mongol

there's been some very mixed reviews of this epic film
i'd seen the trailer a couple of times and was drawn to it's scope
some stunning looking scenery shots highlighted in the trailer
the opening scenes confirming the intention to capture scale
so that sprawling shots of outdoors mongolia are quite beautiful
drawing the viewer into a sense of another time in a healthier world
it's a slow and gentle start with genghis khan as a 10 year old child
travelling by horseback to a village to select a future bride
and already displaying some strong character traits
the return journey sees the murder by poisoning of his father
meaning the young boy becomes the khan of his tribe
grown up before his time and forced into various violent confrontations
at this stage of his life there is hostility between neighbouring tribes
in the first of many on-screen battle scenes the brutality is evident
even if the effects used to portray the bloodletting are dubious
but the point is made - he lives in a very violent time and place
similarly the director is at pains to point out his virtues
a noble leader, a loyal and doting husband and father
which surprised me as i had always thought he was a total despot
and so it was that i resigned myself to this being a good yarn
though thankfully from a russian director so subtitles were required
meaning the sense of authenticity in the language at least was preserved
and on this night thankful for subtitles with a long outage in the theatre sound system
during this period i did sense a strong lord of the rings deja vu
particularly looking on at the big climactic battle scene
with a huge massed horseback mounted army of masked warriors
outnumbering genghis khan and his forces many times over
the final scene a battle of epic scale between the 2 opposing forces
including a resurrection of the dodgy effects used earlier in the film
genghis khan is shown to employ cunning battle strategies
to finally emerge the victor and then move on to expand his empire
my impression of the film overall was that it was almost grand
a unique story, a great setting, some fine acting and directing
the soundtrack at times featured some appealing throat-singing
but the desire to be a hollywood-style blockbuster came through
sanitising and somewhat glorifying the main character
trying to match the scale and granduer of other epics
but not quite getting there - and then the final straw
heavy-rock music playing as the credits rolled
just seemed so out of place to me