Posted by Rich on November 30, 1999 at 04:29:20:
In Reply to: Michael Mann and Chingachgook's closing speach posted by Robert on November 29, 1999 at 14:59:01:
: : ... I am delighted to hear that Chingachgook's closing speach seems to be restored in full. I thought it was very moving when I saw it in the published script ("people will come to work and struggle and some will make their light" etc), so I asked Michael Mann why it had been cut when he appeared at his retrospective at the National Film Theatre in London in 1996. Strangely, he replied that it had been his choice to cut it because, although Russell Means had done a fine job with it, he was not happy with the writing and he felt the film had already dramatised the points the speech made anyway, so he cut it. Yet now he has restored it to the "definitive" edition. I assume then that he was not really telling the truth in 1996 and he was covering for having been forced to cut the films running time, or he has changed his mind in the years since then. What do you think?
: Robert
Impossible to tell, I guess, though I doubt MM was lying!
As I read the script, I have always thought the ending was just fine as it was on film (though I DO wish the missing footage of Doc Mary shoving Cora off the cliff WAS included ... talk about SURPRISE! That would have made for powerful stuff!!!) ... Thought the script was too verbose. However, after hearing several peoples' reactions to the new ending, I remain open ... Sounds like it had an emotional pull to it.
Still ANOTHER thing to want to find out from Mann ...