Stunning! Romantic! Historical! Pure Magic!

Last of the Mohicans is one of the best interpretations of a book I think I’ve ever seen. When you take the story written so well by James Fenimore Cooper and retell it against the most lush and stunning scenery you’ve ever seen (which was actually North Carolina) with Daniel Day Lewis, Madelaine Stowe, Russell Means and directed by Michael Mann, we see pure magic. It is always hard to see a story you liked reading become something less on screen and this did not happen to Cooper’s story.

The photography was absolutely breathtaking. You almost felt as though you were running with the hunters through the forest. You could almost feel the coolness of the dark and damp earth and undergrowth in the wooded areas. I actually felt transported into the movie. It was panoramic and practically mystical in appearance.

There is so much wisdom in the musical score. You are never distracted from the movie by the music and few people ever noticed that there were actually some scenes in which there was no music. Who is daring enough to try that. In so many movies I feel like the director feels I’m not smart enough to know how to feel about a scene so they make sure the musical score works on those feeling for you. This movie did not feel like that.

The movie is a romance of epic proportions; simple, powerful, and easy to understand. The chemistry between Lewis who was raised by the "Last of the Mohicans" is hot and exciting. It is also a high action film, that is nail-biting and not gratuitous in nature. It is set against the historical background of the French-English Colonial War and if you’re not careful, you may actually learn some history.

If you have never seen this movie, you are really missing an experience. It will transport you to another time and place and plop you in the heart of a war few of us really understood, a frontier wilderness that is both stunning and cruel, and a romance that surpasses anything you ever hoped to experience.