The Last Of The Mohicans, Directed By Michael Mann

‘The Last of the Mohicans’ is a pivotal film directed by Michael Mann which centres around the last members of a dying Native American tribe, the Mohicans, during the Seven Year War. Mann highlights the film’s dominant moral issue in his Post-Colonial context, social organisation, through the themes of Morally Good vs Morally Bad and Old World vs New World and film techniques that can be seen through two closely analysed scenes.

The moral issue of social organisation is established by Mann’s contrasting representation of social groups in the film’s historical setting and his depiction of the free-frontiersmen as a noble interior of the new world. This issue argues that the establishment of an egalitarian republic based on equality and personal
The wide, panoramic framing highlights the opportunities and abundance that this landscape represents. Mann positions the camera high above the landscape in an aerial shot to suggest to viewers the detached perspective of the European, observing from a position of power and mastery. As the camera moves in to capture the hero and his native companions, tight framing is used to position viewers within the landscape, thereby inviting identification with his skill and intelligence of the natives who thrive in this context. Furthermore, tracking shots of the men hunting intensifies the mood of authentic, harmonious integration within the landscape. The use of props is also highlighted in this scene through mise-en-scene as the gun is a western european weapon which symbolises to the audience of the integration of the european and the native americans in the post-colonial context of the film. Mann uses these film techniques in the opening scene to address the moral issue of social organisation thus positioning viewers to recognise the moral worthiness and pioneering courage of the free white settlers in this new land and to establish to the viewers that the morally good, the Mohicans, are used to represent the new world whilst in the next scene, how the morally corrupt represent the old
Diegetic sounds of military drums can be heard as a panning shot of the omniscient trees is used which serves to highlight the stark contrast between the red of the soldiers uniforms and the green of the landscape. This also serves to highlight the contrast between the Mohicans who revere the environment compared to the colonial forces who desire to control and dominate the landscape. Mann uses wide shots as fighting breaks out between the British and the corrupt Native Americans to illustrate the corruption from the Europeans to the Native Americans as they are now seen wielding guns compared to their normal weaponry of axes. Furthermore, Mann uses chiaroscuro on Magua to depict to the viewers that Magua is two-faced and is always slightly in the shadows to symbolise this. Moreover, a shaft of light appears behind the Mohicans, after rescuing the British, to contrast the dark threatening nature of the forest and to symbolise that the Mohicans are morally good and a representation of the new world whilst the corrupt Native Americans and the Europeans are morally corrupt and a representation of the old world. In addition, Mann uses a mid shot to allow the viewers to survey the scene of utter destruction that is left behind by the corrupt Native Americans. Mann uses film techniques in this scene to further address the moral