Release Date: June 6
Director: Sergei Bodrov
Writers: Arif Aliyev, Bodrov
Cinematographers: Rogier Stoffers and Sergei Trofimov
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun, Odnyam Odsuren
Studio/Run Time: Sony Pictures Classics, 99 mins.
Khan isn’t complicated enough in visually attractive film
Thanks to their visual nature and simple stories, action epics travel well. Hollywood studios discovered decades ago that they could sell them worldwide, and in recent years foreign films have been reaching for a slice of the pie. Mongol—a new film from Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan—tells the story of Genghis Khan, from a child to de facto leader of the Mongol tribes, and although its production values are every bit as good as the American films it emulates, the movie is lessened by its need to conform to Hollywood’s formula for international success.
Whether your history class taught Khan as a menace or a hero probably depends on whether your school was built among Khan’s footprints. Mongol sees him as a noble warrior and a generous, committed family man, who fought to unite the warring Mongol tribes under a code of honor. As with any action epic, the story may be rooted in history, but it exists mainly as a skeleton for spectacle, and the character of such a film—whether it’s King Leonidas from 300, Maximus Meridius from Gladiator or Genghis Khan from Mongol—is fashioned according to the needs of storytelling. In each case, the filmmakers benefit from a history that’s notably sketchy in the details.
Mongol’s action scenes are spectacularly bloody. It’s hard to tell what’s happening during the chaotic battles, but when a mist of red, digitally colored fluid fills the air, you can bet that blades are reaching flesh. Listen to them ring. Director Sergei Bodrov and co-writer Arif Aliyev have made a film that’s as good as most of this year’s American would-be blockbusters, but it might’ve been far more interesting if they’d either left the Hollywood mold or embraced it with reckless abandon. If they’re going to rely on the simple logic of an action film, they need enough action to fill a good hour, but if they’re going to pause to give people time to think, they need to provide some food for thought.
Mongol does plenty of pausing, and I liked the contrast of the quiet moments with the manic ones, an approach that gives the film its varied tones and warm dynamic range, but in general it uses its lulls to little effect. This Khan is not complicated. Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (Last Life in the Universe) excels at playing pensive men, but I’m not at all sure what’s going on inside Khan’s head. Maybe he thinks about battle, or dinner or his wife—but it’s never apparent. Maybe he thinks about ants. Maybe he mentally recites the shamanistic meditations bestowed upon him by a mysterious wolf or repeats the platitudes he teaches his kids. “One day, the entire world will speak our language,” he tells them. Yes, but what will they say?
The story skitters through time with few clues about what happens in the multi-year gaps. Khan periodically emerges from his solitary life, and the next thing we know he has an army. After a few tough battles, he goes back into hiding, but he eventually decides it’s time to get the band back together to defend the Mongol way, and the next thing we know he has another army.
And these armies are big, lined up across vast and beautiful landscapes that can’t be found anywhere in North America. Shot deep in the remote regions of Kazakhstan and Mongolia, the movie is frequently breathtaking. The producers assembled their own army from a region even wider than the one spanned by the Mongol Empire: The star is from Japan, the writer and director are from Russia, the cast is from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China, the cinematographers are from the Netherlands and Russia, and the editor—Zach Staenberg who edited The Matrix trilogy and Speed Racer—is from America. For the Academy Awards, the film was submitted by Kazakhstan, but this seems to be a technical formality; reality is more complicated.
The movie ends early enough in Khan’s life that director, Sergei Bodrov, and his co-writer, Arif Aliyev, may be laying the groundwork for a sequel, but I can’t say I’m champing at the bit to hear three new bromides from this blank slate of a warrior, even if he gets to bare his teeth once again and bloody a few more phalanxes.