THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS.   Term Paper ID:30348 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses the emotional meanings created in the 1992 film by director Michael Mann.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses the emotional meanings created in the 1992 film by director Michael Mann. Visual means employed. Central relationship between Hawkeye and Cora. Analysis of shots and their visual and narrative impact. Discusses the progression of the plot by detailing varioius shots and how they reveal the tensions and emotional content of the film. Paper Introduction: Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans is a carefully designed film in which all the visual means at the director's disposal are skillfully employed to create the emotional meanings of the work. These meanings occur at several different levels and are structured so that by the end of the film the central relationship--the love between Hawkeye And Cora Munro--achieves an importance that goes beyond their personal lives. By the end the two stand for the future that the bravest and strongest individuals will be able to carve out of the land and, sadly, for the way these settlers will displace the Native Americans. The film emphasizes the size of the wilderness around the people who act out their story and the degrees of comfort that people feel in the wild, the tamed, and the partially subdued parts of the country. Despite the speed with which the film moves through the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The night scenes inside the fort areeven busier, but the jagged light of the torches is complemented by therough visual texture of the surroundings. Thisserene shot of Cora clearly establishes her importance in the story, hercommanding presence, and her lack of any relationship to the wildernessjust beyond the range of the shot. The initial shot is one of a vast expanse of low mist-coveredmountains across which the camera pans briefly--and this shot is repeated,at greater length, at the end of the film. His forceful movement finally comes toa standstill as he reaches her and in the subsequent encounter the twofigures merge in the dark as they embrace and kiss. At the fort Cora is given her last moment as the sole center of theshot. The abrupt cut to the night shot of the Camerons' isolated home andthe following interior shot shows people not entirely at ease. 2 th Century Fox, 1992. Although the shot is, at first, hard to read theshape is obviously man-made and the stillness of the river, and the tinyshape of the carriage and horsemen that cross it, reflect this 'civilizing'operation--almost as if the very presence of the bridge was responsible forthe stillness around it. Her introduction as a static, civilized figurecontrasts with the first shot of Hawkeye in the woods, shirtless andrunning into the frame. The fort operates as a sort of no-man's land in which elements ofboth the dangerous and the secure are present. She stands outside, but is in a broadyard whose walls form the backdrop. Inan unusual pairing of shots Duncan tells his lie in a medium shot in whichthe right-hand twenty percent of the screen is blacked out by the presenceof a large beam. Thefrantic chase is resolved with the shooting of the deer and the three menare finally shown at rest, in a medium shot, as they form a half circlearound the deer. The Last of the Mohicans. By the endthe two stand for the future that the bravest and strongest individualswill be able to carve out of the land and, sadly, for the way thesesettlers will displace the Native Americans. The development of their relationship takes thevisual form of series of shots in which Hawkeye's movement acts like awhirlpool, pulling her into it until the two of them are finallyintertwined at the center of the frame in the scene of their privaterendezvous at the fort. This whole sequence establishes both the ease with whichthey inhabit the forest and the social bond among them. The contrast between the ease with whichthe Mohicans move through the forest and the discomfort of the settlers isemphasized by the contrast between the free movement of the former--as theyenter and leave the shots and the camera has to move to catch up with themover and over again--and the enclosed, artificially lit interior where thecamera has only one main position and sticks close to the light, as thepeople do. First there isanother abrupt cut to the startling image of a low bridge over a stillriver. As Cora takes herplace in the medium shot of the trio the merging of the figures in profileechoes the romantic merging, but here she is assuming a social role. These shots frame the story andindicate the vastness and the unknown qualities of the landscape into whichthe European settlers wish to move. The camera tracksHawkeye as he approaches the rendezvous and turns the corner to find Corastanding still and waiting for him. But in a wordless minute the director makes the tension ofthese people's lives apparent. They areinside and the scene is warmly lit but the sound of the dog's barkimmediately sets John Cameron in motion as he grabs his gun and goes to thedoor. But the introduction of Cora is also important because it places hervery firmly at the center of the frame, where she remains in almost everyshot in which she is featured until the episode at the Camerons' ruinedhouse. The fluidly edited sequence consists of a series of shots (manywith foliage between the figures of the men and the camera) that mostlyfeature one man at a time. But, once again, she is not even remotelyrelated to the forest. DVD. Work CitedMann, Michael, dir. In the settlementthe bustle of the people in the town is constant; people walk into theshots in the foreground or their activity takes over the foreground whileMajor Heyward is located in the distance--as in the shot though the busyblacksmith's shop. When the scene moves to Albany, where the Munro sisters and DuncanHeyward are introduced, the film looks different again. Once inside the fort thecharacters move through a bewildering number of passages and rooms and,since no establishing shot is used for the interior, it almost seems asthough they are moving through a maze. The matching shot that follows is of Cora's disgustedreaction and in her shot the same amount of the frame is obscured on theleft-hand side. The two darkly obscured areas of the frame in these shotsserve as an emblematic wall between them as his actions frees her to thinkonly of Hawkeye. She stands back asthe two men perform a ceremony for the dead, which echoes the prayer ofapology said for the deer at the beginning of the film. It is staged and shot so that Cora gives upthe center of the frame to the rapidly striding Hawkeye who, restraininghis emotion, moves across the space and head vigorously toward the camera.He has cut in front of Cora who moves to the right of the screen as, stillbehind him, she attempts to argue over the disposition of the bodies.Because of the argument he seems to pull her in his wake and it is only ashe slows and tells her that these people were not "strangers" that shemomentarily regains the center of the frame--which she shares with him.This moment of understanding is their first and the subsequent scenes inwhich she acknowledges how exciting she finds this world show her in ahorizontal position, adapting her posture to his. Her position, however,is now equal to that of Hawkeye and the vortex effect of his movement andher stillness have been set aside has been resolved. In the midst of this activity the central pair have a series ofencounters. The follow-upis their meeting, with the merging of the two figures. This contrasts with the ease withwhich the Mohicans ran through the woods in the opening sequence. Themenace inherent in this place, of course, is then justified by the attackand the Munros are only saved by the intervention of those who move easilyin this setting. Despite the speed with which the film movesthrough the tightly packed narrative it relies very little on dialogue ordirect exposition. His name is called out almost immediately and the tensiondissipates. Even when she dismounts to help her sister they stay in onespot throughout the fight. In the first shot Hawkeye bursts through the brush, moving intothe frame. Here the attempt toconquer has none of the placidity of the scenes at Albany. These meaningsoccur at several different levels and are structured so that by the end ofthe film the central relationship--the love between Hawkeye And Cora Munro--achieves an importance that goes beyond their personal lives. Inaddition, the shots alternate between featuring one or the other, neverallowing the eye to rest as the backdrop changes from vertical tohorizontal with great frequency. The film emphasizes the sizeof the wilderness around the people who act out their story and the degreesof comfort that people feel in the wild, the tamed, and the partiallysubdued parts of the country. She is framed muchas she was in her introductory shot. Instead each man moves into the frame by runninguphill toward the camera, jumping down from a bank, or simply running. It finds her outside on the grass and with theforest in the background. Here, forthe first time, the density of the forest seems to close in on the people.The numerous large trees whose trunks line the path come between the peopleand the camera and the deliberate movement of the procession is shown inshots crammed with the figures of horses and people and, usually, flankedby foliage that fills up the frame. The following shots of the procession, theinterior of the Major's carriage, and the close-up of the miniature in hishand intensify the effect of this civilized presence. After the introduction of this idea ofvastness, however, the scene under the credits takes place inside theforest where the three Mohicans (Chingachgook, his son Uncas, and hisadopted English son Hawkeye) move rapidly in a search for an unnamedobject. Because it is so still the eye takes a moment to adjust to it,appropriately enough since this shot introduces the presence of the Englishcharacters in a settled area who are attempting to recreate the well-ordered life of Europe. Cora seems almost totwine around him and the shot that closes the sequence the two are seen,still merged, staring, frame-left, to the east and the rising sun. Cora is at the center and is largely static in each of thesequences. As the two look at each other the film adopts his point of view inlooking directly at Cora but views Hawkeye in profile. But in these shots she is no longerstatic and she makes the transition from her prim, civilized "what are youlooking at sir?" to smiling, direct acceptance of his gaze. Amid all the bustle the introduction of Cora Munro comes in a rathersurprising shot in which she occupies the center of the frame and thecamera moves down and back, exposing her elegantly dressed figure in themiddle of the yard as Major Heyward approaches her from behind. The initial important encounter between them is the argument over theburial of the Cameron family. The subsequent establishing shotrhymes with this one. But these shots seldom focus on the individualand track his movements. Titles appear before the film begins, explaining thehistorical circumstances, and after that much of the tale is told throughpurely visual means. They function as aunit, breaking apart and coming together as needed. But the irony is that in learning how to movethrough the wilderness she is also--in taking Uncas' place in the trio--theforerunner of all those Europeans who will replace the Native Americans.But Cora as the representative of Europe is displaced from the center ofthe frame--just as her European-ness has been subjugated to the task ofconquering the terrible difficulties of wilderness. Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans is a carefully designed filmin which all the visual means at the director's disposal are skillfullyemployed to create the emotional meanings of the work. The architectural elements areeither emphatically horizontal or sharply vertical and there is hardly ashot in which one shape or the other does not dominate the background. But there is nothing sureabout the security offered by the fort which, in contrast to the brilliantlight at Albany, is shown primarily in the dark. Instead she is seated at a tea table and farmersoccasionally cross in the distance between her and the wooded area. Thepositive aspects of this movement into the lineup are stressed byChingachgook's speech. Thisshot is echoed in the concluding shot in which, along with Chingachgook,the pair face the future by looking, frame-right, toward the sun setting inthe west. In the town theman-made elements--the bridge, the painted houses, the shops--served as acomfortable setting for the activity. Here she is joined with Hawkeye not in passion but in theirsorrow over the deaths of Heyward, Uncas, and Alice. Thewide open spaces in which Cora is first seen are to be contrasted with thenature of the forest into which she enters a short time later. But first her decision to reject Duncan must be clarified. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.