Review for By The Will Of Genghis Khan

Introduction

I don't have the best of experiences when it comes to Genghis Khan in cinema. You'd think that there would be a whole gaggle of movies out there relating the story of the man who established the largest contiguous empire in history, encompassing most of Asia, and all in one lifetime. There probably is, but all that I have seen is The Conqueror, starring John Wayne. If ever you wanted a textbook definition of 'miscasting' that would be it. I also made a point of purchasing Mongol, starring Tadanobu Asano, and that has lain in my to view pile ever since, as I try to find the time to watch it. I had even hoped to watch it in conjunction with this film, to do a compare and contrast, as it too is a Russian production, made around the same time as this film, and covering the same period in the life of the Mongol leader. If anyone is listening, I'd like twice as many hours in the day please…


By The Will of Genghis Khan tells the story of his early life as Temujin, a child of omen born to a nomad chief on the steppes, all the way to the point where he united the Mongol tribes under his banner, and at the point of his sword. It's the tale of three friends, sworn blood-brothers, who are torn apart by destiny, and how it is betrayal and loss that finally drives Temujin to do whatever it takes to become Khan of all the tribes.

Picture

It's awful. I mean you have the steppes of Mongolia to serve as the backdrop for your film, you have a plentiful cast, with many extras and even more horses, it should be epic and grand. But it's shot on inferior quality digital video, with low resolution, flat colours, and the artefacts associated with such a format like ghosting and smearing. It's a low budget production, so despite the extras, the production values are low, making the whole thing look like a piece of edutainment, a cheap and cheerful TV drama of the sort that airs on the lesser arts and history channels. And this is director Andrei Borissov's debut feature, which is readily apparent in the stodginess of his framing, lengthy cuts, and utter lack of energy. It's out on Blu-ray a week after the DVD release, but I don't see what that can do to improve it.

Sound

You have the choice between DD 2.0 and DD 5.1 Russian, with optional English subtitles. The dialogue is clear, which it should be given that most of it is accomplished through ADR (and with a multinational cast, lip-sync is something that mostly happens by accident). There is a whole lot of narration and characters voicing their inner thoughts, making the film's literary roots all too evident, and the music is instantly forgettable. The battle sequences do have some resonance to them though.

Extras

The disc autoplays with trailers for Kamui: The Lone Ninja, Bangkok Ninjas, K20: The Legend of the Black Mask, and Skate or Die. You also get some nice looking animated menus on the disc.

The on disc extras are limited to a trailer for the film, and a 16-minute making of featurette.

Conclusion

I didn't think it would be possible, but this film is worse than the John Wayne movie. It's dull, overlong, tedious, and lacks in any form of entertainment value. It really is hamstrung by its low budget and production values, but more than that, it plays more like a historical docudrama than an entertaining feature film. It's made in the style of the ubiquitous modern history programme, the ones where the dry academic lecture would be livened up by a dramatic recreation of the events, with a bunch of low rent actors in costume, swinging swords at each other. By The Will of Genghis Khan dispenses with the dry historian, and you can guess at what is left.


This is less about creating a narrative, painting characters, and telling a story, than it is a dry recitation of a legend. It takes the events of Temujin's life, and portrays them as unimaginatively as possible, with plenty of voiceover and narration filling in what the images leave out. How much of it is true, how much is legend, how much is hearsay is uncertain, but the film goes through all these events in the young Temujin's life as if ticking boxes on a checklist. There's no development in any of the characters, we don't actually get to know Temujin or what motivates him, we don't learn much at all about his bride Borte, or any of his friends or siblings. But early on especially, the cast changes swiftly as Temujin and his contemporaries grow up. It's so that by the end of the film, I had no idea who was supposed to be who, and I was still getting the two main characters, Temujin and Jamuka mixed up.


By The Will of Genghis Khan has its heart in the right place. Unfortunately the rest of the vital organs are all jumbled up. The low production values, the wooden actors, the lack of narrative and characterisation, and the utter plodding unimaginative tedium of a historical lecture taking the place of genuine entertainment, makes this a film to avoid at all costs. It's even putting me off watching Mongol now.