Hmm..two weeks, two good films...I like this trend. I'm not going to lie, I had heard about Mongol from another class and was tremendously excited to watch it. Unfortunately the quality on the link was really bad (sorry Professor) so I ended up getting it from outside source. Beside this, it was everything I hoped for. I wasn’t bored at anytime during the viewing and was kinda sad to see it end (although I’ve heard they’re going to be making a trilogy)
To see this film, and find that Genghis Khan wasn’t a barbarian in earlier life is not really surprising, at least not in my eyes. First of all, watching enough Hollywood biopics makes you realize that anyone can be made into a sympathetic character. I just watched “George Wallace” and found that after he was shot, he became a lot less racist and more sympathetic. SO WHAT!!! Anyone that knows anything about the Civil Rights movement would know that Wallace was a major problem, and might have become President in 1972 if he hadn’t been shot. Because he was sorry about his previous actions doesn't stop him from being one of the biggest racist in American history.
My second reason is simple. I know practically nothing about Khan and his actions. I’ve heard some of the stories in elementary school history, but like Robbins talks about, education always has propaganda attached. Another point is that this is only the early life of Genghis Khan, we have yet to see any of his further actions.
Don’t let these points think I hated this film. I enjoyed this film immensely. The actions scenes were awesome and the story was great. The cinematography was great and I did enjoy watching some of the costumes (like the Merkit masks). I hope we can keep this trend going with good films (which I’m sure we will)
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There's something of a "first draft" of MONGOL available on Netflix--same director, much the same themes.... just a few years earlier and on less of a budget.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the streaming quality--that's worth a whole other blog / conversation.... watching films streamed on our computers, and all that....
As much as I have said in other posts that I liked that they showed that Genghis Khan was not always the barbarian, I do think that maybe I was being a little bit too hippie dippy love and be loved with my writings. In trying to relate to people and express my ideas, I have sort of left out the main part of one of your points here. I think that you are exactly right about how films can make any person look like they are just a stand up guy that everyone would love to go out and grab a beer with. I think on some level we all knew that this was true going into this class, but I was just surprised at the intensity of how much it functioned that way in Mongol. The movie made him really seem like he was doing everything for totally the right reasons and that there was really nothing negative to say about him when it came down to it. I mean, we all know that after the end of the movie he went on to make many peoples' lives much more difficult. I am glad that you made that assertion, because it was something I feel I should have keyed in on myself more. Let It Be Known.
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