Friday 12 December 2008

The Last of the Mohicans Final Battle Scene

The Last of the Mohicans is where Michael Mann took another giant leap forward in his film making. It is epic like, with huge production issues and no doubt a nightmare to film such a huge cast in jungle like conditions. It is beautifully shot and the end sequence is as dramatic as is possible on the cinema screen. The mixture of the beauty and the horror creates a strange dichotomy. What results is an incredibly violent yet poetic end to a tragic story. I will let you interpret what Mann is saying through this imagery and music. The Promontory Kiss is extraordinarily well composed for this sequence and without it, the ending would very likely not have worked nearly so well. It elevates the scene and places our emotions in a context - it is heroic tragedy, beauty and pain, despair but redemption. We are left with mixed feelings, where we realise nothing in this life belongs in any pigeon hole. The end scene of Last of the Mohicans has it all, and here it is below - you need to know the story to empathise with the characters and understand the sacrifice, but enjoy:

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