We have a great movie in our Book-to-Movie club this month. The Last of the Mohicans. Details are below and discussion can be found in this board (you will have to be logged into the forum to access this board)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
a Michael Mann film
based on novel by James Fenimore Cooper
Starring:
Daniel Day-Lewis – Hawkeye/Nathaniel Poe
Madeleine Stowe – Cora Munro
Russell Means – Chingachgook
Eric Schweig – Uncas
Synopsis:
Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and her younger sister, Alice (Jodhi May), both recent arrivals to the colonies, are being escorted to their father, Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves), by a troop of British soldiers. Along the way they are ambushed by a Huron war party led by Magua (Wes Studi), a sinister warrior with a blood vendetta against Munro. Munro’s soldiers are wiped out and Cora herself is nearly killed by Magua but is saved at the last moment by Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), a white trapper raised by the Mohican tribe. Hawkeye promises to take Cora and her sister safely to their father, and along the way Cora and the intense Hawkeye fall in love. Together they must survive wilderness, war, and the relentless pursuit of Magua.
Returning to the theme of a great love threatened by overwhelming circumstances, director Michael Mann hits the mark with an adaptation that captures the essence of the book and its historical details perfectly. Day-Lewis and Stowe are beautiful to watch, delivering moving performances as two people trying to hold on to each other in times of war. In addition, the Native American political activist Russell Means makes an oustanding film debut as Chingachgook, Hawkeye’s adopted father and last of the Mohicans.
Novel/Films, from wiki:
A number of films have been based on the lengthy book, with numerous cuts, compressions, and distortions occurring in the story. The American adaptations include The Last of the Mohicans (1920), starring Wallace Beery; The Last of the Mohicans (1932), starring Harry Carey; The Last of the Mohicans (1936) starring Randolph Scott; Last of the Mohicans (1963) starring Jack Taylor. Jose Marco, Luis Induni and Daniel Martin; and The Last of the Mohicans (1992), starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The 1920 film has been deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The 1992 version, directed by Michael Mann, was (according to Mann) based more on the 1936 film version than on Cooper’s book. Many of the scenes from the 1992 movie did not follow the book; in particular, some characters who survive the events of the novel die in the film, and vice versa. For example, Colonel Munro, killed in the film by Magua during the evacuation of Fort William Henry, lives on in the novel and helps search for his daughters. Hawkeye, not Chingachgook, kills Magua as shown in the film. The usual deletions from cinematic versions of The Last of the Mohicans are the extensive sections about the Indians themselves, thus confounding Cooper’s purpose. Further, romantic relationships, non-existent or minimal in the novel, are generated between the principal characters, and the roles of some characters are reversed or altered, as are the events.