THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES: 1. Last of the Mohicans (1992)

 Well, I have finally reached the end of my journey that started almost 14 years ago. I watched all the movies on Military History magazine's 100 Greatest War Movies and reviewed them and created this blog. I then moved on to compiling my 100 Best War Movies. After reviewing over 900 war movies, I have decided that the best war movie ever made is a war/romance/adventure movie.

1.  Last of the Mohicans  (1992)

BACK-STORY

“The Last of the Mohicans” was released in 1992. It was the first big budget feature from director Michael Mann. It was very loosely based on the John Fenimore Cooper novel, but actually is closer to the 1936 Randolph Scott film (which inspired Mann when he was a kid). The movie is set in 1757, three years into the French and Indian War. Although the action takes place in upstate New York, it was actually filmed mostly in North Carolina. The production used 1,000 Native American actors and extras. Mann had a frontier farm, a Huron village, and a replica of a British fort built on 40 acres of land in a thick forest. The director’s obsessive quest for authenticity was matched by his star Daniel Day-Lewis who completely immersed himself in his role. Part of his preparation involved a “colonial boot camp” experience in the backwoods. Mann used a respected authority named Mark Baker to vet the film. Baker is an expert on frontier life, Indians, and weaponry. Mann provided him with a copy of the script and in most cases made changes suggested by Baker. It won its only Academy Award nomination for Sound.  It won a BAFTA for Cinematography and was nominated for Actor (Day-Lewis), Costumes, Make-Up, and Original Film Score (Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman).  The movie was a box office success and critically acclaimed. It cost $40 million and made $143 million.

               Three men run through the woods, chasing a deer. Hawkeye (Day-Lewis) stops, takes aim, and kills it, thus establishing that he is not only a frontiersman, but also a crack shot. His companions are his adopted father Chingachcook (played by the famous Indian activist Russell Means) and his son Uncas (Eric Schweig) of the Mohican tribe. Hawkeye is not your typical colonist. They stop at a frontier farm where they are welcomed warmly, implying that Hawkeye is living between two worlds. He learns that the British army is calling out the militia to fight in the French and Indian War. Hawkeye believes the colonists should not risk their families to help the British, but most of the men sign up because the British general promises them they can go home if their homes are threatened by Indians. The trio head off to Kentucky, but end up saving a British officer named Duncan (Steven Waddington) and the two daughters of the commander of Fort William Henry from an Indian ambush. A vengeance-minded Huron named Magua (Wes Studi) is trying to kill Col. Munro and his daughters. The trio get them safely to the fort which is besieged by the French and Indians. Hawkeye falls in love with Cora (Madeline Stowe). Their romance will be fraught with difficulties, but they are meant to be.

ACTING:   A+                

ACTION:   A  (6/10)

ACCURACY:  A

PLOT:  A+     

REALISM:   A

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   A+

SCORE:   A+

SCENE:  the ambush of the survivors of Fort William Henry

QUOTE:  Hawkeye to Cora:  You stay alive! If they don't kill you, they'll take you north up to the Huron lands. Submit, do you hear? You're strong! You survive! You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you! No matter how long it takes, no matter how far. I will find you!

ACCURACY

          For a movie based on a novel, the movie is actually very accurate. Credit has to go to Mann for going beyond the call of duty in making the movie authentic right down to the moccasins. It was interesting to read Baker’s comments on the original script and see how Mann listened to him on most of his complaints. And the ones where Mann vetoed the suggestions were all sensible digressions from historical accuracy. Having an obsessed director may be hell on the actors and the financiers, but it makes for a wonderful movie for us hard core war movie buffs. It was symbiotic that Mann and Day-Lewis were determined to make the movie realistic.

The movie realistically depicts the dynamic between the British, the colonists, and the Indians. Some of the Indians side with the French and some side with the British. The colonial men were forced to choose between their duty to their king and their responsibility to their families. It was a very dangerous life on the frontier which is made clear by what happens to the Cameron family. Magua suffered a similar loss to what John Cameron suffered. The movie is fair towards the Indians. Most side with the French because they know the British will continue to encroach on their lands. The movie accurately portrays the interaction and customs of three groups – the frontiersmen, the Indians, and the British army. In particular, the Native Americans are not all “noble savages” or “bloodthirsty heathens”. A majority of them are anti-colonists, but that is as it should be together.

          There are very few movies set in the French and Indian War. “The Last of the Mohicans” is by far the best. If you know nothing about the war, you will get a good feel for it by watching this movie. The historical centerpiece of the movie is the siege of Fort William Henry and it is handled admirably. The reconstruction of the fort was well worth the time, effort, and funding. The best war movies take you back in time to experience what it was like from the safety of your theater seat or recliner. This also applies to the frontier farm and the Huron village. Both were built with natural materials. There was no CGI used in the film. I know of no other movie that so accurately depicts 18th Century siege warfare. Fort William Henry was reconstructed using historical documents and the effort shows. The sequence accurately recreates the various elements of a siege-- the trenches, flares, fascines, even the little details like covering the touchhole of a cannon with sheepskin. The French were led by Montcalm and his force included Mohawk Indians. The French dug trenches to get their cannons and mortars closer and then pummeled the fort until Col. Munro was forced to surrender. The meeting between the two leaders is accurate and shows the ridiculous rules of formality that the upper class insisted on. Montcalm’s terms were very generous as outlined in the movie.

               Obviously, the column was not attacked because one Indian wanted revenge for his family. In fact, the Indians were upset that the French lenient terms had deprived them of the anticipated spoils of the battle. It is unclear if Montcalm tried to stop them, but the movie is not on shaky ground by implying he gave them the green light. The Indians started by plundering the fort, killing all the wounded that had been left there. When the column began to move. The irate warriors started by taking objects like guns from the survivors and when they did not object, the Indians amped it up. The movie does a great job showing how two Indians could not wait for the ambush to start and they charged in to count coup. This type of individualism ruined many a planned ambush.  The movie inaccurately shows the Redcoats firing at the ambushers because Munro had to agree not to take ammunition with them. Between 70 and 180 were killed when the Indians attacked (about 10% of the survivors). None of them was Munro, who escaped in the forest.

                The rest of the plot is based on the novel, so there was no person named Nathaniel Poe (Hawkeye). In fact, the only actual historical figures in the film were Webb, Munro, and Montcalm. Speaking of the source, Cooper’s book is classic, but does not hold up well as literature. Mann’s plot greatly improves on the novel. That is something that cannot be said of most movies based on famous novels. All the changes Mann made are for the best. And he made a lot of changes! Many of the characters who died in the book, survive in the movie and vice versa. Some of the romantic attachments are different ( e.g. in the book, Hawkeye falls in love with Alice ). Students in American Literature class who are assigned this book - do not watch the movie instead!

CRITIQUE

         This is a magnificent movie. It combines an interesting plot with great acting and a real concern for historical accuracy. Kudos to Michael Mann for getting the little details right. Let’s face it, even war movie nuts do not care if the moccasins are circa 1757. However, when a director insists on accuracy, you get a better movie for purists. The attention to detail reminds me of Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander”.

          Also commendatory was the tampering with the plot of the novel. I admit I get upset when a nonfiction source is changed to Hollywoodize a movie, but I do not think it is hypocritical to endorse what Mann and Christopher Crowe did. Especially since most literary critics are not big fans of the novel. I personally think it is a terrible novel with a lot of silliness. There is no silliness in the movie. As long as you get the historical facts mostly right, why not make the tale better? I have compared a number of movies to their books and this movie improves on the book more than any movie I have reviewed.

The acting is stellar. Day-Lewis is brilliant, no surprise there. He put a lot of effort into the role. Madeline Stowe creates one of the best heroines in war movie history. Cora is a woman who does not meekly obey the men in her life. She refuses to marry the snooty Duncan and defies her father. Unlike her prim sister Alice, she has a survival instinct not found in many women back then. At one point, she shoots an Indian between the eyes. The chemistry between Day-Lewis and her is very strong. There is a scene where Hawkeye boldly tells Cora that he wants her. Stowe reacts by avoiding his gaze, but then composes herself and looks him straight in the eyes. This movie blends romance with action better than any other war movie. We even get a romantic canoe race!

The rest of the cast is fine, especially Wes Studi. His Magua is one of the best villains in war movie history. If you think about it, Magua has legitimate reasons for revenge. Portrayed by Mel Gibson in one of Hollywood’s many revenge pics, he would be the hero. Means and Schweig, both Native Americans, are excellent. No one can accuse this movie of having white actors play Indians. The Indian extras add authenticity to the film. They and the white extras went through one of Dale Dye’s boot camps.

There are several scenes that are memorable. These include the Indian ambush of Duncan and the ladies, the siege, the ambush of the survivors, the under the waterfall. The movie builds to one of the great closing scenes. In nine minutes with no dialogue and a swelling score, four of the principle characters die and each in a gut-wrenching way.
  
             The movie also looks beautiful. The scenery is breathtaking. Parts of North Carolina really do look like the frontier of colonial America. The score is perfect. Interestingly, the music was done by two composers separately – Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman. That might have been a dysfunctional situation, but you can’t tell from the finished product.

CONCLUSION

         Military History magazine had “The Last of the Mohicans” ranked #95 on its list of the 100 Greatest Heroes. That is hard to defend unless the panel felt the movie was not firmly in the war genre. I can see why some would find it to not be a war movie, but the fact that it reenacts a historical battle puts it firmly in the genre. Once I decided it was indeed a war movie, then it rose to the top of the genre. It is a perfect movie. Every aspect of the film is outstanding – acting, plot, villain, action, sound, scenery and sets, music, romance, suspense, realism, historical accuracy. It is one of the few war movies that appeal to men as well as women. The movie has no weaknesses.

 

100 BEST WAR MOVIES: 2. Glory (1989)

“Glory” was inspired by screenwriter Kevin Jarre’s viewing of Augustus Sainte-Gaudens’ memorial to the 54^th Massachusetts Regiment in Boston.  His research relied on the letters of Robert Gould Shaw, Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein, and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard.  Edward Zwick (“Courage Under Fire”) directed with a limited budget of $18 million.  Shelby Foote (of Ken Burns’ “Civil War” fame) was the technical advisor.  Morgan Freeman took a pay cut to appear in the movie because he was determined to be a part of the enhancing of African-American history.  The movie was critically acclaimed, but only a modest box office success ($27 million).  It won three Academy Awards – Best Supporting Actor (Denzel Washington), Cinematography (Freddie Francis), and Sound Mixing.  It was nominated for Art Direction and Film Editing.

Robert Gould Shaw was the son of a wealthy Boston abolitionist.  He was 23 when he was wounded in the Battle of Antietam.  Shaw learns of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation while being patched up at a field hospital.  When he returns to Boston, he is offered command of the first “colored regiment” and he is stunned, but accepts. He brings along another officer named Forbes (Cary Elwes) and a black friend named Thomas (Ander Braugher) is his first recruit. The rest of the recruits are freed men from the Boston area. The new recruits are greeted at training camp with racist taunts from the white soldiers and this is their Yankee comrades!  A tough as nails Irish drill sergeant toughens the men up. Thomas tents with the main black characters. Tripp (Washington) is a runaway slave with an attitude problem. He torments Thomas because he resents his middle class, educated background (the field slave versus the house slave dynamic). Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) is the father figure and acts a bridge between the men and Shaw. Jupiter (Jihmi Kennedy) is a likeable man who is happy to be a soldier.

Before the training ends, the unit has two hurdles to overcome. ).  There are hurdles along the way like a Confederate proclamation that any black soldier taken captive would be returned to slavery (and death to their white commanders). And the Union army decides black soldiers will be paid less than white soldiers. Overcoming these and other problems, the 54^th Massachusetts Regiment is shipped to occupied South Carolina where it sees its first combat in a skirmish. This is one of the great Civil War combat scenes (and is reminiscent of the Little Round Top sequences in “Gettysburg”).  The 54^th stands its ground against Rebel cavalry (the film used special “falling horses” trained to fall on command) and then goes toe-to-toe with infantry.  This devolves into a melee that is intensely realistic and visceral. The last act has the regiment participating in the Union attempt to capture Charleston. Fort Wagner needs to be taken as part of the campaign. Shaw volunteers his unit to lead the assault.            

ACTING:   A +               

ACTION:   A+ (7/10)  two excellent combat scenes

ACCURACY: B      

PLOT:  A+                

REALISM:   A

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   A

SCORE:   A+

SCENE:  the attack on Fort Wagner

QUOTE:  Trip:  [addressing the 54th the night before battle] I ain't much about no prayin', now. I ain't never had no family, and... killed off my mama. Well, I just... Y'all's the onliest family I got. I love the 54th. Ain't even much a matter what happens tomorrow, 'cause we men, ain't we?

CRITIQUE:  “Glory” has no weaknesses.  The acting is stellar.  The cast is amazing and balanced as a team effort.  The standout is Washington, of course.  His Best Supporting Actor nod was possibly the most deserving ever.  He is absolutely mesmerizing when he is on screen.  The scene where he is flogged is a tour de force.  That tear!  The rest of the ensemble does not just stand around and watch him.  All of the major roles could not have been better played.  Freeman is his usual solid self.  Andre Braugher made his film debut!  Talk about coming out the blocks fast.  On the other end of the spectrum is Jihmi Kennedy who had the only significant role of his aborted career.  The sweetness of his Jupiter balances the belligerence of Trip.  Cary Elwes is an excellent foil for Broderick.  (He and Broderick did not get along during the shoot, by the way.)   The biggest shock here is Broderick.  He would seem to have been an obvious weak link, but he holds his own.  The critics who faulted his “shaky” performance did not realize that it is an accurate depiction of a young man thrust into a difficult position.  Critics seem to have overlooked the use of Shaw’s own words to show his feelings.  Broderick acts like the man who wrote those letters and he looks like him, too.  And don’t forget the reenactors that lend their special skills to any quality Civil War movie.  The popularity of the film led to a large increase in black reenactors. The movie was partly filmed at Gettysburg during the 125^th anniversary.

               The film is technically sound.  Edward Zwick did not have a massive budget, but he does a great job.  The training camp set and the Fort Wagner re-creation are outstanding.  The uniforms and weaponry are accurate.  The sound effects were Oscar-worthy.  Most impressive is the musical score by James Horner (“Enemy at the Gates”, “Braveheart”).  He makes awesome use of the Harlem Boys Choir to give parts of the score a hymnal quality.  It is absolutely incredible that the music did not get an Academy Award nomination! Horner was nominated, but for “Field of Dreams”. He did win a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television.

               The screenplay is solid, but breaks no new ground.  The themes include the rookie commander who grows into his leadership role and adjusts his by the book approach to the personality of his unit.  You also get the obligatory redemption arc of Trip.  It was a nice touch to have him decline carrying the flag, but otherwise his evolution was comfortably predictable.  A double dose of cliché came with Trip and Thomas coming to respect each other and the antagonistic white unit learning to respect the 54^th.  The heterogeneous small unit ensemble is nothing new, but was essential to the plot. Some criticized the movie for having a white main character. This would be legitimate criticism if Shaw was not a person who deserved a biopic. The combining his story with the story of a black regiment works very well.

               “Glory” has an excellent blend of combat action and dialogue which is rare for a war movie.  The two combat scenes are among the best ever.  The James Island skirmish comes as a big payoff for all the training scenes.  They earned the right to die, which was another theme.  It is worth the wait and a great prep for the climactic assault.  In fact, the flow from scene to scene throughout the movie is commendable.  Zwick places the parade in the middle of the film as a halftime interlude.  To prepare for the tear-shedding, before the battle we get the scene with the soldiers “testifying” before the final day of many of their lives. 

               The dialogue is what helps the movie stand out as a war movie.  This includes one of my favorite exchanges in movie history:

[Trip and Thomas are about to fight when Rawlins steps in]

Rawlins: Look, goddamn it! The whole world gotta stomp on your face?

Trip: Nigger, you better get your hands off me!

Rawlins: Ain't no niggers around here! Understand?

Trip: Oh, I see, so the white man give you a couple a stripes, and suddenly you start hollerin' and orderin' everybody around, like you the massa himself! Nigger, you ain't nothin' but the white man's dog!

[He starts to walk away, Rawlins stops him and slaps him]

Rawlins: And what are you? So full of hate you want to go out and fight everybody! Because you've been whipped and chased by hounds. Well that might not be living, but it sure as hell ain't dying. And dying's been what these white boys have been doing for going on three years now! Dying by the thousands! Dying for *you*, fool! I know, 'cause I dug the graves. And all this time I keep askin' myself, when, O Lord, when it's gonna be our time? Gonna come a time when we all gonna hafta ante up. Ante up and kick in like men. LIKE MEN! You watch who you call a nigger! If there's any niggers around here, it's YOU. Just a smart-mouthed, stupid-ass, swamp-runnin' nigger! And if you not careful, that's all you ever gonna be!

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  “Glory” is an excellent example of a movie that takes the basic historical facts and constructs a narrative around them to bring recognition to a military unit in a way that is attractive to a mainstream audience.  The film does a lot of tweaking of the facts, but none of it is egregious and all of it advances the narrative arc.

               The 54^th Massachusetts Regiment was the brainchild of Gov. Andrew.  Frederick Douglass was a leading influence for the creation of all-black units as a means of getting respect for African-Americans and giving them a stake in the future of the Union.  Andrew began the process after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  Two of Douglass’ sons volunteered for the unit.  The 54^th Massachusetts was the first regiment recruited in the North.  The 1^st South Carolina Volunteers was already in existence.  The film glosses over the difficulty of recruiting enough Massachusetts blacks to fill out the unit.  In fact, Andrew had to send recruiters throughout the North.  The unit was comprised almost exclusively of freed blacks.  A runaway slave like Trip would have been a rare exception.  Speaking of which, none of the members of the unit (other than Shaw) were real people.

               Capt. Shaw was at Antietam, but his unit was not involved in any charges similar to that of the movie.  He saw no serious fighting.  However, he did receive a neck wound from a spent bullet.  When Gov. Andrew offered command of the regiment, through Shaw’s abolitionist father, Shaw turned it down at first.  He reconsidered overnight and accepted.  The second in command was Lt. Col. Norwood Hallowell.  Forbes bears little resemblance to him.  On the other hand, the depiction of Shaw is spot on.  He was 25 and looked younger.  Broderick gets the evolution from in-over-his-head rookie colonel to confident leader down pat.  His ruminations are based on Shaw’s actual letters.  The movie does omit Shaw’s courtship and marriage to Anna Haggerty.

             The movie undoubtedly fleshes out and enhances the trials Shaw and the unit go through in training.  The template is appropriate.  The unit was assigned to Readville, Mass. for boot camp.  When Shaw arrived, the men already had their “blue suits”.  The Mulcahy (John Finne as one of the great cinematic drill sergeants) character is fictional, but does reflect the antipathy of many Irish toward blacks during that era.  The flogging of Trip uses dramatic license because AWOL offenses were normally treated with spread eagling or some similar punishment.  I found no evidence the unit was deprived of shoes by the quartermaster although the general theme of neglect feels genuine.  I also found no evidence that Shaw had a rocky road to gaining the men’s respect.  That arc may not have been accurate, but it is absolutely crucial to the theme of growing into leadership and is a strength of the screenplay.  This arc builds to the mutiny over the pay.  This is classic tweaking.  Congress did allocate $10 (minus $3 for uniforms) for black soldiers.  The twist is Shaw initiated the protest.   And the pay issue did not come up until they had reached South Carolina.  The Confederate government did issue a proclamation threatening to enslave any blacks captured in uniform and to execute their white officers.

               The parade through Boston is accurately depicted.  The parade was witnessed by Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and John Greenleaf Whittier, as well as Shaw’s parents.  The arrival at Beaufort, South Carolina is realistic as well.  The unit was greeted by freed slaves.  Beaufort was part of the Port Royal Experiment in which Northern abolitionists educated the newly freed slave children. 

               The raid on Darien, Georgia is substantially accurate.  The 54^th was paired with the 2^nd South Carolina Volunteers under Col. James Montgomery.  Montgomery was the jerk the movie portrays.  He did utter the line “they will be swept away by the hand of God like the Jews of old”.  He did order his undisciplined contraband soldiers to sack the town.  Shaw did reluctantly participate in the atrocity as depicted in the film.

               Their first combat experience came about from a letter Shaw wrote to Gen. Strong (not from threatening Gen. Hunter with exposure of his corruption).  They were moved to the Charleston area and received their baptism of fire on July 16, 1863 in a spirited skirmish that involved four of the companies on James Island. The 54^th retreated slowly to allow the 10^th Connecticut to withdraw.  There was Confederate cavalry involved, but it is doubtful they charged an untouched unit as is shown in the movie.  That would have been unrealistic tactically.  The depiction of volleys followed by a bayonet charge and then hand-to-hand was typical of Civil War combat.  This action did earn the respect of the white units.

               The prelude to the attack on Ft. Wagner was well researched.  Shaw did have a premonition of death.  He did give a stack of letters to Edward Pierce of the N.Y. Daily Tribune.  He did send off his horse.  However, Gen. Strong asked him to lead the assault, not the other way around.  Also, it was Strong who asked who would pick up the flag and it was Shaw who said he would.

               The charge is close to the truth.  The locale for the filming and the fort itself are authentic.  There was a stake filled moat and a rampart.  For cinematic purposes, the movie starts the charge in the daylight when it actually began after dusk.  Shaw did lead the charge (which would not be out of the ordinary for a war where casualty rates for officers were greater than for the enlisted).  The Rebels opened fire at about two hundred yards with cannon fire.  At the moat, the unit was hit by massed musket fire.  Shaw was shot at the crest of the rampart and fell into the fort.  (The movie dubiously leaves out the story of Sgt. William Carney who earned the Medal of Honor for planting the flag on the parapet and then despite several wounds getting it back to the camp. He famously said, "Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground!")  Several of his men followed Shaw in, but most of the unit was forced to retreat.  The adrenalin-fueled run led by Forbes is pure fiction, but cool.

               The aftermath of the battle is true to the facts.  Shaw was buried in a mass grave by the Confederates in an act intended to dishonor him.  Tellingly, Shaw’s parents insisted he remain interned with his men after the fall of the fort.  The movie gives the impression the unit was devastated by the attack.  In reality the unit suffered 272 casualties out of 600 men.  45% is very high, but this means more than half were not even wounded.

               The Battle of Fort Wagner did not mark the end of the 54^th’s service.  It covered a Union retreat at the Battle of Olustee in Feb., 1864.  It made an unsuccessful assault on a strong entrenched position at Honey Hill in November.  Lastly, it participated in one of the last actions of the war when it attacked a Rebel force defending an abandoned fort.  In a reversal of Fort Wagner, the Confederates fled and the 54^th suffered only two dead.

CONCLUSION:  “Glory” and I have a long relationship.  I saw the making of documentary on CBS before the movie came out.  I remember being very skeptical about whether it would be good.  I also questioned the casting of Ferris Bueller as Col. Shaw.  My fears were for naught, thankfully.  I took my American History classes to see it (which would be impossible now that there is a ban on R-Rated movies for school purposes – thus eliminating virtually all modern war films).  I was already covering the 54^th Massachusetts in my Civil War unit so the story was not new to me.  I’ve always gone out of my way to highlight individuals and groups that deserve recognition, but have been overlooked by the curriculum. And not just for African-Americans.  All Americans should know this story and cinema can play this role.  Unfortunately, cinema often botches the one chance to get it right (e.g. “Braveheart”).  But occasionally, the ignorant masses get a rousing history lesson like in “Glory”, “The Lost Battalion”, and “The Great Raid”.

               “Glory” is rightfully considered one of the best war movies. It should come as no surprise that it is #2 on my list. It is close to perfect. It has great acting.  It has some remarkable combat reenactment.  It is technically outstanding.  The score is iconic.  It is historically accurate for the most part and where it fudges, it does so to advance the story-line.  Most importantly, its infotainment at its most magnificent.