what I added even more to the end.
2:23:05
The end feels a little bit rushed as well, so for me it's
2:23:07
not going to be top marks. If it was a three hour version,
2:23:10
it'll be a 10 you. Haven't seen it.
2:23:13
I know for a fact that would be because all that's missing is
2:23:16
more of this. Yeah, yeah.
2:23:17
Because it's great. And I think he's taken out too
2:23:19
much. He's taken out bits that I
2:23:21
needed to see, and I know they exist and that's annoying.
2:23:23
So for that reason, it loses a mark.
2:23:25
So it's going to be a nine out of 10 for me as well.
2:23:27
Wonderful. Well, we also put this out there
2:23:29
to our ACRM patrons out on the frontier to get their thoughts.
2:23:33
So some of their comments on The Last of the Mohicans, Kim
2:23:35
Jackson said. The ending made me want to
2:23:37
conquer the world. And how perfect was DDL 9 out of
2:23:41
10? Yep.
2:23:42
Beautiful. That ending does make you kind
2:23:44
of want to conquer the world. I think does.
2:23:46
Or at least run through the woods.
2:23:47
Just do something. One of the two.
2:23:49
Get off your ass at. Least Ryan Douglas less a few
2:23:52
servers said. Loved it back in the 90s but it
2:23:54
unfortunately has not aged very well.
2:23:57
DLA was as fantastic as in pretty much everything, but it's
2:24:00
not man's best. That has to be heat 8.5 out of
2:24:03
10. Yeah, OK, I'm not sure
2:24:05
specifically what Ryan means by not aged well.
2:24:07
I mean visually and musically I think it's aged pretty great.
2:24:10
Maybe he means something else, maybe that's not right.
2:24:13
And Philip Beatty said this definitely doesn't get taught
2:24:16
about enough. DL Lewis is amazing and as Magua
2:24:19
W duty is one of cinema's great villains.
2:24:21
Yes it's under 2 hours long, but looks, sounds and feels like a
2:24:25
great epic. Well afterwards buying on for 2
2:24:29
1/2 hours people might be saying it's been taught about for too
2:24:31
much. Yeah, very possibly.
2:24:34
Yeah, but I agree, it does feel longer than it is, I think in a
2:24:36
good way. Yeah, I know what it means.
2:24:38
Yeah, it's certainly good. So mostly positive from our paid
2:24:41
runs and all together they rated the film as What do you think?
2:24:46
8-9. 8.5. It was 9 out of 10.
2:24:50
Oh. OK, there we go.
2:24:52
So in total, that gave the Last of the Mohicans 36.5 out of 40,
2:24:57
right? Pretty great score.
2:24:58
Yeah, it's up there. That's us done on the film.
2:25:01
OK. Next time out, it's something
2:25:02
slightly different. Yep.
2:25:04
The whole ATRM gang will be here.
2:25:06
A special mailbag episode where Matt, Westy, Luke and myself
2:25:09
will tackle some big and bold questions from our patrons.
2:25:12
Yeah, we have the questions, and there's some pretty great ones.
2:25:15
Are there? There are.
2:25:16
Yeah, some good ones, yeah. And then two weeks after that,
2:25:19
Luke, Westy and Matt will be writing a shotgun through LA
2:25:21
with Antoine Fuqua, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke for
2:25:25
Training Day. Oh yes, we will.
2:25:27
Yeah. King Kong ain't got nothing on
2:25:29
that. Sure.
2:25:30
He definitely doesn't. We shall see, yeah.
2:25:34
Well, in the meantime, to find out more about becoming an ATR
2:25:36
and Patreon, supporting what we do, and accessing our archive
2:25:39
and bonus episodes, please visit patreon.com/all the Right Movies
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2:25:50
wherever you are at. AT Right Movies we post threads
2:25:52
on there that tell the stories behind classic films.
2:25:55
Everything we post has been said by someone involved in the
2:25:57
production or it comes from three separate sources, which is
2:25:59
the same rule we follow on our podcasts.
2:26:01
So check that out. You can find this on YouTube,
2:26:04
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We have a movie group on Facebook and our website is all
2:26:09
the right movies.com loads of stuff.
2:26:11
It is loads of stuff. We're all off now to reload our
2:26:14
flintlocks while running. In the meantime, stay alive.
2:26:17
We will find you specifically when we come back with training
2:26:20
day. And yes, as always, thanks for
2:26:23
listening. Thank you for listening guys.
2:26:25
Thank you so much guys. Take care.