An epic adventure and romance, set in a time of violence and uncertain loyalties, the story of Hawkeye the frontiersman (Daniel Day Lewis), adopted son of the Mohican Chingachcook (Russell Means), and Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe), the daughter of an English officer, and their struggle against the vengeful Huron, Magua (Wes Studi), is vividly brought to life in Michael Mann's retelling of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, the 1992 smash hit adventure from 20th Century Fox.
Best known hero of the five Leatherstocking tales written by Cooper, America's first popular novelist, the rugged character Hawkeye became the first western hero in literature and then film.
It was Mann's memories of the 1936 Randolph Scott version of The Last of the Mohicans that fired his fascination for the period, fueling the extensive research that so clearly shows in Mann's film and in the figures, set pieces, and accouterment found in this carefully developed playset.
The novel was accurate in its account of the events surrounding the siege and fall of British Fort William Henry to the French, but Mann supplemented this with accounts of the historian Parkman, the diaries of Compte de Bougainville (aide-de-camp to the French commander Montcalm) and others, all the while moving as close to historical accuracy as possible.
The desire was to make the period vivid, real and immediate and the characters intelligent, humane and venal as anybody in any timeframe.
Necessary allegiance was noted to Native American tribes, for without their assistance no army could have held the field in this harsh, untamed wilderness.
The film was filmed entirely on location in surviving old forest land in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains and demands on cast and crew were great.
Talent spent weeks in rigorous wilderness training, hunting and handling period weaponry, testing the athletic competence of all concerned.
Mann's dedication to period detail, the accuracy of uniforms, weapons and sets were researched and developed, processes of fabrication invented, and all were manufactured by the production or vendors under the production's supervision.
At its maximum, the production employed 250 crew members; dressed, made up, transported and fed 1,200 extras; supported a base camp one mile in diameter; and in a battle against storms and 100 degree temperatures, production designer Wolf Kroeger commanded his own army of 130 carpenters to build a 300'x400' reproduction of Fort William Henry on a 38 acre site for the explosive battle sequence that made up the second half of the film.
Rare in film or plastic today does the sense of the past, the dangers of the wilderness warfare,
or the visual romance of the early American landscape come so alive as in The Last of the Mohicans from 20th Century Fox and Barzso Playsets.
Alan J. Adler, Director, 20th Century Fox Archives