"Mongol" delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of Genghis Khan, who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, .. Read more
| Starring | Tadanobu Asano, Khulan Chuluun, Amadu Mamadakov, Odnyam Odsuren |
|---|---|
| Director | Sergei Bodrov |
| Genres | Drama |
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"Mongol" delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of Genghis Khan, who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. "Mongol" shows us the making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his lifelong love and most trusted advisor.
| Starring | Tadanobu Asano, Khulan Chuluun, Amadu Mamadakov, Odnyam Odsuren, Amarbold Tuvshinbayar |
|---|---|
| Director | Sergei Bodrov |
| Studio | UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs Blu-ray: 2 hrs 5 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Hot Hits |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | Mongolian |
| Released | DVD: 29 Sep 2008 Blu-ray: 06 Oct 2008 Production year: 2008 |
| Format | DVD |
They say that Russia is in the ascendant again, flush with oil money and billion pound football teams. Next week sees the release of Timur Bekmambetov's first Hollywood film, Wanted, with Angelina... read more »
This really frustrated me. I saw it before the reviews came out, so I had no preconceptions.
The problem with it, is that is is empty... the set pieces are grand but.. there is nothing linking them.. Genkis' tale is one of apparent birthright arrogance... there is no insight into how he raised his massive armies... they just appear with him the leader, he doesn't really proving his worth on screen.
The love story feels like it was written by a monk who may have once had a prepubescent romance and the performances are un-emotive (which no reviews picked up on).
Don't believe the hype the only thing this managed to do blow a lot of russian culture incentive bucks. The only reason I believe it had award nominations was to fill a quota to assist east-west relations.
It's the kind of thing you should expect to see in a docu-drama. I was half expecting the start of every episodic chapter to have a beardy historian pop up ,and run me through a documentary style CGI family tree and tactical war strategy.
I gave it two stars because it's better than Nightwatch...
Mongol is a great looking movie - fabulous cinematography in stunning settings; great colours; nice choreography in battle sequences. A technically excellent film. The only problem is the story.
Simply put, Mongol couldn't quite hold my attention. The story dragged, and it started to get boring in spite of its beauty - coming to life momentarily during battles, then dying away again.
I think the big problem is that Temudjin wasn't a particularly compelling character in this film. He wasn't terribly interesting, charismatic, terrible, terrifying - anything. He must have been all this and more in real life to have conquered a good portion of the known world, but we don't see this or precursors to these attributes in this story of his early years.
A shame.
They say that Russia is in the ascendant again, flush with oil money and billion pound football teams. Next week sees the release of Timur Bekmambetov's first Hollywood film, Wanted, with Angelina Jolie. Bekmambetov is a Kazak, but his international hits Night Watch and Day Watch are as Russian as Vladimir Putin. Mongol, directed by Sergei Bodrov, is a German-Russian-Kazak coproduction, and as the title suggests, it's a Mongolian story. But the confidence and epic scale of the filmmaking make... Read more