Mongol

Mongol
Rated R
126 Minutes
Nicole’s Rating: A

Strangers become friends; Friends become brothers; Brothers become enemies. This is only one of the bases of a film that portrays the greatest conquer to live…Genghis Khan.

*~* WARNING: May Contain Spoilers *~*

The movie starts off with Temudjin (young Genghis Khan) at the age of nine, where he is riding off with his father to choose his future bride. This happy moment is overcome by one of the many battles that he will face in his lifetime. Only nine and he is forced to run away to save himself and his family, finally returning 8 years later, to marry. Only a few days after his betrothal, his enemies the Makita kidnap her in revenge. Much of the story is based on the love he has for his wife, his family and his clan he will go to any lengths for them, even war.

I admit, I don’t know much about Genghis Khan. I thought of him as being a war monger who used women for his pleasures and men for his battles. This movie changes every view I had of him. It shows that he was a man of honor, with values and tried to set up the world to live by them.

This movie had exquisite scenery and cinematography. As for the acting, they all did a great portrayal of life and hard times of the era. The young children did an outstanding job, for most of them this was their first film.

The only issue I had with the film is the “doltishness” of the subtitles. There seemed to be a lot more speaking that what the subtitles showed, but again, I’m not sure how complex or simple the Mongolian and Mandarin languages are, it just felt like it. And if I had another issues with the film, it’s the limited release it had, only showing in 240 movie screens worldwide. This movie could go much farther than that.

This movie was remarkable and I highly suggest it if you can watch the graphic violence of war. This film had a similar feel to Braveheart, so if you enjoyed that, you won’t be disappointed with this one.