Posted by Claudia on October 12, 1998 at 08:04:45:
Has anybody else read "The Lasting of the Mohicans-History of an American Myth" by Martin Barker and Roger Sabin, 1996, published by the University of Mississippi Press? Its an in-depth analysis of ALL the LOTM media versions--films from the silent-era onward, plus television shows, comic books, quite a bit on James Fenimore Cooper. They look at everything within the context of the time it was made. For instance, how Cooper's ideals were shaped by his circumstances and the social ideas of the time, how the differing portrayals of LOTM in film were shaped by film directors and other films of the same time.
The thrust of their book is to determine why the LOTM has gained such lasting popularity, why the myth is important to American culture, what it expresses, why it keeps being produced.
This was a very interesting book and I'd be happy to hear from anybody else who reads it. It seems that they interviewed Michael Mann for the book also, because there was some background information on him that I hadn't seen elsewhere. The book is extremely well researched with everything attributed to a source.
If your library doesn't have it, you could get it through inter-library loan or its also available on amazon.com.