Daniel, Nathaniel, Hawkeye..all mean YUM!

Ever have a movie that has such a profound effect on you that long after the movie is finished it is still with you?

A perfect example for me is “Last of the Mohicans” with Daniel Day Lewis.
(I should add here that if you haven’t seen it this post does contain spoilers, you’ve been warned.) I was flipping channels last night and came across it playing on APN. I don’t know what it is about that story, perhaps I was a settler in a past life. Maybe I loved a warrior and lost him or he lost me? But as soon as I start watching it I have to finish it. There is not turning it off before it is over.

I’m usually pretty good about keeping my mushiness under control for most of the movie. But when Hawkeye grabs Cora and demands that she submit to the Huron warriors and to do what ever she is told. To just survive and he will find her...right before he leaps through the waterfall. *sigh* One of my all time most favorite romantic movie moments. I couldn’t say exactly why. A combination of events? The desperation of the situation or the promise that despite the odds he will be back? Or the idea of his loving her that much?

Then at the end of the film when Alice and Uncas die. I could be flipping channels and come across that scene second before it happens and by the time Alice throws herself off the cliff I have a steady stream of tears down my face. The credit are rolling and I’m still crying-every time!

I’ll be honest I have never read the classic (although it is on my list of books I WILL read before I die.) so I don’t know exactly what was going on between Uncas and Cora’s sister but I always like to think that there was more to their feelings for each other then is ever shown on screen.

While Hawkeye and Cora share an intense passion, I like to think that Uncas was more careful around Alice. Perhaps not to scare her or unsure of his own feelings. A longing for something he wants but cannot have. Then runs to save her when Magua takes her. The result is his engaging in a fight he cannot win and Alice’s suicide after witnessing his death. The tragedy of their death and unrequited love, squeezes my heart every time.

Gods I’m getting sappy in my old age.

So allow me the adolescent moment to say that Daniel Day Lewis is so hot in this movie.
I don't normally think of him as a sex symbol. His films are usually such intense dramas. Not my cuppa, but in this one.... he makes me break out in goosebumps. Completely doable fantasy material. All that wavy hair softens the angles of his face and lets not forget all the warm sunsets, and candlelight that make him look so tanned. Then you see him in a movie like “A Room with a View” and you can’t believe it’s the same man.
Two different characters, Hawkeye’s passionate all consuming kisses, compared to Cecil Vyse and his awkward, cold meeting of lips.

How does the man convey so much in a few seconds of movie time? Although it is his work through out the movie leading up to that exact moment, guess that is what makes him such a wonderful actor.

For me Nathaniel/Hawkeye is a perfect model for one of my historical characters. I just can’t decided whether he would look better in a kilt and leather boots wielding a broadsword or a tight pair of breeches and gleaming Hessians pointing a rather deadly looking pistol. Shirts optional in either case. *BG*

So spill, what are some of your favourite leading men or movie moments?