TBT: The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

I’ve wanted to review The Last of the Mohicans (1992) for a while, because it’s a movie I’ve enjoyed in the past, but I’ve been stopped because it has some problematic elements that I’m not sure if I’m the best person to tackle, and because it seems ludicrous to review the film without having some insight into the costumes worn by indigenous characters. I did some reading on the first issue, and reached out on social media on the second — and found a few possible leads for people who can comment on the accuracy of the Native American dress, but nothing that’s panned out. So I thought what I could do would be to do a review of the pieces I can comment on, and put out a plea: if you know about Wyandot/Huron and/or Mohawk dress in the mid-18th century, or know someone who does and would be willing to chat, please reach out! In the meantime, I’ll present what I’ve found so far, and primarily discuss the Anglo women’s costumes.

The Last of the Mohicans (1992) is an adaptation of the 1826 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The story is set in 1757, during what Americans call the “French & Indian Wars” and Europeans call the “Seven Years’ War,” and tells the story of Hawk-eye/Natty Bumpo, a white man who was raised by Delaware Indians. He, along with his Native father and brother and an English soldier (Maj. Heywood), escort two daughters of British Colonel Munro (Cora and Alice) to safety through war and indigenous territory. Their chief antagonist is Magua, a Huron man who seeks revenge against the sisters’ father for having turned him into an alcoholic. One of the sisters (Cora) is mixed race, and Magua is in love with her; meanwhile sister Alice is linked romantically with Maj. Heywood.

The novel has been adapted before, most notably in 1936. The 1992 version was directed by Michael Mann, who executive produced Miami Vice and has directed several crime dramas, and there’s some significant changes to the story. In particular, Magua (Wes Studi: Dances With Wolves, The New World, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Penny Dreadful, Hostiles) is given a more convincing motivation (Colonel Munro was responsible for the murder of his family), Cora (Madeleine Stowe: The Magnificent Ambersons, Bad Girls) is white, Maj. Heywood is in love with Cora, Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis: A Room With a View, The Age of Innocence, The Crucible, Gangs of New York, Lincoln, Phantom Thread) and Cora develop a major romance, and Alice (Jodhi May: Aristocrats, The House of Mirth, Tipping the Velvet, Daniel Deronda, Emma, A Quiet Passion, Gentleman Jack) has a romantic connection with Hawkeye’s brother Uncas.

The fact that the novel was written in 1826 is important, because it was a time when many Americans thought that Native American peoples were dying out and/or becoming assimilated, and while that was kind of sadly noble, it was the natural order of things so let’s romanticize it but not really do anything about it. The film tries to downplay this somewhat by giving Magua a better motivation and an attention to material detail, but still falls prey to the “indigenous peoples must give way to the whites as the natural order of things/only assimilated Native peoples will exist in the future” by showing Hawkeye and his family as “nice” characters, while Magua and other Indian characters fighting for their own interests or the French are the bad guys. According to then-Ph.D. student M. Elise Marubbio (now a professor at Augsburg University, Minneapolis), the film was

“promoted as a multicultural film dedicated to a more sympathetic and authentic rendering of Native American cultures than [novel author] Cooper’s original story or Hollywood’s past productions. Indeed, its spectacular visuals, attention to costume and language, and references to inter-group conflicts could seduce the viewer into accepting such a billing. However, an analysis of the editing, camera work, and narrative structure reveal an alternative reality that reinforces the original Anglo nation-building agenda of the novel and promotes a neocolonial theme constructed through the use of visual colonial rhetoric… Mann’s neocolonial discourse builds on a legacy of rhetorically positioning Native Americans as continually colonized peoples whose fate, history, and environment are manipulated and presented through the dominant culture’s perspective. Mann’s use of cinematography and narrative, in conjunction with point-of-view, dialogue, actors’ screen-time, and specific character coupling, reinforces a hierarchy of white racial and political dominance reflective of a number of ongoing American myths… The result is a film that effectively reduces Native Americans to stereotyped erotic and exotic accoutrements of the main subjects — the white American hero and heroine” (Celebrating with The Last of the Mohicans).

Interestingly, Marubbio points out how costume is used to reinforce this neocolonialism. In the opening hunting scene, Hawkeye removes his shirt, which “forces the viewer to contrast it [his white skin] with [brother] Uncas’ and [father] Chingaachgook’s clothed, but darker, skin color.” Furthermore, blogger Mlle Canadienne points out that Magua and the antagonist Native peoples “are shown wearing almost only the breechcloth and the mitasses [leggings]. So they are almost naked, making them seem more ‘savage and unpredictable.’ On the other hand, the ‘good’ allies [Hawkeye and his family] are almost always wearing a shift over their breechcloth and their mitasses tend to be longer. The Mohawks represented this way look more ‘civilised’ because their clothes are closer to the Europeans’ one.”

 

Costumes in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

There’s actually a bit of a scandal here, because director Michael Mann was notoriously difficult to work with on this film, so much so that several key crew members left midway through… including costume designer James Acheson (Dangerous Liaisons, Wuthering Heights, Restoration, The Last Emperor, The Man in the Iron Mask). According to the LA Times, Acheson “supervised the outfitting of 800 cast members and extras and oversaw a costume-making operation in Asheville, [but] could not handle Mann’s meddling over every detail in the actors’ wardrobes, sources said. He left.” Designer Elsa Zamparelli (Dances With Wolves) took over and is credited with the film.

The film tried to present a very historically accurate appearance when it came to costumes, sets, and props. According to the film’s press kit,

“To help achieve believability in the people and their story, [director] Mann sought to make their material world as complex and detailed as it would have been in reality. He quickly found that whether it was French cannons, English uniforms or Mohawk knife sheaths and war clubs, there was nothing to rent. The physical world of The Last of the Mohicans had to be researched and developed, processes of fabrication had to be invented, and all of it had to be manufactured by the production or by vendors under the production’s supervision.

“Consequently, the patterns for woven burden-straps, breech cloths, knife sheaths, war clubs, tomahawks, war paint, tattooing and hair designs for each of four different native cultures had to be designed and produced. A fabric for the uniforms had to be found and dyed, lace woven, Killdeer and other principals’ guns, knives and tomahawks designed and built, massive cannons, carriages and mortars made from scratch from 18th Century blueprints, log cabins built, farms planted with 18th Century crops, Albany constructed, and a swamp drained, planted and turned into a valley for the massacre of the retreating English after the surrender of Fort William Henry. At its maximum size the production employed 250 crew members; dressed, made up, transported and fed 1,200 extras, and had a base camp one mile in diameter.

“The detail and scale paid off particularly in the portrayal of a frontier society in which Native Americans and Europeans lived together, which was essential to a non-stereotypical portrayal of the Native American characters. ‘The different groups of Northeastern Forest Indians had different looks,’ says line producer Hunt Lowry. ‘They cut their hair differently, and they dressed differently. Some of them traded with the French, so they incorporated French design into their dress and ornament; some were allied with the English, so they dressed like them.'”

The LA Times writes,

“Among the specialists working on the film were a ‘military costume adviser,’ an ’18th-Century frontier consultant,’ and several American Indian craftspeople… Pains were taken to create a portrait of Northeast American Indians as they would have appeared in their daily lives. Frills would have been virtually nonexistent, says frontier consultant Lee Teter, a Pennsylvania artist. Instead there are honestly drab-colored hunting shirts (of chamois and cotton), skin leggings and loincloths for Day-Lewis and the Mohicans and Hurons…

“‘I wanted to use turbans, but if you get too bizarre, even if it’s true the audience won’t relate,’ Zamparelli says of the feathered turban-like headdresses the Northeast American Indians wore.

“Period clothing, documents and paintings were studied from many sources, including collections at the British Museum in London, the McCord Museum in Montreal, the Museum of Civilization in Ottowa and the Museum of American Indian/Heye Foundation in New York City.

“Almost every garment was made in the production’s wardrobe department in North Carolina. Many items such as moccasins, officer’s riding boots, and Day-Lewis’ chamois shirt were made by hand. Some deer, elk and split cow hides were actually ‘brain-tanned’ (the animal’s brain is rubbed into the hide) and smoked, according to Canadian Indian tradition. The British officers’ gold braid was imported from England, and Cora’s bonnets from Italy.”

Unfortunately, however, those bits are the most of what I can tell you about the Native dress. I did find this interesting, visually-based article from the Six Nations Polytechnic that includes several images of eighteenth-century Hodenohso:ni (which included Mohawk, one of the tribes depicted in the film) dress:

Beyond that, I need an expert to talk to me about the costumes worn by Native characters, including:

We do get to see various Native characters in the background, often wearing a mix of indigenous and Western clothing:

Moving on to the white characters, I of course want to focus on lead character Cora and her sister Alice. We first meet them in Albany where they are dressed for town. Cora wears a yellow, subtly striped mantua or nightgown which you barely get to see on screen:

Meanwhile we barely glimpse Alice in a printed cotton gown with fitted back (so probably another mantua/nightgown) worn over side hoops:

Next, Cora and Alice head off with the British soldiers through less settled country, on their way to meet their father at a military fort. Cora wears a blue damask jacket and petticoat while Alice wears a pink riding habit:

At the fort, both sisters change — Cora into a practical pair of “jumps” (I believe) with striped skirt:

Meanwhile Alice wears the top of a gown, which is weird. It’s made from fabric with a woven floral motif, and has robings, sleeve ruffles, and a stomacher that buttons center front.

There’s one minor female character and some extras:

And finally, a few thoughts about the Anglo men:

 

What’s your take on The Last of the Mohicans, both its portrayal of Native peoples and its costumes? And, if you can comment on the Native dress, please do get in touch!