The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
There is just something about this movies main theme that makes me teary eyed and even though everything is clearly bombastic and melodramatic Hollywood epic with big battles, great personal sacrifices for love and scenes that are designed to make the viewer feel something very specific - I am letting myself be manipulated simply because it works so well.
The cinematography isn’t as grand as in “Dances With Wolves”, but I liked the very natural depiction of the wild untamed and unsettled frontierland. The nature speaks for itself without the need for excessive colorgrading. While the core theme may be the ultimate personal sacrifice for love, it also shows the desire for personal freedom and wanting to fight for yourself and not a king, which leads to the revolution a few years later. I don’t think I really got that on my first viewing and while I have watched a ton of westerns set around the civil war, I can see I am missing a whole lot of potential interesting storytelling with going 100 years further back in history.
Rating: 4.5