The Last of the Mohicans
What do historians think of this Daniel Day-Lewis film?
I’m gonna go ahead and spoil it for you. This historian loves the film. Mohicans emerged in the wake of the success of Dances with Wolves just two years earlier. The movie joined a cadre of other films in the 90s that romanticized Native people, the West, or sometimes both, including Black Robe (1991), Far and Away (1992), Unforgiven (1992), Tombstone (1993), Geromino: An American Legend (1993), Legends of the Fall (1994), Lonesome Dove series of 1989.
Some of these have aged better than others, and I’m secretly pleased to see that bibliophiles have recently rediscovered Larry McMurtry’s genius. But I’ve always been partial to The Last of the Mohicans. Part of this is due to Michael Mann, who in 1992 was on his way to becoming one of my favorite directors, part of this is due to Daniel Day-Lewis, who was on his way to becoming, well, Daniel Day-Lewis, and part of this is due to the shoutout my homeland gets early in the film.
Over the nearly seven years we’ve been doing the Historians At The Movies watch party we’ve wanted to watch this film together, but it’s stunningly never been readily available on any of the streaming providers we tend to use: Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney+. But the stars have finally aligned for tonight’s viewing and we’re jumping at the chance to talk about this film.
If you’re a longtime reader of this substack, you probably know how this works, but maybe you’re new (welcome!). Maybe you’ve never been part of a watch party. That’s ok because Historians At The Movies is the longest running watch party on the internet. So if you want to watch this movie in realtime with people all over the world, here’s a step by step guide on how to play along:
Step 1: Follow me on Blue Sky. My handle is herberthistory, which you can find via the link in this sentence.
Step 2: Cue up The Last of the Mohicans (Definitive Director’s Cut) on Prime Video or wherever you watch.
Step 3: Search for the hashtag #HATM on Blue Sky. That’ll help you find the community.
Step 4: At exactly 8pm eastern, press play on The Last of the Mohicans, then just post along with everyone else on Blue Sky, tagging your posts with #HATM so everyone can find you and play along.
Historians At The Movies is a lot of fun and a community I’m really proud of (next week will be our seventh anniversary, which seems nuts to me). It’s a great way to talk about movies and history. I hope you can make it.
The Last of the Mohicans on Reckoning with Jason Herbert
But maybe you can’t make it and would still like to learn more about the movie and the history behind it. Well, good news. In 2023, Dr. Wayne Lee came on the podcast to talk about the movie and his new book, which examines warfare in the eastern woodlands of Native North America. It is one of the deepest dives we’ve ever done and remains one of our most downloaded episodes. I’ve got links to the episode and Wayne’s book below.
And here’s Wayne’s book, The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500–1800. Use code 01HATM30 for 30% off.
Alright, it’s Sunday so I hope you’re enjoying the weekend. If you want to help support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, which you can do at the button below. Thank you for being here.
J