Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 65

HUGH im.LP?5TSTO?5 Top hu movtat MJctd by Tlmw critic Hal Upper Motandvantf Art imitates Ife in Wtoody Alen's moral exami-ration of two long-term marriages on the verge of cotapse. 1 2 Singles Cameron Crowe takes a look at the romantic fears, yeam-ings and frustrations of ftwir7rornaWy singles in Seattle. in this swasrirq frontier classic. 4 Bob Roberts Tim Robbins' off-the-wal parocly of politics, with Rob-erts' sWhering into office on catchwords and slogans. 5Tob Le Heme A superb comedy about an eWerly Belgian convinced he lived his netgtibor's life instead of his own.

YOUR WEEKLY GUIDE TO THE LATEST AND GREATEST IN MOVIES, TELEVISION AND VIDEO The Lost of the Mohicans' grand entertainment in the romantic tradition of historical fiction. I i 1 Uv I I I i I I I I I of the Mohicans, which proceeds at such bounds that it occasionally seems like the Cliff Wotes version of Cooper's classic. (In actuality, more than half the movie's plot was borrowed from Philip Dunne's 1936 screenplay for the movie version starring Randolph Scott.) If too few scenes are allotted to allow love to believably develop between Hawkeye and Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe), the daughter of the Scottish commander of Fort William Henry, it is of little matter. The chemistry is right. They practically shimmer with heat as they embrace in a dark corner of Fort Henry.

The Last of the Mohicans takes pains not to be a history lesson, even though present-day audiences are unfamiliar with the war between the French and English for control of the American continent. Without explanations, it's quickly apparent the Hurons have allied themselves with the French while other tribes support the English and the settlers loyal to the crown. Hawkeye, the son of a frontiersman who was reared as a Mohican, rejects any governing body. He travels the woodlands from New York to Kentucky with his adoptive father Chingachgook (Rus By HAL UPPER Times Film Critic If Indiana Jones had lived 200 years earlier, his name would have been Hawkeye and he would have been the adopted white son of the Mohicans. In director Michael Mann's rousing, romantic, rough-and-tumble quasi-historical epic The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye is every bit as swashbuckling as Indiana Jones.

In the towering, oak-hard frame of Daniel Day-Lewis, he is exponentially more virile and daring. Day-Lewis was quarried from the same granite as Enroll Flynn, Rudolph Valentino and Clark Gable. Handsome, dignified and forthright, he projects the qualities of Hollywood's stellar matinee idols. He also does justice to Hawkeye, the charac ter novelist James Fem- sell Means) and Chin-gachgook's son, Uncas (Eric Schweig). It is in the Hudson Valley wilderness, in the midst of a Huron ambush, that Hawkeye meets Cora, her sister Alice Qodhi May) and her spurned suitor Major Duncan Heyward (Steven Waddington).

Major Heyward was to escort the ladies safely to Fort William Henry with a regiment of Red Coats. Their guide was Magua (Wes Studi), a 1 'T Rsvizw The Last of the Mohicans Director Michael Mann Cast Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig, Jodhl May, Steven Waddington Screenplay: Micheal Mann and Christopher Crowe, based upon the novel by James Fenimore Cooper and the 1936 screenplay by Philip Dunne Rating: violence Running time: 111 minutes Eicdtent Vory good Good Modiocrt Poor more Cooper envisioned when he wrote The Last of the Mohicans, the most popular of his five books collectively known as the Leatherstocking Tales. The Last of the Mohicans will make Day-Lewis a major star. In turn, Day-Lewis will make The Last of the Mohicans a major hit. What is so shocking about Day-Lewis, the 1989 Academy Award-winning actor for My 'mj 'l ina si.

Huron spy for the French with a pathological hatred for the English. Magua swears never to stop fighting until he has murdered Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves) and his brood. The Last of the Mohicans brims with remarkable period detail clothing, weaponry, log cabins and the mammoth Fort William Henry all constructed with Mann's, Mr. Miami Vice's, fanatical attention to visual style. Trevor Jones' and Randy Edelman's rousing score adds to the epic quality of this stunning film, shot in the shadowy forest valleys and along the precipitous stone ridges of North Carolina (doubling for New York).

The Last of the Mohicans is grand entertainment. Romantic, exciting, though unremittingly violent at times, it is rich in frontier lore and in its respect for the land that the conquering settlers too often take for granted. Left Foot, is his potent physical presence in Mohicans. Day-Lewis is a chameleon. Before I saw The Last of the Mohicans, it was difficult to view him as a long-maned, Ramboesque frontiersman, particularly after viewing him shriveled into a wheelchair as the spasmodic, vile-tempered author Cristy Brown in My Left Foot.

Day-Lewis has no English accent in Mohicans, and there is no sense of the brooding he projected as the womanizing physician in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Day-Lewis has immersed himself in the milieu of pre-colonial America, adopting the cold pragmatism needed for survival and embracing the Mohican philosophy that celebrated nature over possessions and greed. His Hawkeye is a formidable presence. He runs, never walks. He seems as much a part of the thick, virgin forest as the deer and fox.

Day-Lewis' urgency sets the pace for The Last 20th Century Fox HAWKEYE: Daniel Day-Lewis plays him dignified and forthright. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1992 TIMES 5.