Le dernier des Mohicans

I just saw "Last of the Mohicans." I didn't expect much. I had seen other adaptations: the 1936 George B. Seitz movie and the Michael Mann remake of 1992. To me they all seem to lack the spirit of what is admittedly a rambling novel whose provocative subject matter is only partially realized. Cooper's problem was execution; he didn't understand how severely his story was compromised by unnecessary characters, needless plot devices, and ceaseless talk. Latter day film-makers steered around Cooper's problem by ignoring him and creating a story of their own, but in doing so they lost what was fine in his work.

Director Maurice Tourneur does not ignore Cooper, although he does cut through the crap. In a non-talking film the characters can't yap on the way they do in Cooper's fiction. Hawkeye's role is reduced. He has few scenes and is not the romantic lead Randolph Scott and Daniel Day Lewis would be in later adaptations. He is the homely, awkward, asexual woodsman Cooper describes. Tourneur chooses, rather, to focus directly on the tragic romance at the novel's core, between British colonial Cora Munro and Mohican hunk Uncas. He thereby rescues the film from becoming another "Birth of a Nation" with Wallace Beery's Magua standing in for Griffith's black-faced white men who try to rape white women.

Tourneur's technique is impressive. Camera perspective, lighting, and editing are well in advance of what was being done in 1920. The action on the Eastman print I saw seems a little fast. I'm not sure if it runs at the correct projection speed. Tourneur obviously under-cranked his camera during action sequences to give actors and extras the appearance of furious motion. These are only small criticisms, however.

As in all his films Tourneur reined in the actors' exaggerated facial expressions and theatrical gestures, which is perhaps why there are so many title cards explaining the actors' motivations. Barbara Bedford is restrained and natural as Cora, some might argue too restrained to be the passionate, dark-haired heroine of Cooper's novel. But Tourneur lets Bedford's quiet beauty act as a veneer masking a volatile nature. Her defiance of social and feminine conventions – showing attraction for a Native warrior, and impulsively sacrificing herself to protect her sister in the Indian town – affects us all the more because of her stillness. In Garbo such stillness was praised as mystique. So perhaps it is no coincidence that Tourneur's protégé Clarence Brown, who finished this film when Tourneur was injured, guided Garbo's early career beginning with "Flesh and the Devil" in 1926.

The 1992 version is great, with Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe in full swing and establishing an impressive and sensual chemistry as the romantic pair of the movie, the best that has ever been seen in the movies. But this 1920 version is also very good and was a surprise to me, as there are several changes in the final part of the film compared to 1992, being the much more tragic outcome in this 1920 version (but equally powerful and realistic, maybe even more) than in the latest version. Silent movies continue to be a constant (good) surprise to me. The actress Barbara Bedford is fantastic, I think she is the great star of the movie. The 1920s are undoubtedly one of the richest and most creative decades in film history.

You can't compare this version of the Cooper story to later sound versions--it just wouldn't be fair. It's like comparing apples to oranges. However, if you compare this adventure film to other similar silent films, then it comes off as one of the better ones you can find today. Not only does it do a pretty good job of sticking to the original story, but the production values and acting are superb. For a 1920 film, it was amazingly well-crafted and complex. In particular, the outdoor scenes were so realistic and beautiful. Many of the outdoor scenes (particularly at the end) were like works of art--and look very much like moving Ansel Adams photographs. The mountainous scenes are just gorgeous. The stunts were also amazing and well performed--looking every bit as good as modern stunt-work. Also, while most of the Indians are played by white folks in dark paint (a very, very common practice for the day--and which included Boris Karloff as an extra!), they at least look a lot like real Indians. In fact, I was very surprised that they were able to get Wallace Beery of all people to play the lead evil Indian--and he looked pretty convincing!! A tight script and excellent direction all helped to make this a dandy bit of entertainment--well worth seeing even today.

By the way, in some ways the film may seem pretty offensive (calling the natives "savages"), but for the most part it tried to convey them in a three-dimensional way. Sure there were plenty of bad Indians, but some decent ones as well and the movie tried very hard at times to humanize them--something you rarely saw in contemporary films or even those in the 1930s, 40s or 50s.

This is truly a magnificent film. It goes way beyond nostalgia in its appeal - it is a sublime work of art. Maurice Tourneur, one of the most neglected geniuses of cinema, directed most of it but, after being injured on set, he gave the great Clarence Brown his first directing assignment. And it's easy to see where Brown learnt a lot of the visual stylings that he became so famous for. This film, in a gorgeously restored print with colour tints, is a visual treat - with its revolutionary use of shadows, changes of light, actors moving into the camera, extreme long shots and even a tracking shot. The camera was still pretty immobile in 1920, but through quick edits and superb shot composition, Tourneur creates a sense of movement.

But you'll forget all the technical brilliance once the emotion of the story grabs you - and that will be in the massacre scene, which is one of the most horrifying sequences I have ever seen. And the film's finale on a cliff-top is awesome. Excellent performances from the 17 year old Barbara Bedford, in her film debut, and Alan (then Albert) Roscoe - as the inter-racial lovers. They create an eroticism together that'll have you panting - it's not surprising that the pair later married in real life. And Wallace Beery is menacingly evil as the man who comes between them.

It's an astonishing picture politically too - very contemporary in its treatment of racial issues. The Native Americans, the English and the French are all portrayed as both good and bad - the massacre being blamed primarily on the French giving the Native Americans alcohol. And the inter-racial love is respected by the film-makers and most of the characters.

Don't miss this one - it deserves a place with the great achievements of cinema.

This is a fine movie adaptation of the classic story of "The Last of the Mohicans", for its time certainly, but in many respects it has held up at least as well as just about any other screen version of the story. The scenario emphasizes the gist of the story, develops most of the main characters efficiently, and at the right times creates a good sense of danger and suspense.

The story is by and large the one familiar from the novel, set in the Seven Years War (which in the USA is often called the 'French and Indian War'), with the British and French relying heavily on their allies among the various native tribes of North America. The Mohicans were the tribe that had occupied some of the first land to be taken by European colonists, and thus already in 1757 had almost disappeared. In the story, they are down to one father and one son, which adds considerable poignancy to events.

The script in this version makes the interesting choice to deemphasize the role of the Mohicans' friend Hawkeye in the course of the story, instead portraying the two Indians, Uncas and Magua, as the primary figures in the fighting and in the ongoing battle of wits. Cooper's novel contains many lengthy descriptive passages, and they are omitted here, replaced instead by many location shots that efficiently and effectively suggest the atmosphere of the time, without using words.

Albert Roscoe (as he was billed here) stars as the courageous Mohican Uncas, Wallace Beery (always good in the role of a heavy) plays the treacherous, mean-spirited Magua, and Barbara Bedford is Cora, whose safety becomes one of the crucial issues in the conflict.

While the story is largely the same, this has a much livelier pace than the novel, and it really works quite well. The photography is very good, especially for 1920. It is well worth seeing for itself, and as an example of a good approach to adapting a classic novel into a movie.