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THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS The ELK HUNTNote: Hows this for a change from the finished product?!? ... and NO mention of the powerful Opening Vistas! This is how the script begins ...[FADE IN]The screen is a microcosm of leaf, crystal drops of precipitation, a stone, emerald green moss. It
CORA: [quietly] Why did they turn back?
[In answer Hawkeye looks behind & above her head.]
[CORA
turns and makes out stilt platforms of skeletons and torn strips of buckskin silhouetted against the night sky in the distance. They have camped on sanctified ground, a burial place.
CORA & HAWKEYE
She thinks it would be a mistake to ever underestimate the skill of these men or the danger & complexity of this place. She hands the pistol back to him. Their hands almost touch:]
CORA: [still pissed off] "We're a breed apart and we make no sense" ...?
HAWKEYE: [smiles] In your particular case, miss, I would make some allowance ...
CORA: [sarcastic] Thank you so much.
[Cora is angry. Hawkeye, staring at the trees, glances at her. She settles, looking at him. Her mood changes. Then ...]
CORA: You called Chingachgook your "father"? Where is your real family?
[Hawkeye's surprised by her question.]
HAWKEYE: They buried my ma & pa and my sisters. And Chingachgook - who found me with two French trappers - raised me up as his own.
CORA: I'm sorry.
HAWKEYE: I do not remember them. I was one or two.
CORA: How did you learn English?
HAWKEYE: My father sent Uncas & I to Reverend Wheelock's school when I was ten. So we would know both worlds ... though we were told only bother learning readin' & arithmetic from yous.
CORA: And what were the consequentialities of European culture you didn't bother with?
HAWKEYE: The Bible. Monarchy. Many wrong ideas about the government of men. My father's people already know each man is his own nation. And only he can have dominion over himself. Not kings. No man is better than any other man.
CORA: In London those radical ideas could land you in Newgate prison. [changing the subject] Why were those people living in this defenseless place ...?
HAWKEYE: 'Cos frontier land's the only land affordable to poor people. So after seven years indentured service in Virginia, they headed out here where they are beholden to none and not livin' by another's leave ... Their name was Cameron. John & Alexandria.
[Cora sees the slate grey clouds and, in between, the fields of stars. She looks at Hawkeye; then again up at the night sky.]
HAWKEYE: [continuing; looking up] My father's people say ... at the birth of the sun and of his brother, the moon, their mother died ... so the sun gave to the earth her body, from which was to spring all life. And he drew forth from her breast the stars. The stars he threw into the night sky to remind him of her soul. [the sky] So there is the Camerons' monument ... my folks', too, I guess.
[CORA'S
pensive. Hawkeye's watching her. Her reaction is enigmatic. After a pause ...]
CORA: [low] You are right, Mr. Poe. We do not understand what is happening here. And it is not as I imagined it would be, thinking of it in Boston and London ...
HAWKEYE: Sorry to disappoint you ...
CORA: [eyes downcast] On the contrary. It is more deeply stirring ... to my blood ... [then up into his eyes] ... than any imagining could possibly have been ...
[She closes her eyes, turns slightly and prepares to sleep. Hawkeye is the one left staring into the birch forest, a little surprised. Some of his assumptions about her were wrong ...
CUT TO ...]
[EXTERIOR FOREST - WIDE - LATE AFTERNOON
Deep fog has set in. A hand entering the frame scares the hell out of us. It moves a branch aside. It's Uncas. Spread to the right is Chingachgook, far to the left is Hawkeye. They hike up a steep forested slope in the heart of the Adirondacks.]
CORA: Much further?
HAWKEYE: Top of this ridge. Fort and Lake George are downhill of it.
[ALICE
Re-energized, her spirits pick up.]
ALICE: Will we be able to bathe?
[Before Cora can answer they hear a deep, rolling roar. Alice is alarmed.]
CORA: Thunder ... Papa will arrange something.
[UNCAS
looks over his shoulder, sees something in the far distance, gestures to Hawkeye and Chingachgook.
HAWKEYE'S POV: DISTANT HILLS
and the band of red-painted Ottawa and Coureurs des Bois, who have now split into two groups, are still on their trail. Meanwhile, oblivious ...]
HEYWARD: The men of the regiment will fetch water from the lake, build fires and provide every comfort you desire, Alice ...
ALICE: Duncan, you are absolutely gallant. If Cora doesn't marry you, I shall.
CORA: Alice!
[Heyward laughs. Hawkeye sees them. It bothers us: will these Europeans, including Cora, shed their frontier experience?]
ALICE: I can't wait to see Papa ...
CORA: And you, Duncan? What are you looking forward to?
HEYWARD: Posting to a different continent.
[He and Alice laugh. Cora does not.]
CORA: I think it's very important and exciting.
[Heyward looks at her. She's not kidding.
ANOTHER ANGLE: HEYWARD
helps Alice. As he does, he stares at Cora's seperation and now her proximity to Hawkeye, who's walking on ahead, is something Heyward doesn't like. His dark thoughts are distracted by a FLASH of light and more ROLLING THUNDER.
WIDE FROM THE FRONT - HAWKEYE
drops and pulls Cora to the ground.]
CORA: Lightning?
[Hawkeye doesn't answer as he, Chingachgook, Uncas and Heyward make their way to the top of the ridge.
CLOSER ANGLES: CORA & ALICE
join them and look down upon their expectation of a secure piece of England in the wilderness, a safe harbor, a father's warm welcome.
THEIR POV: FORT WILLIAM HENRY
is none of those things. The thunder is the roar of French siege cannon clouded in dense smoke. The flashes of light are mortar bombs exploding and illumination rockets' red glare. Fort William Henry is under a massive siege by a French and Huron army.
UNCAS
looks over his shoulder.
HIS POV: OTTAWA
pursuing them. There's no way back. They're propelled forward.
DISSOLVE TO ...
EXTERIOR BATTLEFIELD, FRENCH BATTERY #1 - CLOSE SHOTS - DUSK
French cannons roar black smoke and gouts of red flame.
TRENCH
dug by sappeurs behind the cover of a huge gambio pushed toward the fort by two poles and fascis on the sides.
ENGLISH GUN CREW
searching the night.
POV: BATTLEFIELD
is black.
ENGLISH ROCKETS
light the battlefield revealing the French trenches.
ENGLISH GUN CREW
excited. Colonial militia and Mohawk snipers fire their rifles. The British gun crew scrambles to adjust their 18 pounders.
FRENCH BATTERY #1
FIRES.
FRENCH BATTERY #2
FIRES.
EXTERIOR FORT, WEST BATTERY
TRACKING. French cannon FIRE rips into the fortifications, exploding wood and earth, shredding the English gun crew with cannister. The English fight stubbornly, but we feel they're outgunned. Meanwhile ...
WIDE ANGLE FROM THE WATER
A new artillery duel erupts. The action is to the west side of the fort. On the north, the fire fight is reflected on the black water of Lake George in our foreground. Then a dark shape wiping to the right cuts off those reflections. We see in silhouette the outline of a birch canoe moving silently, barely rippling the mirrored surface of the lake.
EXTERIOR LAKE GEORGE BANK - DEBRIS
Behind it, two Canadiens and a Huron alternately snipe at the ramparts.
LOW & WIDE: SNIPERS
Behind them is black water. Its surface is broken by the rising mass of Chingachgook, followed by Uncas and Hawkeye. Muzzle flashes from the cannon reveal the canoe and the forms of the girls further out. Chingachgook's war club is held low. The Huron senses and turns and Hawkeye's thrown tomahawk knocks him back. Hawkeye's knife flashes in the night. Chingachgook drives the war club up, smashing a Canadien onto the debris. The second Canadien jabs bayonet at Uncas, slashing his side. Uncas jerks him forward by the musket, folds him over and tomahawks him.
CUT TO ...
So that's how Uncas got cut! Wonder what happened to that scene?!
[EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, NORTH WALL - SALLY-PORT TUNNEL - NIGHT
Amidst the cannonade roar, ad-libbed shouts from Hawkeye and Heyward convince battle begrimed soldiers to open the sally-port. Our people rush in.
TORCH LIGHT
the group moves through the long, dank, tunnel. Enlisted men escorting them. Another torch from the other direction: CAPTAIN BEAMS is revealed.]
HEYWARD: I'm Major Duncan Heyward!
BEAMS: Captain Jeffrey Beams. We didn't think you'd make it through!
HEYWARD: Where's Colonel Munro? His daughters are here, too.
[Beams raises his torch, sees the muddied, soaked women. He is shocked that they traveled with Heyward.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, PARADE GROUND - GROUP - NIGHT
emerges from a sally-port tunnel. It's smokey. NOISE is deafening. The group has traveled through a nightmare, only to arrive in hell.
HEYWARD WITH BEAMS, CORA & HAWKEYE, ALICE, UNCAS & CHINGACHGOOK
run diagonally past pyramidal stacks of cannon ball, smoldering beams and shrapnel, wounded men. Just then a mortar is fired and explodes, killing the gun crew. On the ramparts Mohawks and Colonial Militia, sniping at the French. Women huddle in corners next to the sick and dying.
UNDER RAMPARTS: MILITIA]
AD LIBS: [shouts over roar] Uncas! Nathaniel ...
[HAWKEYE
waves. One wounded man, IAN, intercepts Uncas.]
IAN: Thought you and Nathaniel weren't joinin'-up.
UNCAS: [on the run] Didn't!
HAWKEYE: Dropped in to see how you boys is doin'.
[COLONEL MUNRO
running from his quarters is shocked to see them.]
ALICE: [hysterical] Papa, Papa!!
MUNRO: [enraged] Why are you here?!
[Cora is stunned. Alice is decimated by her father's anger. Munro sees and whips off his coat to cover them and takes Alice under his arm. Bombardment resumes. Alice clings while they race for the cover of his quarters:]
MUNRO: [to Heyward; re: Alice & Cora] Why did you allow them to come? ... And where the bloody hell are my reinforcements!!
[They race into the yellow lantern light of Munro's quarters and slam and bolt the heavy door. Heyward's confused ...
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR MUNRO'S QUARTERS - NIGHT]
MUNRO: [embracing his daughters; softer] Told you to stay away from this hell hole! Why did you disobey me?
CORA: When? How?
MUNRO: My letter ...
CORA: There was none!
MUNRO: What?
CORA: There was no letter.
MUNRO: I sent three men to Webb!
HEYWARD: One called Magua arrived.
CORA: He delivered no such message.
[Munro's stunned.]
MUNRO: Does Webb not even know we are besieged?
HEYWARD: Sir. Webb has no idea. And he certainly does not know to send reinforcements!
[Munro has nowhere for his rage to go. Meanwhile, Alice clings to her father. At 45-55, the British Army has been his life. He blindly believes in its institutions, though officers like Webb would disdain his Scots origins. From under his fury:]
MUNRO: [flat] What happened to you?
HEYWARD: [suddenly tired] Ambush ... on the George Road. This Magua led us into it. [pause] ... eighteen killed. It's these men who saved us. They guided us here ...
MUNRO: Thank you. How can I reward you?
[No answer. Then ...]
HAWKEYE: Help ourselves to a few horns from your powder stores.
MUNRO: What else?
UNCAS: Some food.
MUNRO: [to Uncas] I'm indebted to you. And get your side sewn up, young man.
[MUNRO
sees his exhausted and bloodstained surgeon in the doorway that leads to the next rooms.]
MUNRO: [bellows] Mr. Phelps!
[PHELPS' face lights up when he sees Cora Munro.]
PHELPS: Miss Cora! How are you?
CORA: [smiles] Fine, Mr. Phelps. Have you cat gut and a suturing needle? [for Uncas] And we could use some rum, clothes, and a place to wash ...
[Cora tries to remove Alice from her father, but she clings to him. Munro holds her tighter. Then he whispers something to her. She nods her head. And Cora takes her. They exit.
MUNRO
is moved beyond words by his daughters' presence. There's a break, a pause ...]
MUNRO: What a place for them ... [to Heyward over table map]
HEYWARD: Might I enquire after the situation, sir, given that I've seen of the French engineering from the ridge above?
MUNRO: [perfunctory] Logistics are his guns are bigger than mine and he has more of them. They keep our heads down while his sappers make thirty yards of trench a day. His thirteen inch mortars have a two hundred yard range, so when they're close enough, they'll move them in, lob explosive rounds over our walls and pound us to dust.
HEYWARD: They look to be three hundred yards out. You have three days.
MUNRO: Bloody murderers.
HAWKEYE: A man, here, can make a run straight through to Webb.
MUNRO: ... not enough time to get to Albany and back with reinforcements ...
[A Sergeant enters, snaps to attention, says something to Beams, exits.]
HEYWARD: Webb's not in Albany. He marched the 33rd to Fort Edward two days ago.
MUNRO: Webb's at Edward?
HEYWARD: Yes, sir.
MUNRO: Only twelve miles away! He could be here day after tomorrow. [to Hawkeye] Find your man, sir! Captain Beams will give you the message.
[Beams nods. Munro turns back to the map. Hawkeye has something else to say.]
HAWKEYE: John Cameron's cabin. We come upon it last night. Burned out. Everyone murdered. And it was Ottawa. They're allied to the French.
[Munro looks at him.]
MUNRO: Yes, Mr. Poe? So?
HAWKEYE: It was a war party. It means they're on the attack up and down the frontier.
[Munro turns to look at him for a long beat. Munro doesn't like what his response must be to this news. He turns to Heyward and the map.]
MUNRO: [cold] Thank you.
[Hawkeye's dismissed, frozen out.]
HAWKEYE: Many men here, their homes are in the path.
MUNRO: That's all, sir.
[Hawkeye is furious. Chingachgook gestures Hawkeye out. He leaves Munro's quarters almost knocking over an entering Adjutant who backs way up to let Chingachgook pass.]
HEYWARD: Things were done. Nobody was spared ...
MUNRO: Terrible feature of war in the Americas. [beat; a mantra] Best to keep your sight fixed on our duty. Our duty is to defeat France. That hangs on a courier to Webb.
[CUT TO ...]
[INTERIOR MONTCALM'S MARQUEE - CHORAL GROUP - NIGHT
of three Seneca women and five boys, led by a Jesuit, sing the Te Deum in the Iroquois language. This is a large tent that could sleep twenty. Montcalm's four personal guards are at the entrance as well as COMTE DE LEVIS in dirty lace, a facial wound and a braceful of pistols on a sash. Inside is simple campaign furniture and a six by eight foot battle standard and flag of France.
MONTCALM
stands with a huge and fearsome elaborately tattooed and robed Seneca chief in a silk turban ...]
SENECA CHIEF: [low] ... and the Black Robes of Michilimackinac left us no time to put our cabins in order before telling us our French father had need of our aid. We rolled our blankets and were the first to be here. Yet we are not the first and closest to my father's campfire.
[The Marquis de Montcalm is forty-five, wears a large wampum belt as a sash over his waistcoat. He has an acute intellect, an elegant manner. He is more aristocratic than Munro, but a consummate professional soldier. Over the Seneca's shoulder, Montcalm sees and nods to ...
MAGUA
entering with four Huron braves. This is not the Magua we saw on the trail. In his scalp lock, now red-stained and cut to a Huron roach, are three blacl plumes. A match-coat blanket drapes his left shoulder.]
MONTCALM: [to Seneca Chief] For my children and the children of the true faith, my friendship and esteem is boundless ... I will give you three oxen for a feast and tomorrow I, myself, will sing the war song with you in the great council house.
[The Seneca Chief is satisfied and his people, plus the Jesuit, exit. The look on Magua's face and the wry expression on Montcalm's allows us to understand their relationship is based on realpolitik.]
MONTCALM: Le Renard Subtil, how are things with your English friends?
[Magua exhales in derision as he brings a chair to face Montcalm and sits, European style ...]
MONTCALM: [over his shoulder] Louis Antoine, join us.
[LOUIS ANTOINE DE BOUGAINVILLE enters. He wears a functional melange of Indian moccasins over white linen breeches and an officer's waistcoat.]
MONTCALM: Hear what le Subtil has to tell us ...
[Bougainville published a book on integral calculus at twenty-five, at twenty-six was a secretary to the French Ambassador in London, in January 1756 at twenty-seven he was elected a member of the British Royal Academy of Science and at age twenty-eight he's aide de camp to the Marquis de Montcalm with the rank of captain. Later in life, he brought "bougainvillea" from Tahiti to Europe to America.]
MAGUA: English war chief, Webb goes to Fort Edward with 33rd Regiment. He does not know my father's army attacks Fort William Henry.
BOUGAINVILLE: But by now Munro knows his couriers didn't get through. He'll send another.
MAGUA: The Grey Hair will try.
BOUGAINVILLE: Four or five, including two women entered the fort ...
MAGUA: The Grey Hair's children were under Magua's knife but escaped. They'll be under it again.
MONTCALM: Why do hate the Grey Hair, Magua?
MAGUA: When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart. Before he dies Magua will put his children under the knife so the Grey Hair will see his seed is wiped out forever.
[Montcalm won't get a direct answer.]
MONTCALM: My sappeurs are advancing the trenches through the night, now. You may have your opportunity soon.
[CUT TO ...]
[INTERIOR SURGERY, ENTRANCE - PHELPS - NIGHT
exhausted, sitting on a low stool, taking a breath.]
HAWKEYE [O.S.]: She know what she's doin'?
[Phelps looks up, then he looks over his shoulder at Cora. She's in a borrowed launderess dress/blouse ... She looks different. He's a little indignant.]
PHELPS: First assisted me in Austria when she was fourteen. I would say she does ...
[Her apron is stained. Hawkeye sees this may be her first time in the New World, but it's not her first military campaign. Still angered at Munro's dismissive response, he's nevertheless falling for Cora.]
HAWKEYE: She does not shy away from much ...
PHELPS: [elsewhere] What's that?
HAWKEYE: Nothin'.
[Alice Munro has caught Hawkeye's attention. Outside the surgery where a casement meets a wall, she sits, withdrawn. A catatonic older woman in a fine dress sits next to her.]
PHELPS [O.S.]: Miss Cora? Gentleman looking for you.
[HAWKEYE
enters. Cora's sewing up Uncas.]
CORA: [looks up] Mr Poe?
HAWKEYE: Miss. [re: cotton] May I?
[Cora, curious, nods. Hawkeye cuts some pieces from her ruined and discarded dress that she now uses to bandage Uncas. We don't know why; neither does Cora.]
HAWKEYE: [to Uncas] You 'bout done holdin' hands with Miss Munro?
[Uncas laughs, looking from her to Hawkeye. Then he's up and he hurts. Cora starts to tend another wounded man. As they start out, Hawkeye hesitates. Sensing it, Cora turns.]
CORA: What are you looking at, Mr. Poe?
HAWKEYE: Why, I am looking at you, Miss.
[Cora measures the directness of Hawkeye's manner. It's not insolent, only unsettling. Feeling foolish; she turns. He leaves.
CUT TO EXTERIOR FRENCH TRENCHES - SAPPEURS & ENGINEERS - NIGHT
having worked through the night, are still digging the diagonally-advancing trench. We note it's closer than it was.
EXTERIOR FRENCH TRENCHES - FRENCH PICKETTS
at their posts guard the sappeurs. Meanwhile ...
CUT TO EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, WEST SIDE - SALLY-PORT - NIGHT
opens. Ten Mohawks and Rangers crawl towards the French lines. Meanwhile ...
CUT TO EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, PARAPET - HAWKEYE & UNCAS - NIGHT
are low and out of French sight in the northeast battery. Four others are with them, including Captain Jack. Stacked rifles are against the casement. We don't know why. Each rifle is within reach of Hawkeye's hand. Hawkeye is taking extra care loading Killdeer. He charges it once, then overloads the powder by a quarter charge.]
UNCAS: You told him about the raid?
HAWKEYE: [nods] He does not want to hear it. [pause] But he is gonna have to.
JACK: [to one man] Get together by the West Battery James & Ian, Sharitarish & William.
[Hawkeye uses the fine cotton he took from Cora. Uncas sees it.]
UNCAS: Tight weave.
HAWKEYE: Another forty yards?
[Uncas nods. Hawkeye wets it to make a tighter gas seal and rams it home. The tighter fit requires more effort.
HAWKEYE
looks below to ground level ...
A FRONTIERSMAN - COURIER
Two pistols are holstered in a sash around his chest. He wears no hat and carries no pack. He waits by the sally-port door.
CUT TO EXTERIOR FRENCH TRENCH - THREE PICKETS - NIGHT
(Note: Though this portion of the scene does NOT appear in the final film, it does show up in a network TV airing of the movie.)
are suddenly tomahawked and knifed by stripped down 42nd Highlanders and Mohawks. Alarm is raised. French and some Huron run to advance. Shots are fired. The Rangers & Mohawks fall back.
FRENCH
emboldened, pursue ...
TRENCH IN FRONT OF WEST WALL
suddenly Heyward and three companies of the 62nd regiment of Foot (60 men) are over the top in perfect formation ...]
HEYWARD: Sergeant! Form three ranks!
SERGEANT MAJOR: Sir! [bellows to troops] Upon the center, wheel to the left-about! March! [three motions; drums] Rear ranks, proper distance! [the rear ranks back up six paces] Front ranks, take your distance! March! [everybody moves] Halt! [in unison they slam to a stop] Make ready! [muskets snap to port arms]
[MOHAWKS & HIGHLANDERS
dodge right & left of the 62nd's line of fire.
FRENCH
are coming forward. Their sergeants trying to stop and form their men in ad-libbed French.
62ND REGIMENT OF FOOT]
SERGEANT MAJOR: [dead cool] First rank! Second rank! Present arms! [muskets shouldered]
HEYWARD: Fire!!!
[Like one shot, lightening, smoke and .65 caliber death screams from the first two ranks like a scythe, cutting down ...
REVERSE: FRENCH
Fourteen wounded or killed ...
62ND REGIMENT OF FOOT - HEYWARD
exposed. He's oblivious to incoming rounds. A piece of hat is blown off, epaulet is shot off. The man next to him is killed and bloodies Heyward's coat.]
HEYWARD: Advance, Sergeant Major!
SERGEANT MAJOR: Sir!!! [to soldiers] Third rank! Twelve paces! Forward march! [drums]
[The rear rank walks through the first two ranks, who are priming and loading in perfect order to their Sergeant Major's commands. As the third rank becomes the first rank ...]
SERGEANT MAJOR: Shoulder arms! [slam] Present! [slam]
HEYWARD: Fire!!!
[CUT TO EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - COURIER - NIGHT
sprints for the trees during the diversion of Heyward's sally.
TWO HURONS
materialize from nowhere and charge at him ... both are BLOWN off their feet by ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, CASEMENT - UNCAS & HAWKEYE
now handed already-loaded, primed and cocked rifles while the four men behind them reload the two just fired. Hawkeye gestures ...
EXTERIOR HILLSIDE - THREE HALF-SAVAGE CANADIENS
are running down the hill to intercept the courier. One fires ...
COURIER
a near miss.
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - HAWKEYE
FIRES. A half second later, Uncas FIRES.
EXTERIOR HILLSIDE
One Canadien's falling through the trees as the second one's hit by Uncas' shot.
HAWKEYE
reaches out his hand. Killdeer with the heavier load is slapped into it. Hawkeye aims. Looks away a second and comes back to the sight in deep concentration. The world goes silent ...
HAWKEYE'S POV: COURIER & CANADIEN
pursuer are barely visible. Only patches appear momentarily between the trees. They're three hundred yards away: an impossible shot in 1757.
EXTERIOR FOREST - THE CANADIEN
will intersect the courier. His arm is back with his tomahawk to throw ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - HAWKEYE
judges wind, elevates the long rifle ... and FIRES at us.
JUMP CUT BACK: TREES
Hawkeye's heavy round rips through. We HEAR the ball cut air. A few leaves flutter ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - CANADIEN
whacked head over heels by the impact.
COURIER
looks over his shoulder. He didn't know the Canadien was there. He stumbles in the half light . The he runs on ...
CUT TO EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - WEST SALLY-PORT
The three companies of the 62nd Regiment of Foot file back into the fort in perfect order. The sally-port is closed. Three men are wounded. The diversion worked perfectly.]
HEYWARD: Sergeant Major!
SERGEANT MAJOR: Sir!
HEYWARD: Thank you, Sergeant Major. Thank the men.
SERGEANT MAJOR: Atten-hut!
TROOPERS & MILITIA
have seen no action for three days & nights. Heyward got their blood running and won their respect. They step aside and nod to him. Heyward keeps walking. He is home.
CUT TO ...]
Note: Interestingly, these two scenes were reversed when the film was finally put together.
[INTERIOR MUNRO'S BEDCHAMBER - DOOR - NIGHT
a knock and Heyward enters.
CORA & ALICE
Alice is in her father's bed. Cora is collecting and tearing linen into strips for bandaging.]
HEYWARD: Cora ... I wanted to talk to you, but I'll come back another time ...
[Alice looks at the two of them and rises out of the bed.]
CORA: Alice ...
ALICE: Talk to Duncan, Cora ... I must manage ... I cannot be an invalid schoolgirl. [starts for door] I'll see if Mr. Phelps needs anything ...
[She leaves.]
HEYWARD: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ...
CORA: Her nerves are shattered. She's trying to be brave.
[There's a lot going on under Cora's surface. We don't know what it is, but it's disconcerting.]
HEYWARD: Cora, I adore you and, when we come together, we will be the happiest couple in England ... I am certain of that. More than ever before. [softens] I believe you must trust the judgment of others who hold your welfare so close to their hearts ...
CORA: Duncan ... [pause] Duncan, I promised you an answer. You have complimented me with your persistence and patience ... But the decision I've come to is I'd rather make the gravest of mistakes than surrender my own judgment.
[Heyward is stunned.]
CORA: And it's been unfair to you, while I search myself for feelings, which, if they were there and as strong as they ought to be, would've made themselves known long ago ... [pause] Take my admiration and friendship, Duncan. And please take this as my final answer. It must be no.
[Heyward' shattered inside.]
HEYWARD: I see ...
CORA: I am sorry, Duncan ...
[Heyward nods. He's speechless. He's errect as he leaves the room.
CLOSE: CORA
The tension rushes out of her and she shudders and leans against the quarter-timbered walls for support. Then she collects the linen and starts out.
CUT TO
INTERIOR FORT, INNER CORRIDOR - CORA
moving through the corridor past wounded. Two French mortar bombs explode above one of the casements. We hear shrill screams in the distance and ... ]
HAWKEYE (O.S.): ... it was no raidin' party out for pillage. The cabin was attacked by a war party. They are sweeping south down the frontier spreading terror among farms and Mohawk villages 'cos all the men are here.
IAN (O.S.): And my cabin's not thirteen miles south of Cameron's!
[Cora, passing the open door to Munro's crowded office, now hesitates.
CORA'S POV: THE ROOM
Hawkeye, Captain Jack Winthrop, Ian, seven or eight other militia spokesmen, Munro, Heyward, two adjutants, one lieutenant of Rangers.]
MUNRO: [to Jack] I must receive proof more conclusive than Mr. Poe's opinion before I weaken our defenses by allowing militia to withdraw.
JACK: Chingachgook's of the same opinion. Taken together, that's gospel. Your fort will stand or fall depending on Webb and reinforcements, not these colonials' presence.
MUNRO: I judge military matters, Captain Winthrop, not you.
HAWKEYE: That judgment is not more important than their right under agreement with Webb to defend their farms & families ... Major Heyward was at John Cameron's. He saw what it was.
MUNRO: [looking to Heyward for confirmation of his point of view.] What did you see, Major?
[Heyward looks around the room. And he catches the doorway ...
CORA
beyond the periphery of men, staring at him.
HEYWARD
Munro is expecting him to be the good soldier in defense of British military interests. At the same time ...
CORA
examines him with a cool, level stare.
HEYWARD
looks at Munro. More French rounds detonate O.S. What if Webb gets here and they need to launch a counter-attack? They need every man they have. It's his moment of decision ... ]
HEYWARD: [to Munro] I saw nothing that would lead me to the conclusion it was other than a raid by savages bent on thievery.
[Jack Winthrop grabs Nathaniel.]
HAWKEYE: You're a liar!
[CORA'S
saddened. Heyward's stature has fallen irrevocably in her eyes.
HEYWARD
can't help it. He turns to look at Cora ...
HEYWARD'S POV: DOORWAY
She's gone.
HEYWARD
suffused with an inner sadness, turns to Hawkeye.]
HAWKEYE: And the blood is on your hands!
[Heyward reaches for his sword.]
MUNRO: [to Heyward] I'll have none of that! [to coloniels] Montcalm is a soldier and a gentleman. Not a butcher.
HAWKEYE: Easy for you to suppose. While it is their women & children, not yours, alone in their farms!
MUNRO: [exploding] You forget yourself!
JACK: We are not forgettin' Webb's promise!
MUNRO: British promises are honored. And the militia will not be released. Because I need more definite proof than this man's word!
JACK: Nathaniel's word been good on the frontier a long time before you got here!
MUNRO: This interview's over! The militia stays!
JACK: [to Munro] Does the rule of English law no longer govern? Has it been replaced by absolutism?
[This is very dangerous talk.]
HAWKEYE: And if English law cannot be trusted, maybe these people would do better makin' a peace with the French!
HEYWARD: That is sedition! Treason!
HAWKEYE: That is the truth!
HEYWARD: [restaining himself] I ought to have you whipped from this fort!
HAWKEYE: Major! [changes down] Some day I think you & I are gonna have a serious disagreement.
MUNRO: [steel] Anyone fomenting or advocating leaving Fort William Henry will be hung for sedition. Anyone leaving will be shot for desertion. [pause] My decision is final. Get out.
[Hawkeye and the others are not intimidated. Their rage smolders. The look on Hawkeye's face says this is not over.
CUT TO ... ]
[EXTERIOR FORT, PARADE GROUND - BONFIRE - NIGHT
Sparks shower skyward. Impromptu music. Some Celtic proto-bluegrass played on fiddle & drums. It's stirring.
ANOTHER ANGLE: SOME WOMEN
laundresses, dance from soldier to soldier - English foot and American Rangers. A few people lit by the firelight are solemn. Most are stirred to lift their morale for a while.
THEIR FACES
underlit by the red firelight. They are a disposable people, a diverse plurality stuck in a postage stamp-size fort in an ocean of forest, locked into mortal deadly conflict because of the policies of cold and distant European monarchs.
A PLACE A LITTLE DISTANT FROM THE FIRE
We can barely make out the eyes and faces of a number of men behind logs, crates and new wreckage from the day's bombardment.]
HAWKEYE: [low] ... got no kin in the settlements. If I did, I'd be long gone.
IAN: You didn't think it right to be here in the first place.
HAWKEYE: By my light that's how I saw it then and I see it that way now ...
IAN: [low] But we are under English military authority.
JACK: [low] I believe if they set aside their law as and when they wish, their law no longer has rightful authority over us. All they have over us is tyranny, then. And I'll stay here no longer. No force on earth will keep me here ... Anyone caught leavin' the fort could be shot. So each man make your own decision ... Those who are goin', be back here in an hour.
HAWKEYE: Out the northern sally-port. Strike for the east side of the swamp until you clear the French picket line. Head north over the ridge, then come about southeast and fork left in Little Meadow and you're free of the outpost and skirmishers ...
A COLONIAL: [grumbles] Should've skinned outta this long ago.
COLONIAL #2: Got no families, Captain. Figured we'd stay and give 'em a hand even though ...
HAWKEYE: [to Colonial #2] I'll cover them from the top of the casement.
JACK: [in amazement] You're not coming with us?
[Hawkeye shakes his head.]
HAWKEYE: Got a reason to stay.
JACK: That reason wear a blue dress and work in the surgery?
[Low laughter]
HAWKEYE: [dry] It does and it is a better lookin' reason than you, Jack Winthrop. [more laughs] Push hard, 'cos you got to clear the French outpost by dawn. [sticks out his hand and grasps Winthrop's] Good luck, Jack.
[The men split up ...
CUT TO ...
FIRE - HAWKEYE
wanders among the dancers and musicians clustered in groups, lit by the firelight. Someone catches his eye and he moves in that direction ...
HAWKEYE'S POV: CORA
in the shadows, leaning against the wall, searching ... we sense she's been looking for him. He comes up to her. She turns in surprise.
CLOSER
Somehow she breathes easier because he's there. She's in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Hawkeye leads her away from some of the people.
CORA & HAWKEYE
Hawkeye takes Cora's hand. Cora is awakening to a new spirit, a new wind blowing through a new land, a new self-determination ... She's drawn to this rough yet graceful man with his direct manner. Hawkeye settles against a wall. She leans next to him. Their shoulders touch.
CORA
To her everything about him seems to be somehow right. She's discovered that the passions and outrage that move him, move her ... And her readiness to give herself to what stirs the deepest resonances of her soul is the same as his.
HAWKEYE
looks at her. She's beautiful in the firelight. Cora's eyes find his and she folds into his arms. His lips find hers and tears stream down her face. She's suffused with an elation she can't explain. In the night before doomsday a romance is born in rebellion amid the huddled people in this small stockade ripped from the black earth of the forests of a wild continent.
CUT TO ...]
[INTERIOR BARRACKS - LOW & WIDE - DAY
door CRASHES inwards. Twelve British sentries storm in. Four bear torches.
REVERSE: HAWKEYE, UNCAS, CHINGACHGOOK, TWO COLONIALS & SOME MOHAWKS
are out of the bunks and moving with them with tomahawks, knives, a flintlock ...]
SERGEANT: [O.S.] You! Halt!
[BRITISH SENTRIES
their muskets aimed mostly at Hawkeye.]
SERGEANT: As you were!!
[Hawkeye freezes. The others slow down, indecisive ... Hawkeye drops his tomahawk and says something in Mohican to restrain Chingachgook and Uncas. The British in the torchlight with the long muskets and bayonets are an image out of Goya.]
SERGEANT: Take him!
[Hawkeye's spun around and while his hands are bound.]
CHINGACHGOOK: [Mohican; subtitled] Why do they make my son prisoner?
HAWKEYE: [Mohican; subtitled] I helped Winthrop and the others leave ... This fight is not yours, father. I love you and my brother. And you should leave this place now and go to Can-tuck-ee ...
CHINGACHGOOK: [Mohican; subtitled] What will they do with my white son?
[One of the guards - scared to death by Chingachgook - nervously fingers his musket.]
GUARD: Get back from him!
[HEYWARD
enters.
HAWKEYE
shrugs in answer to Chingachgook's question.
HAWKEYE'S
moved out. As he passes Heyward, his eyes lock on his.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR MUNRO'S QUARTERS - CORA - DAY]
CORA: He saved us! We are alive only because of him ...
[WIDEN:
Heyward, Munro, Cora. We've entered mid-argument. An adjutant comes and goes. Heyward and Munro are sensitive to appearances in front of the adjutant. Cora couldn't give a damn.]
MUNRO: The man encouraged the colonials to desert in this very room, in my presence. He is guilty of sedition and must be tried and hanged like any other criminal, regardless of what he did for my children.
CORA: He knew the consequences. And he stayed. Are those the actions of a criminal? ... Duncan, do something.
HEYWARD: He knew the penalty for breaking regulations. He ought to pay without sending you to beg.
CORA: You know he wouldn't send me ...! You misrepresented what you saw and caused this. [frustrated] I, too, was at that farm. It was as he said ...
MUNRO: Not with enough certainty to outweigh British interests in this fort.
HEYWARD: And who empowered these provincials to pass judgment upon England's policies in her own colonies? To come and go without so much as a "by your leave."
CORA: They do not live their lives "by your leave." ... They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, burying their dead and their children along the way.
HEYWARD: [distant] You are defending him because you've become infatuated with him.
[Cora is having her intelligence written off as a hormone attack. She contains her fury.]
CORA: Duncan, you are a man with a few admirable qualities. But taken as a whole, I was wrong to have thought so highly of you.
[Heyward's shot through the heart.]
MUNRO: But the man is guilty of sedition and subject to military justice and beyond pardon.
CORA: "Justice"? If that's "justice" ..., then the sooner French guns blow the English army out of America, the better it will be for these people.
MUNRO: You do not know what you are saying!
CORA: [explodes] Yes I do! I know exactly what I am saying. And if it is sedition, then I am guilty of sedition, too!
[She exits, leaving them there.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FORT, STOCKADE - NIGHT
Heavy timbered door. A sentry. They stand at attention when Cora passes as opposed to barring her entry.
INTERIOR CELL - HAWKEYE
comes to the door, grips the bars with his hands and looks at Cora.
THROUGH THE BARS TO CORA
They are silent for a moment, then ...]
HAWKEYE: Sorry ... can't ask you in.
[Cora's pale smile.]
CORA: They're going to hang you. [pause; soft] Why didn't you leave when you had the chance?
HAWKEYE: Because what I am interested in is right here ...
CORA: What would you have me do?
[He touches her hand.]
HAWKEYE: Webb's reinforcements will arrive or not. If they do not arrive, the fort will fall. If that happens, stay close to your father. The French will protect the officer class among the English.
CORA: No. I will find you.
HAWKEYE: Do not. [pause] Promise me.
[Cora drops her forehead to Hawkeye's hands wrapped around the bars. She acquiesces, nods. Then HEAVY SHELLING commences. Cora & Hawkeye look up. Mortar bombs begin striking the fortress. Still dark. The final French bombardment has started.]
CORA: The whole world's on fire, isn't it?
[A pause.]
HAWKEYE: This part of it sure is ...
[Reaching through the bars set in the thick door, their hands clasp each others. On that image ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - VARIOUS CUTS - DAWN (2ND UNIT)
French cannoneers in Batteries #1 and #2 fire again and again. They work like precision drill teams.
FRENCH TRENCH
ending in Battery #3 is complete and surprisingly close to William Henry's walls. Crews reload the squat and massive newly arrived thirteen inch mortars.
MORTAR ONE
The flash-hole is primed. The burning fuse is jammed into the bomb. The primer charge is lit off and the crew ducks as the crude iron belches red flame and black smoke into the lightening sky. The second mortar ROARS. Then a THIRD.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - ENGLISH CANNON CREW - NIGHT
tries to return fire but can't under the heavy French bombardment. The French mortar bomb arcs in and EXPLODES smoke, flame and shrapnel, wiping out most of the crew. The fortress is under the heaviest attack we've seen. Wounded are in shock or terrorized. Another mortar bomb arcs in and explodes part of a building and casement, starting a fire. Another lands in the grounds. People scatter. It doesn't explode. One soldier dashes to rip out the fuse. As his hand is inches away ... EXPLOSION.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR STOCKADE - HAWKEYE - DAWN - LATER
protects Cora through the bars as she half sleeps through the muffled roar. Then the thundering stops. Hawkeye seperates himself from her and crosses to the window.
EXTERIOR FORT, MAIN GATE - HAWKEYES POV: CHEVALIER DE LEVIS
bows deeply to Major Beams. A French honor guard of five men is behind him. A white scarf is on his sword tip. The fresh destruction of the fort is apparent. Debris smolders.
INTERIOR FORT - STOCKADE - HAWKEYE
crosses to an awakened Cora. He touches her face. He's desperate to drill these next words into her brain.]
CORA: What is it?
HAWKEYE: I don't know. Whatever happens you stay with your father. You stay among the officers.
[Cora looks up at Hawkeye. We feel forboding. O.S. are heard drums ...
CUT TO ...]
[EXTERIOR FRENCH LINES - MUNRO, HEYWARD, BEAMS - DAY
The drums are from Munro's honor guard. They stop.
REVERSE: FRENCH SOLDIERS
Marquis de Montcalm, immaculate, backed by his guard of honor in white, grey and medium blue with six foot by eight foot regimental colors and the French flag (gold fleur-de-lis on a field of blue).
FACES
They carried two hundred and forty-five bateaux across a ten mile portage, all their supplies and artillery, and then rowed down the length of Lake George to get here. To them, assaulting this fort is the easy part. The drummers of the honor guard play a tattoo behind them.
INDIAN FACES
Huron, Ottawa, Osage, Choctaw, Fox ... hear the drum of the honor guard and wait. They're in war paint. Many tattoos. Split ears. The Osage scalping locks are hennaed red. Canadiens among them are bearded, dirty, half savage ... At their head ...
MAGUA
in full war paint, with a coterie of Huron warriors, silent, waiting. Drums.
INTERIOR FORT - ENGLISH TROOPS (TABLEAUX)
grim, silent, watchful.
COLONIAL MILITIA & MOHAWK INDIANS IN WAR PAINT (TABLEAUX)
watching the parlay from a blown apart battery. Silent.
WIDE: FRENCH & ENGLISH
and their honor guards. Montcalm steps forward and sweeps his plumed hat to the ground in a courtly bow. Munro bows coldly.]
MONTCALM: Colonel Munro, I have known you as a gallant antagonist. I am happy to make your acquaintance as a friend.
MUNRO: And I to make yours, Monsieur le Marquis.
MONTCALM: Please accept my compliments for the strong and skillful defense of your fortress. Under the command of a lesser man it would have fallen long ago given the superior numbers and material ... mere chance has allowed me to array against you ...
MUNRO: Monsieur le Marquis, I am a soldier, not a diplomat. You called this parlay for a reason.
MONTCALM: You have already done everything which is necessary for the honor of your Prince. I will forever bear testimony that your resistance has been gallant and was continued as long as there was hope. But now, I beg you to listen to the admonitions of humanity. I beg you to consider my terms for your surrender.
MUNRO: However I may apprise such testimony from Monsieur Montcalm, Fort William Henry is strong and stands.
MONTCALM: Honor that is freely accorded to courage, may be refused obstinacy ... These hills afford to us every opportunity to reconnoiter your works and I am possibly as well acquainted with your weak condition as you are yourselves.
[Is Webb really en route and Montcalm hopes to take the fort by duplicity before British reinforcements arrive?]
MUNRO: Perhaps the General's glasses can reach to the Hudson and he knows the size and imminence of the army of Webb ...?
[Montcalm takes a moment to reply and appears genuinely sympathetic to Munro.]
MONTCALM: [quietly] My scouts intercepted this dispatch intended for you.
[Munro is puzzled, suspicious.]
MONTCALM: [to Bougainville] Read the dispatch.
[HEYWARD & MUNRO]
BOUGAINVILLE: [O.S. - reading] "Colonel Munro - Fort William Henry. I have no men available to send to your rescue. It is impossible. I advise you to seek terms for surrender. Signed Webb."
[Munro is rocked, as if struck by a blow. Bougainville hands Heyward the letter.]
HEYWARD: [confirming] This is the signature of Webb. [to Munro] And I know the temper of our men. Rather than spend the war in a French prison hulk in Hudson Bay, they'd fight to the end.
MUNRO: [to Montcalm] You have heard your answer, Monsieur le Marquis. [salutes]
[Munro starts off. Montcalm stops him.]
MONTCALM: Sir. [challengingly] I am incapable of mistreating brave men. I beg you not to sign the death warrant of so many until you have listened to my terms.
[Munro turns.]
MUNRO: Such as ...?
MONTCALM: My master requires the fort be destroyed. But, for you and your comrades, there is no privilege that will be denied. None of your men will see the inside of a prison barge. They're free to go so long as they return to England and fight no more on this continent, and the civilian militia return to their farms.
MUNRO: Their arms?
MONTCALM: They may leave the fortress fully armed, but with no ammunition ... Other than that, ask what you wish.
[Munro's impressed with Montcalm's generosity.]
MUNRO: The honors of war?
MONTCALM: Granted.
MUNRO: My colors?
MONTCALM: Carry them to England to your King with pride.
MUNRO: Allow me to consult with my officers.
[As he turns away something's been disconnected inside Munro that can never get put back together. As the men move away from the French ...]
MUNRO: I have lived to see two things I never expected. An Englishman afraid to support a friend. And a Frenchman too honest to profit by that advantage.
HEYWARD: General Webb can burn in hell. We'll go back and dig our graves behind the ramparts! Our mission is to fight.
MUNRO: [flares] Death and honor are sometimes thought to be the same. Today I have learned that they are not.
[Munro looks at the fortress behind him.]
HEYWARD: Sir!
MUNRO: [stops him with his eyes] The decision is final.
[A beat. Then Munro turns toward Montcalm. Their eyes meet across the churned, scarred earth of the battlefield.]
MUNRO: I am deeply touched by such unusual and unexpected generosity ... The fort is yours under the condition that we be given until dawn to bury our dead, prepare our men and women for their march and turn our wounded over to your surgeon.
MONTCALM: Granted, Monsieur.
[And Montcalm bows deeply and as he does so ...
CUT TO ...]
To Read
[EXTERIOR FRENCH LINES - CLOAKED MAN - NIGHT
passes away from the little city of tents in the direction of the beach and towards William Henry. He seems to head towards a vantage point from which to observe the fort. As he approaches a sentry:]
SENTRY: Qui vive?
MONTCALM: France.
SENTRY: Le mot d'ordre?
MONTCALM: La victoire.
SENTRY: C'est bien, vous vous promenez bien matin, monsieur!
MONTCALM: Il est necessaire d'etre vigilant, mon enfant.
[The cloak parts. By the light of the moon the man's face is dimly perceived by us and the soldier as General Montcalm. The soldier snaps erect as Montcalm continues walking out beyond the line to a small stand of trees.
ANOTHER ANGLE: MONTCALM
