Overrated

Awesome Movie

A Masterpiece!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

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.

Director: MAURICE TOURNEUR. Associate director: Clarence Brown. Screenplay: Robert A. Dillon. Based on the 1826 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Photographed in black-and-white by Philip R. Dubois and Charles Van Enger. Art director: Floyd Mueller. Producer: Maurice Tourneur. A Maurice Tourneur Production. Copyright by 16 November 1920 by Maurice Tourneur. Released through Associated Producers in the U.S.A. New York opening at the Strand: 2 January 1921. 77 minutes at sound speed (which is slightly too fast. At correct speed, film should run 85-90 minutes). SYNOPSIS: Betrayed by a cowardly officer, Fort William Henry falls to the French and their barbaric Indian allies. One traitorous Indian captures the colonel's two daughters, but is pursued by the eldest daughter's lover, Uncas, the last of the Mohicans. NOTES: First film version of the Cooper novel, a top money-maker worldwide.COMMENT: Handsomely realized on the grandest of scales, this superb presentation of the second Leatherstocking Tale is a grippingly suspenseful narrative from start to finish. Tourneur has directed in his usual, meticulously picturesque style, each frame both beautifully and dramatically composed. Making marvelous use both of outdoor locations and man-made sets, the picture constantly engages the eye as much as it grips the heart and the emotions. The use of white actors in Indian roles (which Hollywood was still doing even in 1999) was much criticized at the time of the film's release. Fortunately, we are now so used to this convention, that we can enjoy the film far more than contemporary critics. Wallace Beery, in fact, gives a typically villainous performance as the evil Magua. Opposite him, Barbara Bedford makes a feisty heroine, whilst solid support is offered by George Hackathorne as the cowardly Randolph. The only player I was a little unhappy with was Albert Roscoe, whom I thought a little stiff as Uncas. The photography (aided in the print under review by wonderful tinting) is a joy to behold. As stated, the budget is unstinting, the action scenes especially being staged on the most elaborate scale. The camera rarely moves, but when it does as in the rapid tracking shots during the massacre sequence, it is more than routinely effective. The novel has been translated to the screen with such admirable fidelity that its realism is too potent for children and adolescents.

Michael Mann claims that this film, rather than the novel it was based on, was the central influence on his version of the "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992).Filmed in 1920 and directed by Clarence Brown and Maurice Tourneur, this silent film is admittedly very dated. There's no sound, the images are at times washed out (due to poor restoration work?) and the portrayal of the Native American Indians quite racist.But on a purely visual level, this film is extraordinary, especially the action sequences, which are all virtually replicated by Mann in his remake. The epic showdowns on the mountain cliffs, the waterfalls, the suicidal leaps, the columns of troops being ambushed in the forest, the battles at the fort, those muscular action poses struck by the Indians...they're all here and one can see why Mann cites this film as a favourite. It's an incredibly visual film, packed with action and bodice ripping romance.7.5/10 - I can't see this film appealing to modern audiences. Me, I like it for its raw violence, its huge sets and for the comparisons it offers with Mann's remake.

Having only seen the 1990s version of this story and not having read the book, I can't say how true this film is to Cooper's vision so you'd have to look to other posters for that. I will say that it feels much more dark and brooding than the later version. Maurice Tourneur's visuals are wonderful, taking in the vistas of the West and framing the drama of the characters on an appropriately vast scale.Here we have the story of 2 sisters, dark haired and resolute Cora (Barbara Bedford) and fair haired and similarly gentle in demeanor Alice (Lillian Hall), who are caught up in the violence of the French and Indian War because their father (James Gordon) commands a fort on the frontier. Cora finds her protector in a Native Mohican hunter named Uncas (Alan Roscoe) who manages to rescue her from the clutches of the conniving Magua (Wallace Beery). There is treachery on the part of both the English and the Indians, and the film takes pains to show that the Indians are not inherently evil but mislead by greedy white men and the unscrupulous Magua.The performances in this film, with the exception of Wallace Beery, are for the most part very restrained and emotive as opposed to some of the more expressive styles of silent acting that you saw a lot in the late teens. Beery is way over the top but that's presumably the way the directors wanted him to be. There's one shot where he completely goes ape-wild and jumps at the camera with his mouth and eyes wide open, the total "savage" image designed apparently to startle audiences who'd rather keep a character like Magua at arm's length. Bedford's face is really remarkable, so much expression and fragility. Roscoe is somewhat less well cast, not simply because of the racial issues but just because he looks a bit too old to be the romantic he's being described as here. His acting is good though, and the two have decent chemistry.I watched the movie mostly to study Maurice Tourneur's technique. I hadn't realized he co-directed it with Clarence Brown, his protégé, until I saw his name on the credits. I can't really assess what kind of role Brown played because the film doesn't show any kind of divisions and most of the visual style that I picked up on were things that I recognized from previous Tourneur films. Tourneur and Brown always worked together in those years officially or unofficially though is my understanding. Twice in the film we see what is the most distinctive type of shot that Tourneur uses at least in his silent American films, a dark silhouette framed by a triangular shaped cave opening behind which sprawls an epic landscape. The same type of shot was used to great effect in his version of "Treasure Island" and has been imitated or payed homage to in dozens of films. You can see variations of it in many of his films; for example in "Victory" he has this really striking shot of a fisherman on the shore, with his body and his rod pushed to the extreme edge of the frame and a large sea ship passing in the distance framed against a dark triangular rock. Also as in "Victory" of the previous year 1919, in "Mohicans" the most brutal violence is handled in a foreground silhouette, which produces a stylized effect very similar to what you would see in a modern graphic novel. Generally speaking, Tourneur was a master at shooting perspective in the outdoors, and the photography that Philip Du Bois and Charles Van Enger did in what looks like Yosemite Valley is some of the most impressive that you will see in any film.I can't hugely recommend the movie because it's so tragic and I'm just not crazy about that type of story, although I think it was done in a less melodramatic and more impressionistic way than in the other version I've seen. It's a relief not to be forced to sit through the "dialog" of these two lovers; in this particular story I think it's a lot stronger for the feelings to be left unsaid.