Review of Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007) by Cecilie G — 02 Apr 2009

As 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 for himself with his beloved bride Borte.

Now older, Temudjin (Tadanobu Asano) grows tired of running and observing his fellow countrymen display a lack of battlefield etiquette, and he attempts to unite his own army of honor and concentrated wrath, introducing the world to the man known as Genghis Khan.

Mongol is an "artistic" retelling of the warlord's early years, with more creative liberty taken than arrows fired from horseback. This is not to suggest that Mongol is full of lies, but strict adherence to detail is not its modus operandi.

The film is laden with magic realism, quasi-religious iconography and imagery, and an almost godlike reverence to young Temudjin, as if the characters around him know in their hearts that he will be the man who conquers the world, so they'd best stay on his good side.

These little touches of reverence and mysticism are a gamble, but surprisingly satisfying when taken in small doses, peppered throughout the film as seasoning and never overused. The sparse, sprawling landscape is majestically captured.

Played by Odnyam Odsuren as a boy and Japanese star Tadanobu Asano as a man, Bodrov's Khan is a rebel hero cast in the mold of Gladiator's Maximus and Braveheart's William Wallace. Based upon an ancient Mongolian epic poem written after the death of Khan, the film takes a favorable look at Genghis Khan and treats him, not as a bloodthirsty monster, but as an astute and able political and military leader and a man with love and devotion to his wife and child.

There is no wrath in this Khan. Rather Mongol presents a Khan with a spring in his step and love in his heart.