In this respect, it relishes on surprises that you find David Gamut missing in the movie, while Munro dies and Alice commits suicide. Indeed, it makes the reader doubt on whether or not he has skipped some parts in reading the novel. However, once the confusion is solved and the reader is able to let go of any regrets that the screening does not follow the plot of the book entirely, the result is a good script, following a coherent course of actions with well conceived settings. In this particular case, that the historical truth in Cooper's book was no followed accurately by Mann seems to have helped the latter into creating indeed a movie and not a documentary. Without the element of surprise, without the drama, the humor, or the love story, the script would have least resembled a movie.
In fairness, the only possible way to enjoy the movie is when one is able to lose the expectation that it is the clear illustration of Cooper's book....
Having presented our reasons for why we enjoyed the movie more so than the book, we feel obliged to acknowledge that there are many minor differences that separate Cooper's story from Mann's screening. Thus, one is entitled to believe that Hollywood's typicality of twisting the plot of a book to fit the public's needs and aspirations of a movie was followed by Mann. Nevertheless, the movie is of great help to anyone who finds visualization of Cooper's book difficult. The movie accurately presents the scenery specific to eighteenth century warfare between the French and the Indians. The
acting is impressive, Daniel Day Lewis, as well as Russel Means and Wes Studi living up to the expectations. The overall impression is that of a good movie that could write a book.
Books are usually supposed to outstand movies and it is often that many viewers are disappointed by screen adaptation of stories. This happens because we often expect the movie to follow a strict line in creating the perfect replica of a book. However, there is no denying that Michael Mann has succeeded to embody a somewhat heavy reading and to some extend a tiring in full detail description into an attractive blend of
history, accuracy, and drama composition.
