Rama’s SCREEN

I can see why this movie was nominated for Oscar for Best Foreign Language category some time ago. MONGOL excels in its theatrical elements. The production is impressive, especially the daring cinematography that takes to see places and situations unlike any other. The story may not be… accurate but what real-life-based movie isn’t. The result is as ambitious as the making of this epic project but in the end, it makes you wish the story would cover more.

MONGOL is the epic historical movie of one of the greatest conquerers that ever lived. The tale takes us to his early years as a poor slave and his struggle to keep his family alive all the way to his rise to power and unite the Mongol Empire. Ever since he was a child, he was destined for glory but the road to there was anything but easy.

Writer/director Sergei Bodrov has done well in trying to fill the gaps in the historical accounts of Genghis Khan, mostly passed down from generation to another orally.
I think humanizing a dictator that some may consider barbaric and unforgiving is never an easy job. This movie assumes that what compelled or motivated Genghis Khan to do what he did was his love for family and the revenge he felt growing up, poor, beaten and treated as slave.

However, I sorta wish Sergei Bodrov would go even deeper in assuming how the main character got from not having much, to having an army.
But I guess if it went any longer, it would turn out as overdrawn and boring as Oliver Stone’s Alexander.

There are reoccurring themes in this movie represented by prophetic predictions, destiny, superstitious elements such as fear of thunder and that everything comes around in a vicious circle.

Some may have an objection to the inaccuracy of the story or that the fact that the actors are Japanese, Chinese and other nationalities or the fact that it was made by a Russian.
Keep in mind that when Genghis was in power, Most of Asia was his including Russia… and the movie reminds us that it is about the rise to power, not the life and death of the great Khan.

Visual quality, I think the battles scenes and the violence are just as great or slightly even better than most Hollywood’s epic movies today. The costumes, the set direction are quite convincing, worthy effort to bring us back in time to how it was back in the 13th century. Of course, China’s landscape which serves as the background plays an important role in the depiction.

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