In the 1920 version of The Last of the Mohicans directed by Clarence Brown and Maurice Tourneur, both women and Native Americans are portrayed in stereotypical ways and even though there are progressive aspects, the stereotypes prevail in the end. From the beginning, women, mainly the British sisters Cora and Alice Munro, are shown as heavily reliant upon the white male soldiers for protection. They are also reliant upon an actually evil and conspiring Native American guide, Magua. Due to the orders of their father, they first embark on a journey to be reunited with their father, who is in charge of a fort. The sisters are constantly linked to men as their actions are shaped by men.
In the opening scene, Cora is shown playing the harp as Major …show more content…
However, both the French and the British ways of battling are portrayed as civil and refined, as they have sturdy forts, guns, horses, and they march in straight lines. On the other hand, the Native Americans fight in stealthy, animalistic ways that involve holding knives in their mouths, ruthlessly murdering a baby, and hiding in bushes waiting to ambush unsuspecting white men, or capturing women to take as prisoner. There are a few scenes in which Native Americans do use guns and horses, but the film shows their main way of fighting as hand-to-hand combat or with tools such as knives. It seems as though the Native Americans’ only use to the French and the British is as aids to their own respective sides of the battle, whether as guides or as aids in the actual battles. Much of the fighting, especially from the Hurons, seems unnecessarily violent, and the French and British sides only seem interested in using Native Americans to their own …show more content…
Even though the French are shown manipulating the Hurons with alcohol, the film still focuses on the Hurons’ complete disregard of the lives they take and the brutality they have in doing so, which shifts the blame from the French to the Hurons. As Leavitt, Covarrubias, Perez, and Fryberg explain in “Frozen in Time”: The Impact of Native American Media Representations on Identity and Self-Understanding, “when a group is underrepresented in the media, members of that group are deprived of messages or strategies for how to be a person” (Leavitt et al, 40). In the 1920’s, Native Americans were not portrayed or thought about as civilized people, and in the film, there are two distinct groups of Native Americans, one completely evil and the other good but not triumphant. The stark contrast of Native Americans in this film are still highly stereotypical in each case, but showing Native Americans in ways that make them seem more human, as Uncas and Hawkeye were shown, might be a small step in the right direction for allowing a space for Native Americans to view themselves as part of a society that usually prefers them to either be invisible or blood-thirsty
In the opening scene, Cora is shown playing the harp as Major …show more content…
However, both the French and the British ways of battling are portrayed as civil and refined, as they have sturdy forts, guns, horses, and they march in straight lines. On the other hand, the Native Americans fight in stealthy, animalistic ways that involve holding knives in their mouths, ruthlessly murdering a baby, and hiding in bushes waiting to ambush unsuspecting white men, or capturing women to take as prisoner. There are a few scenes in which Native Americans do use guns and horses, but the film shows their main way of fighting as hand-to-hand combat or with tools such as knives. It seems as though the Native Americans’ only use to the French and the British is as aids to their own respective sides of the battle, whether as guides or as aids in the actual battles. Much of the fighting, especially from the Hurons, seems unnecessarily violent, and the French and British sides only seem interested in using Native Americans to their own …show more content…
Even though the French are shown manipulating the Hurons with alcohol, the film still focuses on the Hurons’ complete disregard of the lives they take and the brutality they have in doing so, which shifts the blame from the French to the Hurons. As Leavitt, Covarrubias, Perez, and Fryberg explain in “Frozen in Time”: The Impact of Native American Media Representations on Identity and Self-Understanding, “when a group is underrepresented in the media, members of that group are deprived of messages or strategies for how to be a person” (Leavitt et al, 40). In the 1920’s, Native Americans were not portrayed or thought about as civilized people, and in the film, there are two distinct groups of Native Americans, one completely evil and the other good but not triumphant. The stark contrast of Native Americans in this film are still highly stereotypical in each case, but showing Native Americans in ways that make them seem more human, as Uncas and Hawkeye were shown, might be a small step in the right direction for allowing a space for Native Americans to view themselves as part of a society that usually prefers them to either be invisible or blood-thirsty