Review of The Last of the Mohicans

It's ironic that my first taste of this great American novel adapted to film should be the 1920 silent version instead of a more modern day remake like the early Nineties film starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Perhaps it's for the better, I thought this was a rather stunning film for it's cinematography and epic sense of adventure. Oddly, I've never read the James Fennimore Cooper classic, so now I'm inclined to add that task to my To Do List as well. What probably surprised me the most here was how graphic the violence was during the Huron's drunken attack on the fort. When Magua (Wallace Beery) grabbed the woman's baby and threw it away I literally jumped off my seat! There was also the most incredible stunt work displayed in the fight between Magua and Uncas (Alan Roscoe) with that incredible slide down the mountainside and fighting among the rocks of the waterfall. Having seen a number of silent films to date, I thought the use of inter-title cards at the beginning of the story seemed somewhat overdone, whereas they virtually disappeared during the latter part of the picture. The principal players were uniformly good in their portrayals, and the inter-racial romance at the heart of the story had a poignant quality that didn't need to be the dominant focus for the film to work. What really stands out is the professionalism and quality regarding all aspects of the picture, a genuine must see film I'd readily recommend from the silent era.