Russian director Sergei Bodrov (“Nomad,” “Prisoner of the Mountains”) tries to rehabilitate the reputation of Genghis Khan in his big, sweeping biopic, “Mongol.”
Maybe because the great Mongol warlord’s real story wasn’t reliably recorded, Bodrov and co-writer Arif Aliyev emphasize the most impressive aspects of Khan’s — formerly known as Temudgin — early life: his superhuman devotion to the first wife he chose at age 9, enduring horrific abuse and soul-killing captivity, his inevitable clash with his best friend and ally. Meanwhile, they make up other, equally mythic incidents (his escape from a Tangut prison is particularly hokey).
Not much in the way of the Temudgin’s personality gets revealed, however, outside of determination and stoicism. Some of that could be due to Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano’s unfamiliarity with the Mongolian language and a resulting dialogue-stingy, tamped-down performance.
Toward the end, we do get some good insights into how this minor tribal leader’s strategic genius would eventually conquer the largest empire the world has ever known. This amid some large, stirring, but hardly Kurosawa-level battle sequences in awesome Central Asia locations. The film ends before Temudgin unites the Mongol tribes, gets declared Genghis K. and sets out to strike fear into much of the known world. Bodrov wants us to know that he was a pretty stand-up guy until then, but I’d rather have seen the sequel.
“Mongol”
R for violence. 2 hours, 6 minutes. Directed by Sergei Bodrov; written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev; starring Tegen Ao, Aliya, Ying Bai, Tadanobu Asano. Opens today at the Mayan.
