Mongol

June 20, 2008

Rated: R Runtime: 126 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Genghis Khan movies. John Wayne in THE CONQUEROR, Jack Palance in THE MONGOLS, and Omar Sharif in GENGHIS KHAN. This time around, Russian director Sergei Bodrov had the novel idea to cast an Asian; Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano as Temudjin, the Man Who Would Be Khan.

This was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar last year, from the glorious nation of Kazakhstan.

This is Khan: The Early Years (Late 12th century). Also The Softer Side Of Khan. He finds true love at the age of 9, choosing his bride. Then comes a lot of setbacks when a warlord kills his father. He’d like to kill Temudjin too, but it doesn’t seem sporting to kill a kid, so, like the Dread Pirate Roberts, he keeps in effect telling him he’ll kill him in the morning. It’s part BRAVEHEART, part the beginning of CONAN THE BARBARIAN. The boy and teen Temudjin spends so much time in stocks that I figured they’d chain him to The Wheel Of Pain.

Eventually he grows to his destiny as a leader. He’s fiercely loyal to his friends (as long as they don’t cross him), considerate of his underlings, and turns out to be surprisingly favorable to adoption (at various times his wife has to use her feminine wiles to get him out of scrapes, which sometimes ends up with her pregnant with someone else’s babies).

The windswept steppes of Outer Mongolia (or Kazakhstan) are stark, beautiful, and… well, windswept. Really windswept. You may be reaching for some chapstick after two hours of their windsweptedness.

The first 3/4ths of this is really good. It starts with Temudjin as an adult in a bit of a fix, and then a lot of flashbacks to how he got there. After this is resolved, the movie drags a bit, until the final obligatory Big Battle. The director is planning a trilogy on the life of Genghis Khan, so it must have been difficult to decide where to end this one.

Posted by Mack Guffin | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Amadu Mamadakov, Drama, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun, Tadanobu Asano, Theatrical