It’s one of the best adventure movies of the last 40 years, and its lead actor learned to skin animals.

Rated 4 out of 5 by AlloCiné viewers, The Last of the Mohicans is considered one of the best adventure films in cinema. Directed by Michael Mann and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russel Maines, Eric Schweig and Stephen Waddington. It won the public vote with $143 million at the box office against a budget of $40 million.

The action takes place in 1757. In New York state, the English and the French are fighting for the appropriation of Indian lands. A young English officer, Duncan Hayward, takes two sisters, Cora and Alice, to their father. The group falls into an ambush, from which they are rescued by Hawkeye, accompanied by Mohican and his son. Together they set out again in increasingly hostile territory.

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An actor who gives it his all

To play the role of this English officer who finds himself in difficult survival conditions, Daniel Day-Lewis learned to track and skin animals, build a canoe, fight with a tomahawk and fire and reload a flintlock musket. 5 kilos during running. New York Times 1992 at the time of the film’s release.

In addition, Day-Lewis and her trainer Richard Smedley spent five days a week for six months getting fit for the actor, who then traveled to North Carolina for a month – where the feature film was being shot. – To live with a Native American. experts.

Despite this involvement of the actor and despite the filming under the direction of one of the greatest filmmakers of recent decades, the final editing of Mohicans turned out to be a real headache.

difficult assembly

Michael Mann submitted a 3-hour version to the studio, which required him to cut a full hour in very short time before the delayed theatrical release from the summer of 1992 to September. Finally, the version that was released. It lasts only 1 hour and 52 minutes in the cinema.

In 1999, Mann was allowed to re-edit it for the DVD release, but never went back to the original version, just going back to 1:57, and then in 2010 for the Blu-ray “Director’s Definitive Cut” of the film. It would be back at 1:54. And for the hardcore fans, the 2023 box set includes all versions!

If it has aged in its representation of the “white savior” and Native American culture, Mann’s direction and Daniel Day-Lewis’ total participation justify the film’s vision, which is unfortunately not available on the platform.