Daniel Day-Lewis is not what you would call an action star, but he’s the kind of actor with a compassionate edge and a sense of intensity that makes him ideal for the role of Hawkeye in Michael Mann’s “The Last of the Mohicans.”
“I ain’t your scout. And I ain’t in your damn militia,” Day-Lewis says with a glower, a fine example of how Mann gets him to wear this man-of-action face.
He truly helps make “The Last of the Mohicans” feel iconic, watching him sprint through a battlefield or leap through a darkened waterfall in slow motion, his hair flowing behind him.
It’s a treat, as this is a rare film today to have flesh and blood battles of this scale and scope. Mann relishes in the opportunity not just to blow stuff up but to watch how smoke billows through the frame from these unique cannon and mortar blasts. He puts hundreds in the spotlight at once, just marveling in wide vista shots and cutting swiftly from just about every angle. Continue reading “Rapid Response: The Last of the Mohicans”