The last of the Mohicans: the movie.

[alexandral]

I am watching "The last of the Mohicans". (I had to check it up as I have heard so many good things about it). So far very good in a "movie that will make your rainy day better" way and quite different form the book which I remember to revolve more around war and Uncas and his father than around romance. It is STILL all about white people but I really like Hawkeye. And it is sweeping-epic gorgeous! I am looking forward to making some icons from this!



It has been a while since I have read the book – it was actually in our school program reading for the "Literature" class. I remember discussing at a very great length how evil white invaders wiped off the whole population of Indians by making them fight against each other. And that Uncas died and the future of the whole nation died with him. BUT!!! I don't remember anything serious between Cora and Hawkeye. I must have forgotten this completely – was their kissing scene in the book?????????????????

Anyways, this is such a pretty and wonderfully romantic scene:




PS I have to go to the dentist this afternoon - I am not overly happy about this. :D

Comments

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I happen to like the book, and not the movie. Cooper is, of course, white-centric, but he is quite sympathetic to the Indians, for someone of his time. And in any event, the bookis set during the French and Indian War, the goal of which was not for evil whites to get Indians to wipe each other out, but for the French and English to settle their differences on yet another theater of operations (French and Indian War is the name for the North American subset for the Seven Years War which was conducted in Europe, some historians argue this was the first true world war).

At this point, all the powers were concerned about was the other European powers in NA, and Indians interested them only insofar as they could help them kick the British or French (depending on who you were) out. It was very much before the huge expansion that followed Lewis and Clark etc and portions of NA inhabited by whites were very small.

OK, this said, the main reason I do not care for the movie is because it completely changes the plot of the book. Don't like the story, write your own, don't keep nothing from te book and call it LotM.

In the book, Hawkeye is an old man (the age of Uncas' father). The main 'lovebirds' of the book are Duncan (the British officer) and Alice (the younger, blonde daughter). Cora also likes Duncan but he always loved Alice, so no go, there. Uncas ends up falling for Cora. Hawkeye, clearly, doesn't have any sexy scenes, as that would be more senior citizen sex and not hunky DDL disrobing. Cooper did write a book about young Hawkeye, in fact LotM is somewhat in the middle of the Leatherstocking Tales, and in that book Hawkeye had an OTP, but I think the book was called Pathfinder (I read it a long time ago) and has nothing in common with this.

This book was actually unusual for a time, because it had bad Indians (Magua is a very Victorian villain) but also noble and good ones (Uncas, Chingachgook) and its ideas that 'miscegenation' can produce noble people was also rather novel. Cora's father is very explicit about his love and pride in her, and Cora is clearly the stronger of the sisters. And Duncan makes very clear that it's not because of the race thing that he is not in love with Cora, but because he just prefers Alice. The trope of two sisters, the older one very strong and intelligent and the younger fragile, and the hero falling for the latter, is a very common Victorian trope (see Woman in White by Wilkie Collins) and says a lot about what people of the time found desirable in women, but I don't find it a huge flaw, just a thing of its time.

Anyway, this is getting novel length itself.

[runriggers.livejournal.com]

I have the book, but haven't read it - its on my too-read list like so many others. Best scene in the movie was when Hawkeye was leaving Cora at the waterfall - that is such a powerful scene.

As for Hawkeye being an older man in the book - this is Hollywood - they need a young hunk to bring in the crowds, so of course they had to make him younger.

An interesting aside - the actor who played Uncas - is actually Inuit.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

As for Hawkeye being an older man in the book - this is Hollywood - they need a young hunk to bring in the crowds, so of course they had to make him younger.

And very hunky he was indeed!!!!!!!! :D

Oh, inetersting info!!!!!!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your information!!! YOU ARE SO AWESOME! I love my friends list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I happen to like the book, and not the movie. Cooper is, of course, white-centric, but he is quite sympathetic to the Indians, for someone of his time.

To be fair, this is true. It is a bit like "North and South"-the-book. We can't really look at these books out of the historical context they are written in.

OK, this said, the main reason I do not care for the movie is because it completely changes the plot of the book. Don't like the story, write your own, don't keep nothing from te book and call it LotM.

I am inclined to agree with you on this. I really liked the movie so this makes me a little biased but in general the changes of this size are not something I feel comfortable with. (At least the creators of such massive changes could have kept Uncas alive and made him fall in love with Alice!!!!!!!! :D). But at the same time I loved the film so I am letting this go. :D

Hawkeye, clearly, doesn't have any sexy scenes, as that would be more senior citizen sex and not hunky DDL disrobing.

This line is really funny.

Cooper did write a book about young Hawkeye, in fact LotM is somewhat in the middle of the Leatherstocking Tales, and in that book Hawkeye had an OTP, but I think the book was called Pathfinder (I read it a long time ago) and has nothing in common with this.

Actually I think I have read it too (it sounds familiar), and another Cooper's book of which I don't remember the name (but it had a British guy living in a house in a middle of the lake) . But I really found his writing boring..

This book was actually unusual for a time, because it had bad Indians (Magua is a very Victorian villain) but also noble and good ones (Uncas, Chingachgook) and its ideas that 'miscegenation' can produce noble people was also rather novel.

** nods ** I think sadly the story of Cora's heritage is not shown really much in the film version..

The trope of two sisters, the older one very strong and intelligent and the younger fragile, and the hero falling for the latter, is a very common Victorian trope (see Woman in White by Wilkie Collins) and says a lot about what people of the time found desirable in women, but I don't find it a huge flaw, just a thing of its time.

To some extent this happens in our day too – I find it quite interesting that men still like this in women..