YMMV / The Last of the Mohicans

• Adaptation Displacement: This is most likely to be what people think of when you talk about "The Last of the Mohicans" instead of the original book, with many believing it features a romance between Hawkeye and Cora.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Magua's gesture towards Alice just before her suicide. Is he just trying to look like he tried to stop her so nobody will doubt that he followed Sachem's decree? Is he just pragmatically trying to save her so he can take her back to be his wife? Did he actually for a brief moment have genuine compassion for her? If the latter, it makes you wonder what he would have been like if not for the tragedies he suffered earlier in his life that left him with little feeling outside of a thirst for vengeance. It is possible he saw in her someone as broken as himself.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Magua gets a whole lot of build-up in terms of his fighting ability. In the final battle, the part he spends actually fighting lasts about ten seconds. However, this has more to do with just how badass Chingachgook is as opposed to Magua being weak, as Magua had previously curb-stomped Uncas.
• Award Snub:
  • The film only received one Academy Award nomination, for Best Sound, which it won. It didn't even receive a nomination for its famous film score by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman.
  • The score probably wasn't nominated because the famous climax music was based on a pre-existing work ("The Gael" by Dougie MacLean).
  • Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't nominated for Best Actor.
  • There are plenty of people who think that Wes Studi should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
• Awesome Music: The score to this film is famous:
  • The main theme.
  • "Fort Battle", that plays during the battle of Fort William Henry.
  • "Massacre/Canoes", that plays during the Huron ambush on the British evacuation of the fort, and the survivors' escape via canoes.
  • "Promontory", the repetitive fiddle movement that plays for a good seven minutes during the climactic scene of the film.
• Character Exaggeration: Magua. He is actually a much more complex—and conflicted—character in the novel. Yes, he wants revenge on Colonel Munro for humiliating him. But his idea of "revenge" is to take Cora (the not-completely-white sister) as his mate and treat her as a slave.
• Common Knowledge: Daniel Day-Lewis’ casting is occasionally called racist, apparently unaware that Hawkeye actually is a white man who was adopted by the Mohicans, and is not the title character.
• Covered Up: "Promontory" is derived from a piece called "The Gael" by Scottish musician Dougie MacLean (which was composed for a museum about the Loch Ness Monster, of all things).
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Uncas, despite having almost no lines (and being the title character of the book, so this comes full circle).
  • Duncan. He's a very competent officer. Proves to be a very capable fighter in combat. Bravely speaks his mind to his superiors. He is willing to continue a hopeless fight defending the fort. And ultimately makes a Heroic Sacrifice for the benefits of the woman who scorned him and her lover who had been his chief rival. This last act is clearly shocking to Hawkeye who at least puts Duncan out of his misery while he's being burned alive.
• Genius Bonus: Numerous small historical asides that go over the heads of most readers (and viewers).
• He Really Can Act: The casting of Russell Means as Chingachgook met with more than a few raised eyebrows when it was announced, since Means was known as an activist and had never acted before. When the film was released, however, his performance received universal praise, and he would continue acting until his death in 2012.
• I Am Not Shazam: The last of the Mohicans turns out to be Chingachgook.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Huron warrior Magua was enslaved by the Mohawks thanks to the British Colonel Munro. Seeking revenge, Magua won over the Mohawk, becoming their blood brother until he could rejoin the Huron, only to discover his wife, thinking him dead, had married another after their children died. Filled with rage, Magua bides his time, leading a British patrol to its doom and later causes the fall of Munro's fort before massacring his followers and carving Munro's heart out before seeking to kill his daughters. When he faces Nathaniel Bumpo's adoptive brother Uncas, Magua shows his skill by killing him with no effort whatsoever, repeatedly showing why he is one of the most dangerous men on the frontier.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Stay alive! Whatever may occur, I will find you!"
  • The marvelously stuffy phrase "Without so much as a 'by your leave.'"
  • "When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart. Before he dies, Magua will put his children under the knife, so the Grey Hair will know his seed is wiped out forever."
  • The copious amounts of running that Hawkeye does has been the subject of jokes, including a The Ben Stiller Show sketch.
• Narm: "You call yourself a patriot? A LLLLOYAL subject of the crown?"
• Newer Than They Think: Part of the score is derived from Dougie MacLean's "The Gael" which was released in 1990, only two years before the film. But it's often mistaken for traditional English, Celtic or even Native American music.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • During the first ambush, one of the British soldiers is scalped onscreen.
  • Col. Munro's heart is cut out by Magua and held up for all to see.
• Older Than They Think: The Duncan/Cora and Uncas/Alice things originate from the 1975 Hanna-Barbera special.
• Paranoia Fuel: The forest is a handy spot for an ambush, as the British soldiers learn the hard way— twice.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Jared Harris as the British herald. "You call yourself a patriot? A loyal subject of the crown?"
  • Pete Postlethwaite as the British officer who arrests Hawkeye.
  • John Cameron, the homesteader visited by the Mohicans, is played by Terry Kinney, who would go on to be best known as McManus in Oz. His long-haired, unconvincing wig is a bit Hilarious in Hindsight when viewed on the otherwise consistently bald actor.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Siskel & Ebert's review in particular complained about a very interesting and compelling historical story getting constantly interrupted by a trite and clichéd love story.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • As Hawkeye runs after Chingachgook, he bumps into a large rock. The rock moves in a rippling manner, clearly canvas.
  • There are a few shots where it is clear Chingachgook's gun stock war club is a rubber stunt prop, when it bends.

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