Film Response: the Last of the Mohicans (1992)

The story begins with a dying tribe called the Mohicans in which three men are left from the tribe. During the conquest period of the United States in the 18th century, French and English soldiers came into battle that forced the native American to choose one party. These three men refuse to take sides for which they want is freedom. Troughtout the story, these three men intercepted Indians attacking a small group of British soldiers that included the two daughters of a British Colonel while they were reaching the fort in Kentucky. When one man from the Mohicans and the British Colonel daughter saw each other, a love story takes place and the battle between the French and the Indians still continues. This movie shows the battles, traditions and certain characteristics that reflects on the American culture nowadays. First, the relationship the British Colonel daughter named Cora and Uncas “ a Mohican” have. Because Uncas is an American Indian man and Cora is a European/Afro- American which they both are and look different they still fell in love. The American culture today suggest that different races should be separate and pure, the director of the story portrays this . Another example of American culture reflected on the movie is the image we have on Indians.

The director in the movie places almost all the Native Americans “ the Indians” as brutal and mean. Viewers should not get carried away and believe what they see in movies is true, but to follow the proper information on Indian culture. Throughout the movie, it caught my attention that nowadays the idea of a family are the parents and childrens and there are special cases where parents adopt children but always structured as parents to be the adults and leaders of the family.

In the story, Uncas´ father disappears with no explanation, Hawkeye becomes in Uncas´ symbolical father and through time they have form a family not by blood but by the trascendency by race. I agree to the idea to mix races between people and nowadays group of people still believe in the separation and purity of races but it should not be that way in this time period. Also it caught my attention that even though Cora “Colonel Munro’s eldest daughter” comes from a wealthy family and almost engaged with a good man, she chooses to love Uncas “The Mohican warrior”. She prefers to be in love with a man she likes that caught her attention rather than to be with a man by force. This say a lot of her character as to be a strong woman where she can choose her own decisions.

The movie “The Last of the Mohicans” shows Native American traditions and beliefs, the history of conquest between the British and French to gain territory in the United States fighting against the Native Indians, how the author places the characters even though the author is exagerating and over generalizing the group of characters in the story.