Geoff EganMongol
July 1st 2008 00:35
The epic story of the Mongol Temudgin's story as the great Ghengis Khan is the type of thing that is just begging to be made in this day of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings style epics. Enter Segei Bodrov's new Russian-Mongolian-German-Kaza kh collaboration Mongol. It's the story of the rise to power of a clan chief's son who was exiled and chased by his fellow Mongols for his whole childhood. Who'se wife was stolen by the Merkit clan fro his father's crimes, and who'se only friends come to betray him. Pretty awesome origin story right?
Maybe. To tell the truth I'm still undecided on it. It's a cool film, with some really quality filmmaking behind it: some of the vistas of the Mongolian Steppe are breathtaking. The battle scenes are very cool. But it skips vital bits. Suddenly Temudgin has the second biggest army in Mongolia, it doens't explain why. Suddenly his wife can fake being a Chinese princess with money after being broke in the Steppe, again it doesn't explain why. It's a pretty slow film, which wasn't what I was expecting, but it worked.
Style wise it reminds me of some of those epic Chinese films ala Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero etc. Not in content, there aren't any kung fu battles or anything. Just the slow moving nature with amazing scenery.
But it ends before much cool really happens (mind you at 2 hours that's not to say it's short). It is very much only the story of the great Khan's rise to unite the Mongols. Nothing of the conquest of China, nothing of the expansion into the West. That's what I really wanted. I wanted epic battles, with the legendary circling Mongol horsemen against Easter European knights or giant Chinese armies. Wikipedia informs me that this is film one in a trilogy though, so I guess I can get my fill of Mongol invasions there. Wicked.
Actually the more I think about it I did enjoy this film. It just didn't deliver exactly what I was expecting.
Maybe. To tell the truth I'm still undecided on it. It's a cool film, with some really quality filmmaking behind it: some of the vistas of the Mongolian Steppe are breathtaking. The battle scenes are very cool. But it skips vital bits. Suddenly Temudgin has the second biggest army in Mongolia, it doens't explain why. Suddenly his wife can fake being a Chinese princess with money after being broke in the Steppe, again it doesn't explain why. It's a pretty slow film, which wasn't what I was expecting, but it worked.
Style wise it reminds me of some of those epic Chinese films ala Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero etc. Not in content, there aren't any kung fu battles or anything. Just the slow moving nature with amazing scenery.
But it ends before much cool really happens (mind you at 2 hours that's not to say it's short). It is very much only the story of the great Khan's rise to unite the Mongols. Nothing of the conquest of China, nothing of the expansion into the West. That's what I really wanted. I wanted epic battles, with the legendary circling Mongol horsemen against Easter European knights or giant Chinese armies. Wikipedia informs me that this is film one in a trilogy though, so I guess I can get my fill of Mongol invasions there. Wicked.
Actually the more I think about it I did enjoy this film. It just didn't deliver exactly what I was expecting.
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Comment by S.L. Bradish
Comment by Norm
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But I won't give it away.
Who would have thought Genghis Khan was Luke's real father?
Thinking on it, maybe the director spent too much time setting up apologies for the hero.
Comment by Maribeth
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Comment by Geoff Egan
Cinema XYZ
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Still the sequels are going to rock.
Comment by Ahmed
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Comment by Ash
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Flashes of memories
I went to see this last night and really enjoyed it - although as you say pretty huge things happened with no explanation for them.
Still worth the see i think
ash
Comment by Geoff Egan
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Still, point taken, it is fairly apologetic and portrays him as more of an honourable, almost reluctant ruler.
Comment by Ahmed
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They both killed millions of people to conquer the world, I beg to differ.
Comment by Geoff Egan
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Most Europeans see Alexander the Great as a heroic conquerer and I think the director of the movie was trying to push for this kind of characterisation. Which would surely be how most Mongolians (and possibly other Asian peoples?) see him, rather than as the despotic conqueror that people think of from European history lessons.
But I don't see Hitler's greatest crime as starting a war, it's something that rulers have done for as long as human history has run. His greatest crime was the wholesale slaughter of peoples based on their ethnic group, and belief systems.
Comment by Ahmed
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Again, I beg to differ, when you kill people you kill people, giving it a reason does not make it better or worse. Are we going to say 'Gengis Khan was better because he did not discriminate between who he killed' or are we going to say 'Hitler was better because he at least had a reason for killing people'.
In any case questioning the motives of killers as a means to justify their actions is dangerous, that's how yesterdays tyrants become todays heroes.
Comment by Geoff Egan
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But I'm sticking with my Alexander the Great analogy from before. Hero for people from one continent, imperialist invader to people from another. Same thing for Genghis Khan.
Comment by Ahmed
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Which is why I take issue with this movie, you can potray anyone as a sympathetic character it doesn't mean you should.
I try to be indifferent when I look at these things, whatever people might think is up to them, facts are immune to public opinion.
Comment by Geoff Egan
Cinema XYZ
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Good point. To tell the truth I was a bit awkward with it to start with, but didn't think about it until your (and Norm's) comments here.
But still it's an interesting story that hasn't really been told.
p.s. Have you seen Downfall aka [/i]Der Untergang[/i]? Awesome movie about the last days of Hitler that makes him look (kinda) human. But still a despotic nutjob
Comment by Ahmed
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Hang on, here are a couple: Really Long Link Really Long Link
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