Last of the Mohicans

[lesbiassparrow]

Well, I think I was right to be suspicious of the 'Last of' element in this film. I enjoyed it thoroughly but it made me melancholy.



It has a terribly sad ending doesn't it? Not just because of Uncas and the sister dying but because it's really about the end of everything for many of these peoples. I don't know the book at all so I have no idea if it's that melancholic or not.

But in any case it started me thinking about how I don't know that much modern fiction is melancholic any more. You get sad, angsty fiction, to be sure, but that pervading sense of sadness where everything gained is paid for with tremendous loss, loss that is so great that you're not sure that the gain is worth it is something that I don't see as a common modern narrative. If you get loss I usually find it's of the apocalyptic sort.

And something absolutely unrelated: I've seen recently a couple of episodes of Stargate: Atlantis and one was the one on the world where they'd found a drug that could kill the wraith but would kill 50% of the population. And I can't help but think that the crew were wankers about the whole thing: I mean, these people had voted on it and had decided rather than the wraith eating them all up they'd rather take a few with them. They knew what they were doing and they would rather have a chance than no chance. And all the Atlantis people were all snooty and judgey about it all and refusing to ever come back because these people didn't listen to them and wait around to be eaten. Are they usually such wankers?

Comments

[calixa.livejournal.com]

A lot of contemporary Canadian literature is about tremendous loss of culture; of the Natives and almost every other culture you can think of that can be found in this country. I just read a novel this week by Dionne Brand called "What We All Long For" that was disconcertingly familiar to me because it dealt with the journey of a Vietnamese family escaping the Vietnam war and immigrating to Toronto. The melancholy in this sort of fiction usually belongs to the older generations who can never really assimilate into their new society. I'm sure that the gain - giving their children a better future in a better country - is worthy, but these are people who will spend the rest of their lives as outsiders. I find this very sad, because I look at my parents and that's what I see.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

'What we Long For' sounds very interesting; I will have to get it one of these days. And it's interesting what you say about Canadian fiction and melancholy. I will have to think this through more.

[lage-nom-ai.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay, you watched it! I LOVE the film, and it's tons better than the book. The novel, of course, has a much sort of of sunnier take on the end, since the last of the Mohicans means that the white man has finally arrived! Yay! Cooper is very concerned about (enforcing a lack of) miscegenation and while the natives are very, very noble and very, very exotic, they have got to go. Cooper was pretty enthusiastic about the rise of America. What's shocking to me is that undergrads always LOVE the novel. Sigh.

And I have to say, my favorite scene with Alice is when she goes over the edge. It's the most proactive thing she does the whole film! At least Cora is awesome and grabs a pistol after the first time they're ambushed!

Also, Uncas and Natty are HOT. And that cheers me up every time, melancholic end be damned! :D

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the film quite a lot, though I was sorry Uncas had to die. Plus I thought he and Alice should get together even though I knew it would never happen. I felt bad for her - she's the younger sister and she was trying at the fort but then she's kidnapped again! And no one is promising to find her no matter what the distance.

I can imagine I wouldn't really enjoy the book though I'm curious to read one of Cooper's books as I haven't read that much American literature from that period.

[lage-nom-ai.livejournal.com]

Aww, Uncas would totally find her, he's just more laconic! :D

And I do kind of like that time period in American lit, just because there's so much bravado and insecurity turning into jingoism...

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

I hated the novel when I had to read it in American Lit class at university and I don't like the movie that much, esp. as I always thought Uncas was pretty hot and as Hollywood is always changing endings of movies opposed to their original source they could have have him live and toss Daniel Day Lewis over the edge for once ;)

But the novel is pretty gross in the sense of White Man (well, the English) = good; Indian = backwards. Cooper might have written a classic but it is full of misconceptions and prejudices of his time. But I guess he thought highly of the supremacy of the white race :(

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I thought Uncas was rather fine as well, though I knew he was doomed the moment he had a spark with the other sister (who was clearly a goner also). Plus you knew they were never going to kill Daniel Day Lewis and one of them wasn't going to make it.

So much literature of that period is infused with manifest destiny and the beliefs of the time that it's hard to get around it.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Something I should WATCH? I am not keen on the book, though. I always felt that many Cooper's books (this included) are quite condescending to Indians in a way that they are really about WHITE people and also have very bad endings (plus his prose was always quite boring for me)..

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I recommend it though it is quite sad. The film is not condescending at all to the Native Americans and the settings are quite gorgeous.

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I love Michael Mann's film version of LotM so much, there aren't words to express, etc., etc. Sure, it has its flaws like everything does, but it is still one of my all-time favorite films. Even though I've lost count of how many times I've seen it, the ending never fails to choke me up. If I see it on tv, I have to stop and watch because it just draws me in. :)

(although as a sidenote, I will never, never forgive Michael Mann for editing the film for the DVD release, so it's not the original theatrical version. While I still have my old widescreen VHS of the movie, I had to buy a copy from the UK in order to find a DVD version that hadn't been hacked at. His horrible "director's cut" which is, last I heard, the only dvd version available in the U.S., is missing some of my favorite scenes, and is missing some of the music that was in the theatrical version. You just don't DO that to a film that had been in the public's consciousness for ten years prior to the DVD release. >.<)

And I hate the book. Actually, I just really dislike Cooper who invented the mythology of the "american hero" and yet wrote awful books that I just don't like, and often can't stand.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wonder how the DVD version I saw was different from the original. I wish that when they released director's cuts they also allowed you to get the original version as well. And sometimes it gets silly: that dreadful Stone Alexander has three versions and all of them are awful.

I enjoyed the film though I don't think I would like that book. I've tried to read another one of his and never got more than a 100 pages in.

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

This talks a bit about some of the changes. I wouldn't have minded the Director's Cut if they'd given us the original, too. One of these days, I'll see if I can rip my UK dvd so you (and anyone else in North America) can see the original theatrical film.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

That made me quite annoyed as most of the changes seem a bit pointless. And getting rid of the music! Hmphf. I wouldn't have minded if we had more Unca and Alice stuff but not this....

[cill-ros.livejournal.com]

There's an amusing mistake on the DVD if you want to look for it. As you see a shot of the trail of people being led from the fort after it's evacuated, you can see someone with a loudspeaker in the front of the shot. Also I think you can see a bus in the back of the shot around about the same time.

TG4 showed the silent 1920 Last of the Mohicans a few years ago. I recall a lot about the noble savage and a really tragic ending, though different to the 1994 version.

Two Irish presidents have been made chiefs of a native American people.

[cill-ros.livejournal.com]

Ha. I put the tags < irrelevant> < /irrelevant> around the last sentence but LJ ate them.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

What a pity, I've sent the DVD back so I can't check that scene. I've seen images from the 1920s version but never the actual film; I should check it out.

Which two presidents?

[cill-ros.livejournal.com]

Mary Robinson was made chief of the Choctaw nation and de Valera was chief of the Chippewa nation.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I think I knew about de Valera but not Robinson for some reason...