Mongol
Amadu Mamadakov, Ba Tu, Ba Yin Qi Qi Ge
"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...( read more
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DVD Released: October 14, 2008
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Top Flixster Reviews
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June 13, 2009There is one thing that is evident in this film...the cinematography. This has to be one of the more beautiful films to look at. Visually, many of the scenes look like artwork that should be hanging on your wall. It's really too bad the film wasn't on par with that. Mongol ha... ...( read more )
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April 30, 2009There are scenes of greatness in Mongol. Take for example, the scene where Genghis Khan, known in this movie as Temudgin, tells his son how he chose his mother well. His wife replies, "You did not choose me. I chose you" ti which Temudgin replies after a moment of thought, "Tr... ...( read more )
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April 3, 2009As a young Mongolian boy, Temudjin watched as his father ruled the land, only to be betrayed and poisoned, leaving the child helpless to violent opportunists. Throughout the years, Temudjin would find enemy capture over and over, only to break free and attempt to establish a life... ...( read more )
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March 21, 2009Handsomely shot but dull telling of Genghis Khan's early years. Lots of slow-mo blood spurting but little originality to enliven proceedings.
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July 4, 2009Maybe it's just the snow, the nature, Asano, slow-mo blood drops, and the wardrobe, but I found this enjoyable.
Critic Reviews
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Mongol
reviews at RottenTomatoes.com
June 27, 2008
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle
June 20, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
A ferocious film, blood-soaked, pausing occasionally for passionate romance and more frequently for torture. As a visual spectacle, it is all but overwhelming, putting to shame some of the recent hist... full review
June 19, 2008
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Mongol is the first film of a proposed trilogy that charts his conquest of half the known world. If the sequels match this one, they can't come soon enough. full review
June 19, 2008
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
The first part of what director Bodrov promises to be a trilogy tracing the life of the historic conqueror, Mongol is great cinema, great fun. full review
June 13, 2008
Claudia Puig, USA Today
While the historical accuracy may be dodgy, Mongol is a sweeping and quasi-mythical epic that recalls Lawrence of Arabia. full review
June 6, 2008
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
I don't know the Mongolian word for panache, but Mongol's got plenty of it. The battle scenes are as notable for their clarity as their intensity; we can follow the strategies, get a sense of who's lo... full review
June 6, 2008
Kyle Smith, New York Post
Combining the intelligence of an action movie with the excitement of an art-house release makes Mongol as dry as summer in the Gobi Desert. full review
June 5, 2008
A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Mongol is a big, ponderous epic, its beautifully composed landscape shots punctuated by thundering hooves and bloody, slow-motion battle sequences. full review
June 1, 2008
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
Bodrov whips up enough wild, unruly energy and, in his depiction of sex as a Mongolian female's most vital commodity, sociological scraps to help overshadow the somewhat cheesy dubiousness of his myth... full review
Comments
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April 5, 2009Mongol takes on the subject of Genghis Khan, the most successful/terrible warlord to have ever lived. He united the Mongol tribes and went on a rampage of death and destruction across Asia and Europe that puts Hitler to shame. But while there have been scores of movies featuring Hitler in some form or another, the subject of Genghis Khan is rarely touched.
Mongol focuses on Genghis Khan’s (or Temudgin’s) early years from the time that his father was killed to the time that he united the Mongolian tribes and turned them into the most successful and brutal fighting force that ever lived. There is obviously an incredible story in just this history alone; but unfortunately, Mongol fails to tell it.
The theme of Mongol is that Temudgin had a rough time in his early years. Temudgin’s father was killed and then Temudgin was kicked out of his tribe and hunted like an animal all the way into adulthood. And finally Temudgin came back to his family and formed his own tribe of what seemed like 50 people only to be defeated and sent to China to be a slave. All of this took about an hour and 40 minutes leaving only 20 minutes in this movie for Temudgin to go from being locked in a cage in China to uniting the tribes of Mongolia.
So how did Temudgin manage to bring together the various tribes of Mongolia in just 20 minutes of screen time? Actually it took just 10 seconds. In one scene Temudgin is running off by himself after being freed from Chinese slavery. And in the next scene he has what seemed like over a hundred thousand troops ready to fight the final battle against a force of what appeared to be a million enemy troops. No explanation is given for how this happened. I won’t give away how Temudgin wins this lopsided battle, but it’s a joke.
Mongol gets high marks for having beautiful visuals from start to finish, but its disregard for history and lack of plot cohesion left me disappointed.
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