e the majority of Americans and Europeans may be presented as more civilized than the savages among the Huron, they are also portrayed as ruthless, imperialists endangering the Indians and their lands in the pursuit of self-interest. In this way The Last of the Mohicans serves as a film that attacks the aristocratic society wherein a handful of wealthy, titled individuals maintain dominance over people they choose to conquer and exploit at will. Taking the lack of appreciation of surviving in commune with nature one step further, the film shows many European whites as foolish and helpless in such an ôuncivilizedö environment. Many come off as foolish or helpless, only to be rescued or saved by Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas. Captain Heyward professes as much when he queries, ôIs there nothing I can do?ö (Seitz, 1936).
The film does an excellent job of showing how advancing European forces continued to conflict with Native Americans and even frontier people who had learned to coexist peacefully with Native Amer
...