The Last of the Mohicans Apparently the greatest film ever made

To me, The Last of the Mohicans is probably the most overrated movie i have ever seen. I honestly just don't get it, i dont get why people think this is such a fantastic movie. This may be a bit harsh, but if i were to have a list of all the movies I've seen in order from worst to best, The Last of the Mohicans is right down there with the Impossible Kid. In order to comprehend the magnitude of that statement I put a short clip of The Impossible Kid below.



... and at least this movie is entertaining

anyway, back to my point. I believe that the Last of the Mohicans is very overrated. After seeing it I just assumed that most movie critics would at least somewhat share my opinions on this movie. I believed this until recently i went on Rotten Tomatoes and looked at its rating... It got a 97%! That's a better score than almost every movie i've seen or liked. So after recovering from the shock of seeing that i decided to check the top critics part in hopes of the critics being much more... critical. Of course when i looked at it, the top critics collectively gave the movie a 100%! Which I found completely ridiculous, and all the critics had nothing but great things to say about it. Except one critic, Christopher Null, and all he had to say was, "Still to bland for my tastes." Like i was saying, seven out of the eight critics had nothing but good things to say about The Last of the Mohicans, including Rita Kempley of the Washington Post.
According to her review, Kempley is clearly overjoyed with the display of blatant over-acting that Daniel Day-Lewis exudes throughout this movie. Apparently she enjoyed the acting that i found to be so over the top that it actually made me laugh out loud. Scenes like when Day-Lewis's character, Hawkeye, and the rest of his posse are hiding behind a waterfall and Day-Lewis found it necessary to exclaim with an intense amount of emotion, "I'M SO WET!!!" Thinking about scenes like that make me wonder if critics like Kempley actually find this to be good acting. Although Kempley does redeme herself a little bit in my mind when she comments on the ridiculously character of Hawkeye:

That's not to say that Day-Lewis's portrait of Hawkeye isn't just a little bit Hollywood. A cross between Iron John and romance-novel cover boy Favio, the cerebral Brit promises to do for big hair what Don Johnson did for beard stubble in Mann's designer cop drama, TV's "Miami Vice."

Kempley's review of the movie focuses a lot on the historical accuracy and depiction of what was happening at the time. I do agree with her on that though, i mean as far as i know, the costume and makeup accurately resembles both the modern fashions at the time and the tribal apparel of
the mohicans. Kempley also comments on the gruesomeness of the battle scenes, which i think are fairly realistic... except for one scene in which Hawkeye picks a rifle up off of someone he killed and basically "dual-wields" it with his own rifle to kill his enemies, which i think is completely ridiculous and even humorous. Anyway, as i was saying, Kempley comments on the accurately gruesome battle scenes that take place in The Last of the Mohicans:

Many of the scenes, the massacre among them, are not for the squeamish; tomahawks and hunting knives leave especially gruesome wounds. Scalping is also graphically depicted, as is a particularly nasty form of heart surgery reminiscent of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." But this is after all a war movie

Now for what i consider one of the worst aspects of this movie, the romance. First let me make it clear that there is a relationship between the characters Hawkeye and Cora, along with Hawkeye's brother/step-brother Unca and Cora's sister Alice. The apparent romance between Unca and Alice is so vague and left unexplained that you really have no idea that they have a thing for eachother until Unca dies and Alice jumps of a cliff... which happens at the very end of the movie, you'd think they would want to make that clear before they kill off both characters... oh well. Anyway, on to the sex scene, or at least what i assume is a sex scene. Dispite the unclarity of the romance between Unca and Alice, it is pretty clear that there is some sexual tension between Hawkeye and Cora which is ultimately broken by the most awkward sex scene i've ever seen. And its not like realistic awkward, its more like, "I don't know what the hell is going on, are they having sex or are what?" awkward. Although i have some bad things to say about the depiction of romance in The Last of the Mohicans, Kempley seems to have a different, more favorable opinion of it:

Indeed the movie sets new standards when it comes to pent-up passion between not only Cora and Hawkeye, but also between Alice and Uncas, who have their own bodices to burst. The four of them look into the camera with such a burning yearning, it's amazing the lens didn't melt all over the sets

...Either i missed something, or Kempley must have a very acute sense of picking up on romance. (Although i did watch this movie in my American Lit class, it is very possible i missed something)

To me, The Last of the Mohicans, is possible the most overrated film I have ever seen. I honestly think it is terrible, from the blatant over-acting, to the rediculous unrealism of a few scenes, to the vague and awkward dipiction of romance. All of which most of the critics i have come across, including Rita Kempley, thought were some of the best aspects of the movie. I dont know if it's because i watched it in a classroom, or if my immediate reaction to the corniness and bad acting of this film caused a bias, but i clearly don't share my opinions of the movie with any of the movie critics i have come across.