Re: Seconding Gayle's Magua & Alice Point of View

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Comments:
: : Gayle wrote:
: : : Time to weigh in on this one.  I must have been watching a different movie altogether than you guys were!!  

: : Hi, Gayle!  I find myself thinking this frequently when I read some of the different interpretations others have had of this movie, in particular with regard to Alice and Magua. It's amazing how our viewpoints vary.

: : Gayle:






: 
: : :I saw Magua, with a  cold, heartless expression, stretch out a bloodied hand and arm toward Alice and give two of the most vicious, arrogant demands for obedience I have ever seen in my life!  It said "Come here, b***ch.  Now."  

: : MMMM:
: : I'm not sure I ever thought of the gestures as being vicious, per se, but they certainly didn't show any softening of Magua's heart that I could see.  

: : Gayle:
: : :Alice had the one lucid moment she probably ever had in her whole life. 

: : MMMM:
: : Quite possibly so, and certainly the only one she'd had since starting down the George Road!  

: : Gayle:
: : :She saw exactly what the future held for her, and she made the same choice she would have made if Uncas had never existed -

: : MMMM:
: : I agree completely.  Though watching Uncas being murdered was the catalyst that snapped her out of her vacant-eyed trance, I think at some point she would have done the same thing, regardless.  Remember, she'd already been pulled from the brink once before, and things were not nearly so bad in the cave as they were by the time she'd been led away from the Huron camp.

: : Gayle:
: : :the same choice any woman would have made under the circumstances.  

: : MMMM:
: : Ummm...could we change "any" to "many?"  Myself, I would STAY ALIVE, no matter what occurred.  I would submit...and then plot, and plan, and hope for a chance to escape.

: : Gayle:
: : :I think Wes Studi at that moment was the penultimate actor, and that stance and those two gestures deserve to go down in history with the finest example of acting ever produced in one brief moment.

: : MMMM:
: : It was absolutely a beautifully acted moment, from the perspective of both Wes and Jodhi.  So much going on in their eyes.  Terrific jobs! Thanks for describing it so well.

: : MMMMarcia

: It seems to me that most people agree on most points of this discussion. I went into Alice's realization of her fate in a post yesterday, so won't bore you with it again. The only exception I have is that, to me, Magua was attempting to appear less threatening to Alice, hence lowering the knife. I think it worked because I was mesmerized by Magua at that moment, myself. I completely suspended all of my beliefs about him for a few seconds, lost in his eyes. He wasn't particularly scarry to me then, more intriguing and hypnotic. Then he had to go and stick his hand out, with Uncas' blood all over it. Brought me back to reality real quick!

: I think Wes Studi should have received an Oscar for his role in LOTM. Of all the fine performances in the film, I think his was the very best.

: Kathy S


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