History (correctly) tends to remember Gladiator as the action-packed historical epic that reignited the popularity of a genre that many had written off as being irrelevant at the turn of the 21st Century, but that doesn’t mean Michael Mann’s 1992 classic The Last of the Mohicans doesn’t deserve to be part of the conversation when discussing the all-time greats.
A genuine outlier at a time when big budget productions set hundreds of years in the past weren’t exactly famed for setting the critical sphere or the box office alight, the hard-hitting story of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Hawkeye breaking his vow of peace to head back into the thick of battle to rescue the kidnapped daughters of a British colonel was a smash on both fronts.
On top of earning $143 million at the box office, The Last of the Mohicans still holds Rotten Tomatoes critical and user scores of 93 percent and 88 percent, while it also won the Academy Award for Best Sound for good measure. Seeing famed method actor Day-Lewis as an action hero is a rare treat, but the film’s blend of character-driven drama, old fashioned adventure, and stirring battles makes it easy to see why the highly-selective star agreed to sign on the dotted line.
The Last of the Mohicans is just as much fun to watch 30 years later as it ever has been, something iTunes subscribers are agreeing with in their droves. As per FlixPatrol, the fast-paced and frantic hybrid of revenge and redemption has plunged itself into the thick of the action on the platform’s most-watched rankings, and it’s 112 minutes viewers are unlikely to regret.
