Adventure story, love story, history lesson….”Mongol” has it all and director Sergei Bodrov successfully humanizes Genghis Khan as he tells the story of Temudgin’s early years. We first meet Temudgin at age 9 when his father takes him to another village to select his wife. He selects Borte (or, rather, she selects him) and on their return trip home, Temudgin’s father is poisoned by a rival clan chief. When his father’s lieutenants turn on him, Temudgin flees for his life, eventually taking refuge with another clan where he becomes blood brothers with Jamukha, who, in later years, becomes his chief enemy. Shortly, Temudgin is captured and he spends the next few years as a slave in his own clan. Now a young man, Temudgin (Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano) escapes and sets out to claim the older Borte (Mongolian newcomer Khulan Chuluun). This is a period full of violence, betrayal and more years spent as a slave, but the portrait of Temudgin that emerges is one of a man who is strong enough to hold the mantle of leadership through the might of his sword and the power of his beliefs. And at his side, faithful through all of the hardships, is his wife, Borte.
The cinematography is impressive with extensive shots of vast Mongolian grasslands that underscores Temudgin’s struggle to survive. But Bodrov also fills the screen with a ‘cast of thousands’ as he choreographs battle sequences full of charging horses, flailing swords, and spurting blood. Nonetheless, Bodrov uses CGI sparingly because, for him “it was very important to go back to the old kind of movies,” to create an epic rarely attempted by foreign filmmakers. “Mongol” is as refreshing as it is beautiful; it is truly worth seeing. (6/8/08)
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