Mongol

Most people wouldn't think of the story of Genghis Khan, Temudgin, leader of the Mongol Hordes as a love story, but director Sergei Bodrov pulls it off quite nicely.

For starters, the film focuses almost entirely on his life before becoming a warlord, beginning when Temudgin is only 8 years old. From there it dives in to his nearly constant persecution, and builds a very convincing case for a person driven to find revenge.

Of course there's more than just drama; as a war epic Mongol does quite well, with violent and bloody battle scenes of several sizes, but the character of the hero is present throughout. And by the end, the viewer has what feels like a reasonable impression of life on the steppes around the turn of the millennium.

What detracted from my enjoyment just a little was a number of aspects that seemed too fabricated. The film is shot in Mongolia, the dialog is in Mongol, and the settings and costumes seem beautiful but authentic. However, there are several implications of divine intervention that feel somewhat out of place, and at certain points it strains credulity to think that a Mongol warlord was so extremely enlightened towards women at a time when the larger society treated them as possessions. And indeed the director mentioned that many of the details were filled in from his own imagination.

That's not to say I was disappointed by any means, as the story was very enjoyable overall. I think it just means it has to be taken as a retelling of the myth of Genghis Khan, rather than the fact.