MONGOL
by Chris Knipp

Mongol, the Russian-directed historical epic shot for $20 million in China, Mongolia, and Kazhakstan, with a multi-national cast and crew and Japanese and Chinese stars, seeks to depict the first thirty-five years of the life of the emperor and world conqueror Genghis Khan. I say "seeks," because there's a lot of guesswork involved at this early stage of Genghis Khan's life. Not much is known for sure--and even in depicting legend, director Sergei Bodrov chooses to leave out many connectives that might make the story more logical.

For example: Temudjin, as the young super-Khan is called, is a yoked prisoner awaiting execution. Then all of a sudden the yoke is off and he's free. In another scene, he sinks through thin ice deep into the frozen water below. In the next scene, he's lying on land and getting rescued. Much later, he's languishing in a Chinese prison--his face seeming to acquire a patina of dust and sand--Bodrov excels at faces and tableaux--and then within a few seconds he's miraculously found by his faithful wife Börte, she throws him a key, and he's free. Then, a few shots later, without any explanation, Temudjin is leading a vast army to defeat his arch rival. All these scenes make up a movie that is unquestionably enjoyable as spectacle--but unsatisfying from the historical and storytelling standpoints.

Could anyone explain how Genghis Khan got to be Genghis Khan? That I don't know; but Mongol doesn't really try, The movie presents its biographical narrative without most of the necessary connectives that make sense of a life. Despite lots of dramatic scenes with snappy dialogue, striking images, and above all, computer-assisted battles with crunching bones and crackling arrows and ringing swords and vast, awesome landscapes, the film has an epic style without the logical resolutions we need to understand the epic themes.

There's one theme that keeps coming back, and it's a powerful one: despite all the battles, this may be more an epic love story than anything else. It is that, at least, in the backhanded way The Odyssey is a love story, because, though Temudjin is away from Börte a lot of the time as Odysseus is mostly away from Ithaka and Penelope, Mongol's opening sequence gives Börte, the lady in his life, a primary importance that she never loses, wander on his weary way to conquering the world though he may. As played in childhood by Bayertsetseg Erdenebat, Börte belongs to another tribe and is evidently a liberated young woman of the twelfth century. She isn't chosen by but chooses Temudjin when he's nine years old and she's ten. It's not supposed to be that way--and who knows if it actually was?--it seems a bit implausible. But so the legend goes. Temudjin is traveling with his Khan (tribal chieftain) father (Ba Sen) on their way to placate another tribe by choosing the boy's wife from among that other tribe's girls. When they don't, the father is promptly poisoned by the other tribe. And its leader, Targutai (Amadu Mamadakov), vows to kill Temudjin--but not for a year or so, because "Mongols don't kill children."

Well, what Mongols do or don't do seems up for grabs, and probably at the time, historically, "Mongol" itself must have been a rather vague concept. In fact that is another running theme: what's a Mongol? What are their primary values? There is no satisfactory answer, though killing and stealing are advanced as major concepts.

Surprisingly, since as we traditionally think of things, not too many are "to the right of Genghis Khan," and since this movie's superhero succeeds in wiping out all his enemies, with all the ruthlessness you'd expect, Temudjin is nonetheless played (as an adult) by the imposing Tadanobu Asano as a gentle-faced, Zen-like fellow--a strong advocate of fair play. Tadanobu, along with the somewhat over-histrionic Chinese actor Honglai Sun as Jamukha, his childhood blood brother and eventual arch rival, are both impressive in their roles. Khulan Chuluun, as the adult Börte, is a striking presence.

But the real star, with some substantial help from computer-generated effects, is the vast landscape of steppe, snow, mountain, and sky that dominates many scenes. With effective use of lenses and light, the filmmakers have created an epic look, and it's this, plus the authoritative acting, that make this film worth viewing--but only if you like this kind of thing and if you don't mind that you're not going to emerge from it with any historical knowledge. Said to be the first of a trilogy. I would approach the sequels with a certain amount of reserve.

©2008 Chris Knipp
CineScene