Film Reviews

Mongol

• Rating:
• Director: Sergei Bodrov
• Starring: Bu Ren
• Details: Germany / Russia / Mongolia / Kazakhstan / 120mins (15A).

Someone, somewhere, has a great version of Mongol with all the great bits in it, and they're keeping it for themselves. Or so it would seem, because for some reason, Sergei Bodrov's would-be epic shoots itself in the foot at almost every turn. A biopic of Genghis Khan before he was Genghis Khan sounds intriguing: kicking off with an extended Conan/300 intro, we see a young Genghis - or Temudjin - travel with his father to a distant village to pick a bride. On the way back, with his father poisoned and his family wiped out, Temudjin travels the country kung-fu style before meeting the charismatic Jamukha (Sun). They become blood brothers, but when they grow up and Jamukha's men see that Temudjin is a greater leader, they leave Jamukha and take up with their new master or 'Khan.' Rivalries grow, as do the opposing armies, and the two former friends meet to decide who is the great Khan that will rule Mongolia. However, that ultimate battle - the showstopper, the sequence that will hook an audience, the one that they will tell their friends about - never happens. Bordov painstakingly sets everything up, raises the tension and just as you rub your hands with glee for a bloody showdown, Bordov decides to cut to the aftermath. Boo! The writer-director is more concerned with deconstructing Genghis Khan's barbaric myth (he wanted to be a lover, not a fighter), and with highlighting the fact that Mongols were the worst prisoner guards in history (Timudjin escapes captivity far too easily on more than a handful occasions). The film looks beautiful, with Bordov fully realising the era that allows us to lose ourselves in the story; it seems, however, that Bordov got lost too - he picked the right story to tell, but then forgot what it was.

Review by Gavin Burke