STACK #179 Sept 2019

FILM FEATURE

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I think that this Blu-ray is by far the best version and I wish I had released it theatrically like that

RETURN OF THE MOHICANS continued

THE KEEP This forgotten horror movie from Michael Mann's filmography has achieved cult status and is highly coveted. But will we ever see it on DVD & Blu-ray?

A strange dreamlike horror film about Nazis accidentally summoning an ancient evil, The Keep , in retrospect, was way ahead of its time, serving as a precursor to the Nazi sub-genre that has become a staple component of modern horror. But in 1983, it failed to find an audience and all but fell into obscurity. Nevertheless, the years have been kind to it and The Keep enjoys a revered cult status. Of course we had to ask Mann whether fans can expect to see the film re-released on DVD and Blu-ray. “I doubt it!" he quips. "That film tragically never got to be what I had wanted it to be, for a number of reasons. One of the most tragic things is that my spectacular visual effects supervisor died very early on in post-production and we could never figure out how the components he did were supposed to come together. And so to answer your question, I do not think so.”

The mid to early ‘90s saw a rise of historical films telling indigenous stories. With contemporaries such as Dances with Wolves , Sioux City , Clear Cut and (to a lesser extent) Disney’s Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale , it was The Last of the Mohicans that stood out, speaking directly to the heart of imperialism, treachery and humanity, albeit packaged as a classic story of romance and adventure. When asked if he felt like Mohicans was part of a movement at the time, Mann says that this wasn’t the case. “No. It wasn’t a part of any movement. I realised I had been thinking about this story since I was about four or five years old. That’s where it came from. And it just felt like such a fresh thing for me because I had been doing a lot of writing, most of which was urban dramas. I had done Thief and I did Miami Vice and Crime Story , which was also period, and so it was very attractive to do something different. I can understand where you’re coming from. People analyze media. They look at it and they look for patterns and similarities, but as a filmmaker you’re not thinking about any of that.”

something to see what it is I got wrong, or that I want to fix or improve, or handle a different way. Some of the films I’ve done I’ve never touched. But Mohicans , I think that this Blu- ray is by far the best version and I wish I had released it theatrically like that. “There’s some changed dialogue. There’s some exposition that was in the theatrical version that audiences didn’t need,” he continues. “Particularly speech-making that happens. At the end, in case you didn’t know what the film was about, ‘ let me have the characters tell you’ , which I don’t like. So I got rid of that. There were also some awkward moments, which I thought could be improved. The only other film which I’ve changed that radically – meaning the number of cuts and remixing – is Ali , which again the current Blu- ray is the best version.”

Moving forward to today’s state of affairs and ever-changing worldviews, Mann considers how Mohicans might offer value to current conversations. “I think it does, and not because it lends itself to being part of contemporary discourse. But rather it has some philosophical relevance. At the end of the film, Chingachgook is the last of his people, and he talks about that. And the frontier that’s ahead of Hawkeye is a kind of future. It’s a virgin territory and a virgin time. And eventually people like Hawkeye and his wife will leave and other people will come... and that’s the universal human condition. But you know, Mohicans is a motion picture. It’s a drama. It’s a story. And for me it hits a relevance about how you look at your own life that makes it important.” At last, the comparison is here for viewers to make with the definitive cut of The Last of the Mohicans available alongside the theatrical version on Blu-ray and DVD, including exclusive commentary from Michael Mann as well as a behind-the-scenes ‘Making-of’ bonus feature.

• The Last of the Mohicans: Director’s Definitive Cut & Ultimate Edition out Sept 4

32 SEPTEMBER 2019

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