This is one of my favourite films. I bought it when it was released on VHS probably back in 1993, then on DVD and now Blu-ray. This is an historical epic set in 1757 during the colonial wars between the British and French for control of the Americas. This full bodied action adventure story flows along at a steady pace, it is pure entertainment and a joy to watch.
Daniel Day-Lewis gives an excellent performance as Hawkeye the adopted son of the Mohican Chingachgook played by Russell Means. As do all the cast including Madeleine Stowe, Eric Schweig, Steven Waddington, Wes Studi, Jodhi May and you also see Pete Postlethwaite. You can read about what happens in IMDB or Wikipedia but it will spoil it for you if you havent seen the film.
I would love to say the picture is excellent but I was disappointed with this transfer. It is much sharper than the DVD of course but that is just the nature of the HD format plus there are no marks or scratches that I could see so it has been cleaned. The sound better than the DVD but not as good as I feel it could have been.
My biggest problem is with the colour. It appears to have been enhanced and can look really false in many places. The most telling of these is the ever so deep red of the Redcoats jackets, in many scenes it just looks like it has been painted on right over the shadows and all. No lowering of your colour settings will fix this. During the battle scenes I noticed explosions that just got painted with red as they died and even dark halos around some of the torches. This transfer is darker than the DVD and this becomes very noticeable, there are quite a few low light scenes and the picture does appear murky here and there, and again the false colour becomes very evident.
Im not saying dont buy it because I am being critical, but if you have the DVD you might want to think twice before making a purchase. The film is only twenty years old and should have been easier to restore or transfer. When you consider the great restorations we have had on Blu-ray recently, Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra and Doctor Zhivago, all around fifty years old, one has to wonder why more effort wasnt made with this because It is a great film and very enjoyable to watch. I only wish whoever did the transfer had done a better job.