A Run to Fort Edward - The Last of the Mohicans (Director's Expanded Edition) 

I still to this day don't understand why this scene was deleted from most versions of the movie. The scenery, the music, everything about it was absolutely incredible!!

Just seeing this now, it changes the entire perception of Maj Hayward. The theater version has him basically just appearing to be just a stuck up, jealous, aristocrat and kind of inept. This scene shows he’s a capable combat officer.

Finally a scene where the British army isn't portrayed as a bunch of untrained soldiers who can't fight properly

They should've kept this scene. It makes Duncan look way more competent.

I really dont understand why they cut this part. This is the diversion that allowed for the messanger to slip through the lines, and a great display of Major Heywards leadership

The scenery, the music, my God. It really transports you to those frontier times, even if it's a romantic imagining of it.

My ancestor Benjamin Balch served with Colonel Joseph Frye's Massachusetts Provincials at Fort William Henry. He died of his wounds received during the siege. His comrades wrapped his remains in a blanket & carried it all the way back to his home in Scituate Maassachusetts. His stone survives to this day.

I love the part at 0:13 when the British soldiers shout and raise their muskets, so awesome.

Man. Running through that forest at top speed with all those Indians and French trying to kill you and hoping the guy who's shooting behind you has perfect aim, would have been a helluva rush like no other.

A large line of well led Brittish redcoats. The international sign in the day that you where in for a utterly savage beating.

My favorite part is that Duncan also took part in the company volley. There are too many movies that show the officers just shouting orders all the time and not actively working with their men.

This scene captures the effectiveness of well drilled soldiers and massed volley better than any I've seen. Notice by their caps (in contrast to the Tricorne) that they are not just any British foot infantry. These are likely guards or grenadiers, which makes them even more elite and well drilled. Notice how they fire by rank. The only problem I have with it is that they do not reload after the first volley.

Gotta love the Highlander’s in the beginning running in their kilts with the Mohawks

I remember buying the "Director's Cut" of LOTM and when THIS scene came up...I probably watched it 20 times before proceeding with the rest of the movie!! The theatrical scene involving the courier has ALWAYS been my FAVORITE part of the movie, but adding in the "diversion" just made it ten times better!! I CANT BELIEVE they didn't leave this scene in the theatrical version!! It's just INCREDIBLE!!! DEFINITELY THE VERY BEST SCENE IN THIS INCREDIBLE MOVIE!!!

This has to be the best movie ever made. The music, scenery, and acting all came together to make this masterpiece. It makes you feel like you're there. An absolute classic.

Brits fighting how they actually did hence the whole empire thing?! By God that's soldiering

That Courier had balls of steel!

It's weird that the one scene where the british are shown to be somewhat competent in battle is cut from the theatrical and blu-ray edition of the film.

Truly this scene is one of the most accurate representation of the effectiveness of 18th century volley fire.

I love this clip! My favorite part is watching the discipline of the soldiers in how they respond to orders. As a reenactor it's amazing!

Great musical scoring for this scene. It’s unlike any other melody from the soundtrack which is amazing. But I love this stand alone score for the courier scene.

One of my all time favorite stories as a kid, and this is by far the best film version of a classic tale. As to the British army being out matched in hand to hand combat - I don't think, so. Neither were the French, or the Russians or the Prussians at this time (The Seven Years War). All European armies were spectacularly well drilled at close melee combat. We should remember that this was the time of maximum colonial expansion, with ridiculously small but well trained armies putting down native tribes of many thousands of men all over the world. In North America it was usually the natives that kept their distance as much as possible for that reason. Most native tactics were based upon stealth and ambush, with close combat as a final tactic. They found the British bayonets to be very sharp and well driven. In fact, so did European opponents of the day, with very few recorded bayonet charges actually brought home to contact. Usually, the other side broke and ran at the last second before contact. It was known that a bayonet wound was deadlier than a somewhat minor wounding by a ball (if luck). Bayonets were well designed to leave a triangular hole that didn't close up, causing loss of blood by the bucket. If run through by a bayonet, you died. Two or three times, you died quicker. There is mythology that is propagated by the flawless shooting from the walls as the runner makes it through, though. The scene seems to show accuracy at what might be 200-300 yards or maybe more, given the time of the run. At night, too. I've shot thousands of rounds through these replica firearms and they are generally not capable of such performance except by luck. Even very fine ones that are custom made. There are only a few verified hits during the Revolution of British officers in combat when long riflemen were sniping. A hit is a good as a kill in combat, so even a ball to the calf or shoulder would put a man down. At 200 yards, shooting a round ball from a rifled barrel of 40-50 inches, I would say might hit a man, or his horse, but a clean kill would be remarkable. However, under 125 yards, no officer is safe. That's why American riflemen were given no mercy, and were bayoneted by fast charging British soldiers who knew that reloading a rifled barrel took too long. So, they endured the first volley then charged as fast as they could to come to grips. Usually - almost always - the American rifle companies took off, having no bayonets.

As the line goes in The Patriot: "Going muzzle to muzzle with Redcoats in an open field - it's madness". Excellent scene, the first swoosh of the bayonets at 0:15 gets you really pumped up!

Great scene. This is what the British Army was so good at, and it shows here.

This is the only version of the film someone should see. Without Duncan’s roughly one minute scene, the film feels strange. Like something is missing.

You can almost smell the gunpowder. Wes Studi was fantastic. I hope he received an award.

First movie scene ever where British soldiers can aim and fire from their muskets

1:07 Incredibly epic camera shot

And it’s battle scenes such as this which get me back playing Empire Total War

Lets face it, the music and cinematography were the real stars of this moving picture.

"Wheel to the right, on centre! March!"

The discipline shown from the british troops right here are unmatched

I like that double take when Duncan sees the French infantry coming up.

Poor dude, everyone steps out of the trench and he gets nailed before he can even aim!

I like how he is running and not looking back and the brothers are not missing a single shot the music great

My my my....One of my favorites movies while living in this world.

The courier is probably thinking "shit i need a new job"

wheel to the right is a really hard maneuver, finished of by a perfect volley

0:14 imagine what these guys were like in reality if you can get some extras to be this intimidating for one scene. A bayonet hedge is just a terrifying sight.

It's a combination of so many small decisions and aesthetic choices, but this movie just feels so real. I can't put my finger on why, but it is so obvious how much Michael Mann and the entire creative team for this movie wanted to get this period right. The entire film looks like a Joshua Reynolds painting. The battle scenes in other 18th c. movies are okay (the Patriot, etc), but there are so many minor flaws it's just hard to compare it to this fully immersive experience.

Before the Seven Years' War, France was the major military and political power of Europe, and therefore, the world. The only thing they couldn't match was England's navy. Only once in history have the French ever beaten the English Navy in a massed engagement, and that was at Yorktown.

I love how Hawkeye keeps his vision fixed on the runner while readying his hand for the next rifle.

I saw this movie way back in the day when it first came out at the cinema; this scene was in it, and was even more impressive on the big silver screen

The runner got the assignment, not once panicked and looked around, forward as his life depended on it.

ive been looking for this scene!!!! funny how you can search and search and never find a video on here and then one day it randomly shows up in your feed

Shame that scene was deleted ,but still one of my favourite films. Music,Scenery ,and the love story set amongst the turmoil of the 7 years war on the frontier. Just Brilliant !

The competency of Major Duncan and the British Infantry on full display. This shows on the open field a disciplined line of infantry and accurate volley is devastating. I mean look how it inflicted casualties on the French infantry line forming. Even if like in the movie they were in the forest infantry with bayonets are deadly.

The music really plays to the theme of the book. Cooper's Story The Last of the Mohicans has a lot of heroism and the music reflects it really well.

I like how they cut this but didn't cut out "one of these days, you and I are going to have a serious disagreement." Great editing.

I will watch this scene each morning before work in preparation for the battle to come.

Seeing the well armed, well trained, and courageous troops come from the trenches to meet their enemy face to face - unreal how good this is. Gets the blood pumping.

The only thing I disliked in this amazing movie was that the British are portrayed as incompetent fools and never seam to hold their own aside from the main characters. This scene should’ve been in the final film showing what the red coats were good at.

This has an amazing soundtrack!

In these days of streaming and people not caring how long movies are, I vote for only director’s cuts.

This film is my alltime favourites. Great cinematography and music too.

the soundtrack is called "the Courier" by Trevor Jones

There's a lot of talent on display in this scene. Not just with the headline actors or the soundtrack, even the extras and stuntmen are fantastic in this movie. The stuntman that takes Hawkeye's bullet at 1:53 really sells it. The tragedy of good stunts and special effects is that if they're done properly, no one ever thinks twice about them.

Loved this movie and the music!

These short musketry scenes are the best i've ever seen.

i dont really get how they cut one the best movie scenes......

i love how this scene shows that while Hawkeye is amazing at fighting, he's special. Not all the indians were that good at killing, and the British regulars have some skill too when they're fighting in a field instead of a forest.

They did a really good job here showing the why the British where so deadly in the open field at the time in comparison to heavily wooded areas like in other parts of the film, shame it didn’t make it into the Final Cut as it showed their strengths and weaknesses.

Beautiful movie.

This is epicly well done. Especially the dicipline and utter contempt the Brittish have in standing up even though besieged to still counter where possible. Keep in mind these red coats are the troops and officers in the zenith of Brittish might across the globe. These are the troops that built a empire.

No idea why this was cut from the Blu-ray, it's a great depiction of war during that time period.

+Steven Dunn These Grenadier are British. The Horse of Hannover is on their Caps, as during this Time, the english Kings were of the House of Hannover.

How could they have left this out? Jesus

Pause at 1:16 for a beautiful sunset shot

Montjoie Saint Denis!

We need more movies about the French and Indian War.

Those Grenadiers look badass

I get that this film is set in the earlier stages of the war when the British weren't doing so well, so I get that most of the scenes would have the British losing, but damn it's just so satisfying seeing redcoats kicking ass like that. We need more movies with scenes like that.

I love this scene because it shows the British being badass before being ambushed.

@RockandRoller2009 For all who doubt, the Scots in this scene are mentioned in the script: EXTERIOR FRENCH TRENCH - THREE PICKETS - NIGHT 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. 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

They don't make'm like this anymore. Just "boom boom" movies nowadays. The pause between the musket shots builds tension and you are eager to see the results when they do finally shoot. Not historically acurate but soooo satisfying. And the music and scenery. Personally one of my favorite movies.

We were unstoppable in those days..still, its good to see that some things never change, we still have the best army in the world.

"Silk patching will give you an extra 40 yards."

Everyone gangster until they face Redcoat volley fire

So disciplined.

1:16 A sort of sickening nostalgia for an era long past

Not impossible shooting, but very difficult with 18th century firearms technology.

They'll be long land pattern muskets (brown bess). During the seven years war, the long lands were used most by redcoats. it wasn't until after/during the american war independence did redcoats start using the less clumsy short land pattern musket, which was a few inches shorter.

Hollywood film where the redcoats are actually accurate and competent? Whoa.

I live not too far from where this battle actually took place (the movie was filmed in North Carolina I believe). You can visit a completely faithful re-build of Fort William Henry in Lake George. Pretty cool if you’ve never been.

All these comments about the Redcoats finally being accurate, while that may be, their effectiveness was more on their speed of volley, among the best in their time, their grit to stand there and trade when lesser soldiers would break, and their willingness to charge and finish it, with nothing more then a bayonet with some guts behind it.

The flintlock rifle in the novels was named KillDeer. The rifle he used to shoot the last Huron to help the courier escape. He acquires it in the last book Cooper wrote about Nathanial, but it was the first chronologically, The Deerslayer. I would love to see someone make all five of the movies, Last of the Mohicans only because the movie's ending is vastly different than the book. The Deerslayer was made as a movie in the late 70's and Madeleine Stowe had the role of the younger daughter. It wasn't very close to the novel, as Steve Forrest who played Nathanial, was in his 50's and the character was a young man in his 20's in the book.

Just found this scene for the first time and its blown me away, makes the film so much better. The detail of the Highlanders stripped down and acting as historical SF alongside the Mohawks absolutely kicks bottom. Would have loved to have seen that aspect fleshed out a bit maybe a scene with them being picked and issued close combat weapons by Duncan and their officers and then some of the combat that they engaged in alongside the native warriors. The context of them isnt too clear as it is.

The only thing the French and the Natives feared is the legendary "Black Watch" no one can match the fighting abilities of the ladies from hell.

I've seen a man in real life hit a watermelon from 350 yards with a Kentucky long rifle. This scene's rifle accuracy is unlikely but not outside the realm of possibility.

As a still proud, U.S. military Veteran (Army), I still have to confess, as in here, i have never, ever, heard a, or any, kind of command of "eyes center"; however, and, in here and also in this seeming, impending, overwhelming, unexpected, full frontal attack, I can see why alesd officer, here, would not want want his troops focused on what lies ahead, but rather, on him and his commands, voice, orders, only....

If you look at 1:36, one of the guys going after the runner looks like he’s wearing a suit of armor, which is strange. But I also love how the flintlock being shot by the other guy in the same instance throws sparks from the pan about 10 feet in the dark. This entire clip was just an awesome scene.

best movie ever. wish i was one of them red coats....

just dropping in to see how you boys is doin.

The music is the best part of this scene.

This is a rare line battle scene in this movie. This is a famous scene where the bravery of the infantry stands out. It's very unfortunate that it was deleted.

God forbid they actually leave a scene in the film that shows Duncan being a hero/ally to Hawkeye

Are those Highlanders running with the natives in kilts at the beginning? If so, that’s a badass little touch.

should have stayed in the movie from the beginning. This scene had to cost thousands in pyrotechnics alone. as many others have mentioned the music is perfect as well..

thats some amazing accuracy for a musket, love this movie though,first watched this when i 10 years old.