February 16, 2006

Gratuitous Natty Bumppo Posting

The Irish Elk takes up the Four Things meme that's been going around the 'web. In response to the questions about movies he'd watch over and over again, he links to a massive Last of the Mohicans website devoted to the 1992 movie starring Daniel Day Lewis. Who knew there was such an underground fan club?

I've only seen the movie once. While I greatly appreciated its visuals, I couldn't get past its (yes, you knew this was coming) mangling of James Fenimore Cooper's novel. I've got no brief for Cooper - I consider him to be long-winded, pompous and bloody boring - but the movie's juggling of love interests and killing off of the wrong characters was too much for me. Also, I recall that in the movie, after surrendering to the French and being allowed to march away unarmed, Col. Monro and nearly the entire British garrison at Fort William Henry were wiped out. This simply wasn't the case - Monro and most of his force made it back to Fort Edward.

(I am such a geek.)

UPDATE: In honor of Sleepy Beth, who I'm sure speaks for quite a few fans, here's some DDL cheesecake:

Lewis.jpg

Nice, uh, musket you've got there, Hawkeye.

HIAWATHA YIPS from Steve: There was a reason his Indian name was "Long Rifle"....

Posted by Robert at February 16, 2006 03:20 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I had the same issues with the movie - and yeah, the book was slooow, but still, they could've been more faithful. However - from a purely female perspective - if Daniel Day Lewis (as shown in the movie) wants to run through the forest with cool music in the background for 2 hours - heck, for 9 hours - I'll watch.

Posted by: beth at February 16, 2006 03:31 PM

Hahahaha...

Posted by: Robbo the LB at February 16, 2006 03:36 PM

Ahhh, Madeline Stowe....

Posted by: LMC at February 16, 2006 04:40 PM

I guess this is my Tubby the Tuba moment. Back in the Good Old Days, when I was a mere slip of a lad, Masterpiece Theatre offered a decent miniseries version of The Last of the Mohicans. The production was noticeably low-budget, but it was well-acted and quite true to the storyline, and I remember enjoying it quite a bit as I watched it on my family's picture-victrola. However, as far as I can tell it's never been re-released in any form. Does this ring any bells with anybody?

Posted by: utron at February 16, 2006 04:48 PM

I don't know- doesn't the original novel have Natty dressing up like a bear and chasing the Hurons around? That would be like Benny Hill showing up in the middle of Lord of the Rings.

Posted by: dillene at February 16, 2006 05:04 PM

Utron - I almost mentioned that Masterpiece Theatre series myself, dimly remembering it from my own callow youth.

Dillene - no way am I going to be able to shake that image now (complete with music!)

Posted by: Robbo the LB at February 16, 2006 05:07 PM

A college buddy of mine was Madeline Stowe's assistant while they were shooting in North Carolina. He said she was very sweet.

Posted by: jen at February 16, 2006 05:09 PM

Sweet! Run, Hawkeye, run!

Posted by: beth at February 16, 2006 05:15 PM

I presume you're familiar with Sam Clemens's demolition of Fenimore Cooper?

Posted by: Dave Schuler at February 16, 2006 08:07 PM

I agree with beth...Lewis was hot in that movie. While I never read the book (bad English major!) I loved the '92 movie, yeah because there were some good looking people in it, but the scenery! The music! Husband and I play the sountrack all the time.

Posted by: GroovyVic at February 17, 2006 05:57 AM

Sure beats the hell out of Alan Alda...wink wink...

Posted by: GroovyVic at February 17, 2006 08:52 AM