mandy lee

screenwriter

Last of the Mohicans

Currently enjoying (though not so sure that’s the right word) getting into my first assignment for this year – a shot-by-shot analysis of a sequence from a film that has been adapted from a source. I’ve chosen ‘Last of the Mohicans’ (novel by Fentimore Cooper, film by Michael Mann), as it is a film I love, and perfect (hopefully) for this assignment as it has a number of sequences which have left themselves ingrained on my brain. I have no pretensions regarding my lack of knowledge of camera angles and the practical side of film-making, but this assignment has been something of an eye-opener. I have chosen the sequence towards the end of the film where Alice is being taken by the Hurons, Magua in charge. Uncas, Hawkeye and their father follow with Cora, and launch a rescue attempt. It’s one of the most moving (weird word I know for such acts of violence) fight scenes I’ve seen. It left an impression on me and still does, but it’s taken until now, before I thought about investigating why it has that effect.

In breaking it down, frame by frame, shot by shot, I’ve suddenly discovered that within the 6 minutes I’m looking at, there are nearly 150 separate shots, and discounting emotional sounds, there’s only 1 piece of dialogue properly uttered. The sounds and soundtrack play a massive part… I feel like I’m managing to understand a tiny bit more about the layers of effort that really go into making a film. This is a time-consuming assignment so far but I feel like I’m getting something practical out of it.

It’s left me wanting the soundtrack too.

mandyleewords

3 responses to “Last of the Mohicans”

  1. Laura Anderson Avatar
    Laura Anderson

    It’s great that you’re feeling the benefit of this class, it caused a big argument last year!Loving the scene will definitely help you in this. It’s a fabulous scene as well, I’ve only seen the film twice and I remember it well.My advice based on my own poor performance in this assignment: make sure you clearly link your essay to the scene analysis. I thought I had, but not clearly enough…

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  2. David Bishop Avatar
    David Bishop

    You’ve made a rod for your back, choosing such a long sequence, especially considering how little of that effort will be reflected in the proportion of module marks it earns.The Mohicans’ soundtrack is among my favourites, even if large chunks of it got recycled for Cliffhanger. You can find the Mohicans soundtrack in several different versions on iTunes.

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  3. MJ Avatar
    MJ

    Laura – thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I’ve had mixed feelings about the class so far, but if nothing else, it certainly gets the brain working (but don’t get me started on intentionalism…).David – rod…. back…. guilty… but still enjoying the process of it. Not entirely convinced that I’ll be saying that in a couple weeks time though, but I’m not doing the MA to only do the work required, or to get ‘top’ marks. Hopefully I’m going to learn, and right now I feel like I’m learning quite a lot. I’ve been on Ebay trying to hunt down the soundtrack, if that fails, all hail iTunes!

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