Review of Storm Over Asia (1928) by Nelson C — 09 Jul 2010

Very powerfully shot film, although I really didn't care for the political shot at capitalism, with the made-up story of Englishman cheating Mongolians on fur trades, not to mention the main story.

But ignoring the propaganda and just focusing on the story telling, this is a very potent film on the clash of civilizations and the greed of an empire (film: English, actual: Russian). If I hadn't known otherwise, I would have swore this was an Eisenstein film, it uses the same style of strong imagery and dramatic montage to paint a soaring picture of a civilization different from our own.

My favorite part of the film was actually near the beginning, the shots of the Mongolian hut, where the descendants of Genghis Khan live, as regular tradespeople. It made me wish for a different film, on the culture of these remarkable people, but it went a different, still interesting, direction.

My only qualms are the pacing, which was sluggish at times, and the tribal music, which really grated on me after being played for what seemed like 10 minutes. The second point is pretty trivial though, and it actually was another comparison of how different civilizations use music in worship.