Is "Last of the Mohicans" the best film ever made?

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I mean, it has everything: WAR (mighty war), big themes about colonisation and all that, girly romance and stuff which manages not to be cloying and awful, really thuggish violence (the fight where Magwa and that other guy knock chips off each other towards the end, say), loads of lovely scenery, more WAR, and so on.

It's a complete winner. And you get to ogle both Madeleine Stowe and that blond woman with hardly any lines. Tasty.

― DV, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think even "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is not as good.

― DV, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

it's really painfully bad in the same way lord of the rings was.

― ethan, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

A strange statement you say there, Ethan. I believe you meant to say, "It wishes it could be anywhere as good as LOTR." Yes, that works.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

well lord of the rings was better i guess but that just illustrates how utterly bad mohicans was.

― ethan, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

For what it's worth I hated LOTR, but I love LOTM. It tugs at the heart strings, but not in the fake, excessive way most big Hollywood films currently do.

― David Inglesfield, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The rest of the 14 greatest movies ever made (as proved by newly emergent science): Lair of the White Worm (LotWW), Land of the Pharoahs (LotP), Last of the Cowboys (LotC), Last of the Finest (LotF), Last of the Red Hot Lovers (LotRHL), League of their Own (LotO), Legends of the Fall (LotF), Lilies of the Field (LotF), Lion of the Desert (LotD), Lord of the Flies (LotF), Love on the Dole (LotD), Love on the Run (LotR)

― mark s, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

yes. It is. No explination need.

― Mr Noodles, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I agree that Lair Of The White Worm is the third best film evah.

― RickyT, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

no..... it isn't ....

― francesco, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

But surely loads of phallic imagery = winner (?)

― Dan I., Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If that were the case then PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS etc. would = best post ever. Clearly it doesn't.

― Kim, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ok, I have the terrible feeling that google is really going to make me regret posting that.

― Kim, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

When it comes to crappy movies about Native Americans I much prefer "The Indian in the Cupboard." It's better than Peter Pan though--I watched it the other day (Disney version) and was horrified. "What makes the red man red?" What the fuck? No one can tell me that Walt Disney wasn't a freak.

― adam, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, and the problem with that movie is that Peter Pan himself is so obnoxious. I'd rather take orders from Captain Hook any day.

Lord of the Rings isn't the best movie ever made, though it's still pretty good. Or did you mean the animated one?

― Justyn Dillingham, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Look, you just don't get it do you? Stop your smartarsing, LOTM is TOPTASMIC. I mean, the bit where the Indians massacare all the Brits = classic. And there's so much more.

― DV, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

But by mark's logic Last Orders would be the root of all great movies and it clearly isn't. Despite being partially shot in Peckham's own Bellenden Road.

― Sam, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is it? I grew up on Choumert Rd, just round the corner from Bellenden. How exciting. I'll have to go and see it now. Exterior shots for Desmond's were shot round there too

― N., Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

sorry sam, last orders fails the science test by two words AND an initial

― mark s, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

mark s's emergent science is LOTM (laughably off the money)

― N., Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

blimey djathink?

― mark s, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

YOU MEAN YOU WEREN'T SERIOUS? Charlatan!

― N., Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I didn't say it WAS a great film. I said "root" because I'm thinking "LO" prefix, I'm thinking commonality, I'm thinking Platonic ideal. Gestalt. You know.

Nick, I almost bought a flat on Choumert Rd. Now I'm trying to buy one on Relf Road. When did you leave?

― Sam, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I lived there from 1979-1993 (although the last couple of years I was only half there, being at university and all)

― N., Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Lair of the White Worm" is an absolutely hilarious movie. I love the part where the crazy old woman gets chopped in half.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I would suggest not applying for that job at the nursing home.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Everyone knows the best movie ever is Dirty Work starring Norm MacDonald. "Listen up, prostitutes!"

― Ally, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

four years pass...

i find this film very stirring.even as i try to detach myself from it i find it drawing me back in, even what should be the corniest scenes. i think it's a really fantastic bit of storytelling and really true to the spirit of the book (and to many earlier film versions) in that sense. no irony at all, not even much self-conscious moral anachronism (which must have been a temptation).

just a really beautifully made movie. although, don't get the 'director's cut'!

― amateurist0, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 03:37 (eighteen years ago) link

I will find you! Unless you move from here, in which case I will not find you.

I love the film of Last of the Mohicans. It's made all the more impressive by the fact that the book is virtually impenetrable unless you read some children's version of it.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 07:22 (eighteen years ago) link

I guess everyone knows the Twain riff on Fenimore Cooper, but

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 08:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Well that link didn't work, so: users.telerama.c*m/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 08:08 (eighteen years ago) link

mark s's emergent science is LOTM (laughably off the money)
-- N. (nickdastoo...), February 25th, 2002.
blimey djathink?

-- mark s (mar...), February 25th, 2002.

The days before O RLY owl seem so quaint now.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 08:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Everyone knows the best movie ever is Dirty Work starring Norm MacDonald. "Listen up, prostitutes!"

Or "Fatal Deviation", written by, directed by, and starring James "Jimmy" Bennett. 'Fuck you and your gun, you prick!'

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 08:14 (eighteen years ago) link

"I will phone information and try only your first initial and last name, in hopes that maybe you're listed that way!"

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 19:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Movie wasted Jodhi May, so great in A World Apart...

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 19:40 (eighteen years ago) link

It might be Michael Mann's best film, as its (mostly) free of his portentious macho-het widescreen poofery, although it's not my favorite, in part because I like a little of his poofery.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 19:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I may have said this before, but when I went to see LotM (in Woodridge, Illinois), there was a sign posted outside the theater that said, simply, "This movie was filmed in North Carolina." Similar to the ones that theaters made when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a hit that said "This movie has subtitles" -- except I can't think of any possible reason why the shoot's location was significant enough to merit announcement -- as though it were a warning!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 19:52 (eighteen years ago) link

haha North Carolina, eh? Well, we all know what *that* means.

― Gilbert O'Sullivan (kenan), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 19:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Just think of how much more money this film could have made had the promoters erased the horrifying "Based upon a novel by James Fennimore Cooper."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 19:54 (eighteen years ago) link

It has a great theme tune.

― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug (chap), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 20:06 (eighteen years ago) link

love this movie

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 20:07 (eighteen years ago) link

It has a great theme tune.

I think it's one of those scores that other films have used over and over in trailers. (This is a common practice because original scores are often not complete when trailers are made -- pretty sure the Truman Show and Requiem for a Dream scores have also been widely used.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link

i like the cooper novel.

― amateurist0, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 22:50 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah but the movie is better.

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 6 April 2006 00:30 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't think it wastes jodhi may. she doesn't have many lines but she makes a strong impression in all her scenes, not least the final one.

"a world apart" was a very powerful experience for 12-yr-old (i think) me and i developed a sort of proto-crush on jodhi may, and was really happy to see her in this film. and in "the hosue of mirth" i might add (though every other casting decision of that film was disastrous).

― amateurist0, Thursday, 6 April 2006 00:49 (eighteen years ago) link

actually i was 10 when 'a world apart' was released

― amateurist0, Thursday, 6 April 2006 00:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Maybe not wasted, but not given the opportunity to make a similar impact, and I always felt cinema kind of missed out on something there, though I haven't seen Mirth...

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Thursday, 6 April 2006 02:22 (eighteen years ago) link

eleven years pass...

who has watched this director's (re)cut?

http://www.movingimage.us/visit/calendar/2017/10/22/detail/the-last-of-the-mohicans-directors-cut

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 October 2017 19:28 (six years ago) link

Iirc it was an improvement, maybe less overheated and melodramatic?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 October 2017 20:04 (six years ago) link

five years pass...

Russell fucking Means

― Mule, Sunday, 25 December 2022 00:06 (one year ago) link

Whole lotta running in this movie

― Mule, Sunday, 25 December 2022 00:27 (one year ago) link

I caught a great webinar a couple of years ago called Not Th elast of The Mohicans cos the tribe survived though it was uprooted and I think the US tried to resettle them on reservations on the other side of the country. I think they were trying to buy up land in their more traditional area over the last 50 years or something
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woV6eIfzrWA

Fenimore Cooper was a white colonial dickhead who Mark Twain attacked for bad writing. So ner and obviously anything based on his writing being worthwhile must be inherently dubious.

― Stevolende, Sunday, 25 December 2022 12:45 (one year ago) link

That link’s great, thanks

― Mule, Sunday, 25 December 2022 18:03 (one year ago) link

I caught a great webinar a couple of years ago called Not The Last of The Mohicans

I guess Mohicans Galore was already taken

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 28 December 2022 16:11 (one year ago) link

The Penultimate Mohican

― Immodest Moose (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 28 December 2022 16:56 (one year ago) link

Th eending was kind of a disappointing depressing fail

I might re-write it

― | (Latham Green), Wednesday, 28 December 2022 19:24 (one year ago) link

this movie and the book are kind of dogshit

― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Wednesday, 28 December 2022 20:08 (one year ago) link

I wonder who was the first of the Mohicans, or the "Mean Mohican"

chat gpt:

In the original ending of "The Last of the Mohicans," the main character, Hawkeye, is able to rescue Cora and Alice from the Huron war party and return them safely to their father, Colonel Munro. However, in a revised ending, perhaps Hawkeye is able to broker a peace agreement between the Mohican tribe and the British, bringing an end to the conflict between the two sides. As a result, Hawkeye is able to return to his home in the Mohican village and live out the rest of his days in peace with his adopted family. The women return to their home in England, but visit the village often and maintain a close relationship with Hawkeye and the Mohican people. The peace that Hawkeye helped to establish endures for generations, and the Mohican tribe is able to thrive and preserve their culture and way of life.

― | (Latham Green), Wednesday, 28 December 2022 20:55 (one year ago) link

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