The Last of the Mohicans

I saw Villeneuve's Dune yesterday and the majestic shots left me cold and emotionally detached, so I put on The Last of the Mohicans after a long time and my heart suddenly rejoices – this is how you make a film that lets its amazing visuals tell the story of its heroes without forgetting the touching, almost Shakespearean tale. Thanks mainly to the iconic music and Mann's dynamic direction, it's a goosebump-inducing ride from the start. And the final half-hour is a blast that brings me to my knees every time. Magua is an incredible and thoroughbred motherfucker, you don't see many bad guys like that anymore. 90 % (22/10/2021)

Brilliant lemonade with everything that it encompasses – phenomenal music by Trevor Jones (the title motif is heroically arched like the stairs to Valhalla), beautiful exteriors, excellent actors, simply written characters, a very simple construct and a beautiful romantic component. Given that I don't like romantic storylines, Mann has masterfully brought his to the screen thanks to the sparks between Stowe and Lewis. The Last of the Mohicans may be surprisingly abbreviated and not very flowing, yet it is able to slow down at the right moment and conjure a beautiful shot and impressive slow-motion. Hollywood may have committed a crime against the book, but that sweet-hearted romance is exactly what I felt when I was a teenager reading “The Deer Hunter". A wonderful reminder of years gone by and at the same time a film that always gets to me each and every time. And surprisingly, more and more. (30/01/2004)

The Last of the Mohicans goes against established customs of adventure films, whether it concerns the development of the plot or its culmination. Of course, I won't reveal it, but when it comes to the character development and the story, it does not alternate, as is usually customary, between purely thrilling and action-packed sequences and the slow ones. Instead, it carefully adds depth to its characters for almost an hour and a half, subtly sowing the seeds of omnipresent tension, only to unleash all the fate, romance, and action in a straightforward and brilliantly executed final section. Cooper's adaptation is by no means perfect, but, in the end, Mann might deserve some award because it is mainly thanks to him that most viewers feel like they just watched a flawless film. If there is something perfect in this movie, it is definitely the soundtrack, one of the best music compositions in history. (01/08/2006)

Mann is a directorial intellectual with a unique gift for entertaining the masses. Reason and the senses can only wonder at the image and music composition, and the ingenious skill in building subtle relationships between the characters breathes life into the film. However, The Last of the Mohicans is, with all due respect, just a perfectly dressed Indian woman who, thanks to her simple shallowness, gave me the impression of perfect sterility the entire time. Any unwinding of the threads of the audience’s empathy for fated love crumbles from the warfare and vice versa. When it was over, I had a feeling of half-satisfied libido and longed for at least an extra half hour. PS: Having a familiar central theme doesn't automatically make the whole soundtrack brilliant. (05/10/2007)

Cooper is a different category of writer than, for example, Karl May, whom I read when I was ten years old, and the films based on his novels can at best evoke a condescending smile from me. Nevertheless, he is still burdened with adventurous romance, which is closer to a different age category than the one I find myself in, and the same can be said of the film based on his source material. A classic scheme with a series of genre clichés, where you can already calculate in advance without knowing the book how everything will turn out and who will survive. On the other hand, The Last of the Mohicans is very well-made, so it doesn't offend me in any way, and even though it's not a genre that appeals to me, I have no problem giving it three stars. Overall impression: 60%. (09/02/2012)