Le Mohican

 “LE MOHICAN”


Overview A prequel by Gary LeDrew

The Mohican Begins 15 years before Last of the Mohicans. it is
King George’s War. England and France are busy fighting each
other in Europe but it is still uneasy time in North America.

The Mohicans are one of the first tribes to be displaced by the
British settlers they are uprooted and they move to New York
State only to be assailed by the (Mingo’s) Iroquois mostly
Mohawks. They driven back are much decimated and so must return to new
England and are allowed a small territory.
In one of the battles CHINGACHGOOK frees a Mingo prisoner a 7 year old French boy
Robert Chevalier. He is adopted by Chingachgook and lives with
the Mohicans in New England for 3 or 4 years. He is noticed by
an local minister who insists on sending him back to his parents
in Montreal. He stays a couple of years but cant stand the
religious school and runs away to a nearby tribe of Algonquins.
He is a natural woodsman and is soon highly respected. The
Algonquin’s jokingly call him “Le Mohican”.

By the time our
story starts Chevalier has made 2 voyages one with a French
explorer and one with a Scottish Fur Trader. Now he is making
his first trip as a smuggler for his white father smuggling
barrels of cognac to New England. He is looking for his foster
father Chingachgook and the Mohicans to help him.

When the Mohicans are attacked by the Mohawks and WILLIAM
VAUGHN who wants the Mohicans Land, Chevalier and his crew help
fight them off in the process they make mortal enemies of Vaughn
and the Mohawks. With Chingachgook's help they find a New England merchant
BERTRAM BUTLER who is happy to buy the cognac.
 Chevalier has a real fancy for his daughter LOUISE.

Chevalier’s success leads to trouble as he has money to play in
Montreal society and his dalliances lead to a duel with the
Notorious Captain Surcouf. The duel is a draw, they decide they
have more in common and the woman is probably not worth dying
for and they part as friends.
The next smuggling trip is disastrous. Vaughn has rallied the
Mohawks and his company of colonial volunteers to massacre the
Mohicans. Chingachgook and Uncas and a new white son Hawkeye
escape but Chevalier and his Algonquians are captured. Vaughn
plans to sell them as slaves and to trade them in the West
Indies for molasses’s Chevalier and crew are chained up in one
of Vaughn's schooners and set sail for the Indies. The schooner
is captured by none other than the notorious Captain Surcouf and
Chevalier and company are quick to join the pirate crew.

Chevalier takes to the sea quickly and Surcouf is happy to have
him and his Algonquin crew. Chevalier and Surcouf are soon the
toast of Louisbourg. They bring in English and Colonial prizes
and raid Vaughn’s Fishing camp at Canso. The daring Chevalier
even lands in New England to visit Louise and tries in vain to
find Chingachgook and Uncas. The Mohican Village is gone and
Vaughn’s men are preparing the land. He tries to kill Vaughn
only now Vaughn is conducting Military exercises with a Colonial
regiment can’t get close to him. Louise tells him that they are
gathering the troops for a war on Louisbourg. Chevalier runs to
join Surcouf and the ship. He wants to sail to Louisbourg and
warn them but the sea is crowded with troop ships and the Royal
Navy is now blockading Louisbourg. By fog and night they evade
the Navy and the invading forces. They hide their ship in a
nearby cove and take small boats to the fortress as the invading
forces are landing in Kennington cove.

The siege is a comedy of errors to begin with the French have just suffered a
mutiny and are short of supplies. For the most part the
Americans are drunken yahoos. For weeks the Americans mill about
with no real plan. Chevalier and Surcouf make raids for
supplies.

 In the midst of the siege somehow unknowing a French ship sails through
the British blockade and anchors outside the Fortress with long
awaited Payroll for all of French America. Somehow they have
sailed unscathed right through the British Navy.
Chevalier send some Algonquins to enlist some nearby micmacs to come and help.

The turning point comes when the Royal battery runs out of supplies and the French desert it, clumsily
they try to spike the guns but the Americans repair them and
that is the end. The Americans turn the guns on the Fortress
and they soon forced to surrender.
 The Governor sends the
payroll in a small boat hidden by the fog to Landing Cove near
the lighthouse to be buried and hidden from the British. This is
not unnoticed by Surcouf and Chevalier and they follow in a
fishing smack. Vaughn sees them and directs fire at them until
they are lost in the fog. He rows to one of his ships and takes
chase. Chevalier and his friend Askook shadow the French
soldiers and see where the treasure is buried. As they follow
the soldiers back to their boat Vaughn appears and he and his
men get into a fire fight with the soldiers and kill them all.

Vaughn then follows Chevalier and Askook into Big Lorraine harbour.
They chase them into the forest where they meet the gathering Micmacs
and Algonquins and are massacered.

They sail the fishing smack to join Surcouf's ship as they sail out of the harbour they
look to Louisbourg and see the British flag flying over the Fortress. It is all over the
Algonquins leave the ship for the long journey home. Chevalier and Surcouf head for the Spanish Main.

A prequel by Gary LeDrew

SCENE 1

FADE IN

CLOSE UP CANOE PADDLES IN UNISON

SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP, CHANGE.

Another canoe

SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP, CHANGE.

Another canoe

SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP, CHANGE.


PAN BACK TO FIRST CANOE

SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP, STOP.

Paddle down,

A rifle comes to the shoulder Close up of the stock scratched into the wood “Le Mohican” COCK! FIRE! BANG!

ALONG THE BANK A DEER FALLS, BIRDS SCREAM, THE FOREST ECHOS



CUT TO

The screen is a microcosm of leaf, crystal drops of precipitation, a stone, emerald green moss. It's a landscape in miniature. We HEAR the forest. Some distant birds. Their sound seems to reverberate as if in a cavern. A piece of sunlight refracts within the drops of water, paints a patch of moss yellow. The whisper of wind is joined by another sound that mixes with it. A distant rustling. It gets closer and louder. It's shallow breathing. It gets ominous.

We're interlopers on the floor of the forest and something is coming.

SUDDENLY: A MOCCASINED FOOT

rockets through the frame scaring us and ...

EXTREMELY CLOSE: PART OF AN YOUNG INDIAN FACE

running hard. Stops Cocks his head at the sound, His head shaved bald except for a scalp-lock. Tattoos. He's sixteen. He seems tall and muscled for his age. Heavy, even breathing. We'll learn later this youth is UNCAS, He will be the last of the Mohicans.

PROFILE: UNCAS' ARMS

flash as he runs again. One carries a Bow & arrow. Sweat on the man's skin. A calico shirt is gathered at the waist over a breechcloth. He wears leggings to protect his legs. A long-quiver hangs from his back.

CUT TO ...

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST - MASSIVE WAR CLUB - DAY

in the hand of another running man. He's heavier, older ...He stops at the sound as well.

CHEST

A green bear claw is tattooed there. Silver armband. A snake is tattooed over his left eyebrow. Silver rings in his ear. He's thirty to thirty-five. His head is shaved into a scalp-lock. It says: "Come and lift this from me. Take it, if you can ..." That prospect strikes us as extremely unlikely. This man is



CHINGACHGOOK.

The French call him "Le Gros Serpent," the Great Snake, because "he knows the winding ways of men's nature and he can strike a sudden, deathly blow."

WIDE ANGLE: CHINGACHGOOK

Changes direction runs, disturbing no leaves, no branches; making no sound. He's running parallel to Uncas through the cathedral of mature forest. It's heavily canopied. There's very little brush. The girth of the trees is huge. Shafts of light illuminate motes of dust and turn leaves emerald where the sun breaks through. Sometimes there's ferns; rhododendron, sometimes pale grass and outcroppings of rock. These men run the forest streams, over boulders, fallen trees and down into ravines as if they own them. They do.

CUT TO ...

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST - LONG BLACK HAIR - DAY



Crouching in the bushes. His shirt is tied at the waist His wampum belt holding a tomahawk and a large knife are all laying on the ground in front of him. A rifle leans beside them.

His name is ROBERT CHEVALIER. He's a five years older than Uncas. The French and the French-speaking tribes know him as Le Mohican. and CHINGACHGOOK and the Iroquois and Delaware-speaking tribes know him as Chevalier. Sweat stains his shirt. He picks through leaves to wipe himself. He hears a noise and jumps up gathers his things and flashes through the tree branches disturbing nothing. Making no sound.


UNCAS

stops dead, holding out his hand ... no sound.

CHINGACHGOOK


slips through young trees and stops, shouldering his smoothbore musket. Is this an ambush?

He enters a clearing on the river 6 canoes are pulled high there is a large stack of liquor barrels. He looks around and approaches his club held high ready to smash them.



CHEVALIER'S POV:

MASSIVE WAR CLUB - DAY

Through the trees ahead he sees Chingachgook. Five feet and fourteen pounds of club is elevated



CHEVELIER SCREAMS most un Indian like. ...FATHER NO-OOO ARRÊT! STOP!



leaps out of the bushes ...



WIDE

Suddenly Indians are appearing out of the woods from everywhere. Chevalier’s men with the deer. The different tribes eye each other warily. Chingachgook’s men with partridge, turkeys and several rabbits. We realize they were all hunting separately. Both sides look at as Chevalier Hugs Uncas and Chingachgook. Chevalier is stepson and stepbrother.



The two younger men treat Chingachgook with an respect and affection. Chevalier's a dialectic of two cultures and technically an enemy. In his coloration and worldliness he's more the French Settler. In his independent views and candid manner and in his canoe and combat skills and woodsman -ship, he's more native American (Mohican or Algonquin).



CHINGACHGOOK

Looks at Chevalier’s men warily

(low Mohican; sub-titled)

Are they Huron?

CHEVALIER

No Father Algonquin

They are my brothers and my crew.

They Make Greetings

Then Chingachgook taps his club on a barrel...]

CHINGACHGOOK

(low Mohican; sub-titled)

Does my white son wish to infect my people with devil rum.

CHEVALIER (low Mohican; sub-titled) ..

No Father It is finest Brandy I wish to sell to Americans .for my white father.. We were going to make a cache here until I found you to help me.

Looking at Chingachgooks’ men

CHEVALIER (low Mohican; sub-titled) ..

This is not a hunting party? It looks more like a war party.

CHINGACHGOOK

(low Mohican; sub-titled) ..


We are being careful Mingos are scouting us.

Cache no good now bring firewater to Village

Uncas stays with Chevalier they load the canoe and head further down the small lake as Chingachgook and hunting party melt back into the forest.


FADE OUT

FADE IN
AMBROSE BUTLER’S WAREHOUSE NIGHT


Chevalier and Ambrose shake hands over the kegs of Cognac. Chevalier points to a score of muskets and buys twenty muskets and powder etc. from the gold Ambrose has paid him. Ambrose’s beautiful daughter comes in and Ambrose notices the instant spark between her and Chevalier.

FADE OUT

FADE IN – MISTY PRE-DAWN MORNING MINGO CAMP


The Mingos have gathered a score of canoes to attack the Mohicans. The canoes are pulled well up on the shore. Chevalier with the Algonquins and Mohicans now armed with new muskets take out the Mingo sentries. They attack the awakening Mingo and retreat to the shore where they cast off the canoes and pick off more Mingo from a safe distance.

CHEVALIER

FADE IN MOHICAN VILLAGE NIGHT


The village looks prosperous, The Mohicans obviously are very successful farmers. They are entertaining their Algonquin guests in style helped from the days hunting. As the official party winds down Chingachgook and Chevalier wander down to the canoes. The canoes are guarded by Uncas and Askook. Robert goes to a canoe and takes out a jug of cognac. He takes a drink and passes it Chingachgook.

CHINGACHGOOK
No firewater my son.

CHEVALIER

This is different father it is very expensive. This the eau d’vie for the rich whiteman.

CHINGACHGOOK

I will taste it to know the difference.

He takes a drink and Chevalier takes a drink and stoops to put it away. Chingachgook stops him and has one more long pull.

Uncas looks on surprised.

CHEVALIER (SMILES)

Will I make my father a drunkard.

CHINGACHGOOK(smiles)

Maybe

CHEVALIER

Why are the Mingo here. This is not their land.

CHINGACHGOOK

A white man wants our farmland. He has paid the Mingo to attack us.

CHEVALIER

Are not the Mingo friends with the British like you are?

CHINGACHGOOK

Who knows The Mingo were with the French and now with the British. Tomorrow ? (shrugs)

CHEVALIER

Looks across the lake. He sees something and goes to his canoe and gets a telescope. Focus on faint glows in the far forest.

Mingo!
FADE OUT