LAST OF THE MOHICANS, THE 203
(widest release: 1,856 theaters), Mohicans grossed $70 million in domestic box office
receipts; the foreign market gross totaled $5.5 million, so overall ticket receipts
came in at $75.5 million. The movie cost $35 to $40 million to make and another
$15 to $20 million to market (considered high by industry standards). In the end,
20th Century Fox earned about $15 million in initial profits on a film that cost
$50 to $60 million: a moderate financial success but still impressive for a period
piece (and brisk video rentals later added another $25 to $30 million to the studio
coffers). Reviews were mostly positive but critics did express some reservations.
For example, Desson Howe wrote: “This is the MTV version of gothic romance, a
glam- opera of rugged, pretty people from long ago. Yet, by its own glossy, Miami
Vice rules, the movie is stirring. Besides, novelist Cooper’s vividly drawn savages
and frontiersmen were hardly the stuff of hard- nosed realism. This movie is the
Cooper pulp of its day” (Howe, 1992).
Reel History Versus Real History
The Last of the Mohicans is historical fiction; it superimposes a fictional plot onto
an actual historical setting, intermingling fictional characters and events with real
persons and real events. The main characters in the book and all other media ver-
sions (including Michael Mann’s film) are Cooper’s creations. The French and
Indian War— including the siege and fall of Fort William Henry and the subse-
quent massacre of its evacuees— are, of course, historical realities. The movie’s
depiction of these events is, however, not entirely accurate. In 1757, with hostili-
ties flaring up between Britain and France, Lt. Col. George Monro (sometimes
spelled ‘Munro,’ 1700–1757) was placed in command of 1,500 troops and 850 colo-
nial militiamen at Fort William Henry on Lake George in the British Province of
New York. On 3 August 1757 Louis- Joseph de Montcalm, Marquis de Saint- Veran
(1712–1759), leading an 8,000- man force of French Army regulars and Indian allies,
began to lay siege to Fort William Henry by crossfire artillery bombardment. Effec-
tively cut off from Gen. Daniel Webb’s main British force after Webb refused to
send reinforcements, Monro’s small garrison stood little chance against a foe more
than four times its size and with many more guns. As depicted in the film, after a
week of steady battering and mounting casualties, Monro was forced to open nego-
tiations with Montcalm on 9 August. Monro’s stout defense won him generous
surrender terms; he was able to negotiate safe passage for his troops (who were
allowed to keep their weapons but no ammunition) to Fort Edward, about 16 miles
to the south. However, Montcalm’s Indian allies did not honor the terms of sur-
render. As Monro led his defeated troops away from Fort William Henry, the Indi-
ans attacked his column, leaving an estimated 185 dead. In the movie, Montcalm
secretly meets with Magua and gives him tacit permission to massacre Monro’s
soldiers— a massacre that is on a much greater and deadlier scale than the actual
one— and Magua personally murders Monro. Actually, there’s no firm evidence that
Montcalm colluded with his Indian allies to permit or abet the massacre of
Monro’s retreating troops, though the issue continues to be hotly debated by his-
torians. Furthermore, Monro actually survived the massacre but died suddenly