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A Kinder, Gentler Genghis
By bukkhead | June 24, 2008
FILM REVIEW: ‘MONGOL’
Written by Arif Aliyev and Sergei Bodrov
Directed by Sergei Bodrov
Rated R
126 mins.
Mongol is the story of Genghis Khan before he was khan, when he was still called Temudjin. Those who are well-read in the history of Genghis may notice discrepancies or liberties taken with the telling of this story, but Mongol is not a biopic or a documentary, or even meant to be merely historical. Mongol is, at heart, a love story, about a boy who loves his people, and a man who loves his wife.
At a very young age, Temudjin must go to a nearby village with his father to choose his future wife. This will be a political alliance, so that his father’s tribe can have peace with their enemies. But on their journey they stop at another small village to take rest, and it is there instead that Temudjin chooses a bride. Despite this, Temudjin’s father tells him he has done well to choose a bride for himself, and in this way, sets the tone for the rest of Temudjin’s life: to stay true to one’s morality, to never doubt one’s self.
What follows is Temudjin’s journey into and through manhood. As he grows he becomes hunter and hunted, husband and father, leader and slave, and all of his experiences motivated by his never-wavering desire to be with his bride. If this were merely a character study, it would be clear how one man was able to unite widely dispersed nomadic tribes and lead them to conquer most of Asia and Eastern Europe. This is a leader built by his experiences, tempered by his virtues.
But director Sergei Bodrov infuses Mongol with much more than just history. Filming took place in the steppe regions of China and Kazakhstan, the very land of the historical Genghis. Although a seemingly harsh landscape, Bodrov’s steppes are wide open spaces with enormous skies, inspiring a quiet beauty and awe. One can’t help but compare the land, its perseverance, to Temudjin himself.
Actor Tadanobu Asano plays Temudjin in a subdued manner, discarding the extroverted passion and rage of the mythic Genghis in order to show a man more complex, more subtle and wise. However, despite this outward-appearing calm, at any time there is no doubt that Asano’s Temudjin can move lightning quick and powerful. Opposite Asano is Honglei Sun as his blood brother Jamukha, himself a complex and wise man who’s own morality eventually comes into sharp conflict with the future Khan. As brothers and enemies, Asano and Sun have a chemistry that is palpable, in conversation, and in war.
Comparisons to Braveheart are inevitable, as folk heroes go, and to be true, battle scenes are played for effect: the style of blood spraying in slow motion taking over, briefly, for the substance of a man’s journey into history. But while Braveheart was, ultimately, the tragedy of a fallen hero, Mongol is a film about a hero’s creation, his first steps into greatness. It is the story of a man who’s love for his wife enabled him to fight for his people.
(This review was printed in the Newport Mercury.)
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