MOVIE REVIEW: Mongol

Mongol, the first of a proposed trilogy about Genghis Khan, tells the story of Temudgin, the boy, and then man, who would become the conquering Khan. It follows a story arc familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of heroic tales: fate combined with noble sense of duty creates the asphalt on Temudgin’s road to infamy.

As a boy Temudgin chooses his bride only to have an enemy clan break traditional Mongol rules of warfare intervene and interrupt. Later, his blood-brother and boyhood friend, Jamukha, becomes an enemy by also ignoring Mongol traditions. One interesting aspect is that as Temudgin rises into a Khan, he reinstates these traditions (such as no killing of women and children) while also adding more modern and authoritarian aspects to his rise (no betraying of your Khan, which if your goal is to be the one Khan, is a pretty good idea). These edicts are viciously enforced and as Temudgin rises in power, he trades some of his earlier nobility for ruthlessness, most notably on a battlefield where his cold-blooded strategy against a superior force should clue viewers in for the type of conqueror he will become.

Sticking to the hero story, but discarding Mongol tradition, Temudgin also goes to war after his wife is kidnapped by another clan (Jamukha flatly states that no Mongol has ever gone to war over a woman). This is a clever jab at many traditional hero stories from the West – from Homer’s Iliad to Mel Gibson’s Braveheart – where the hero’s quest begins with a damsel in distress. It seems that before Genghis Khan would try to conquer the western world, he must first be fitted into the western template of a hero.

Yet, in following this traditional hero story formula, Mongol also seemingly omits plenty of information. Years pass, struggles are overcome with little mention, and, most telling, little insight into eleventh century Mongolian society is revealed. I’m extremely uneducated on Genghis Khan and his society, and, while I’m interested in now reading a definitive book about his life, the story sticks to evaluating the Temudgin’s character rather than his society. This is, of course, important to the movie, but just a bit more about the clan differences would have been helpful to fully appreciate the accomplishment of united the Mongolian clans into the fierce conquering force it would soon become.

This is not to dismiss Mongol though but rather to point out that the movie left me wanting more. The story is engaging, the direction is fluid, the acting superb, and the locales extraordinary. Plus, I’m a sucker for the hero story, so I sat back and watched with complete satisfaction as Temudgin overcame one set-back over another to fulfill his fate. I’ll certainly be back for the next film. Good But Flawed*

*I’ve decided to begin using the rating system I used for my end of year reviews for all my reviews going forward. To recap the designations are: Highly Recommended; Recommended; Good But Flawed; Disappointing. Nimero may choose to use this system (or one of his own) for his seemingly daily visits to the Ethiopian cinema, but I am no Genghis Khan and there will be no “use colbinski’s rating system” edict enforced here.