S: I’ve not thought too much about Mongol since watching it. I was really underwhelmed. It wanted to create an incredible legend, but it got stuck somewhere in trying to carve a story of a man who was natural and forceful and a genuine leader – but also someone who was shaped by his experiences.
J: Do you think it suffered from the focus on the love story with his wife?
S: I thought the love story was another element where the film wanted to have it all. He fell in love instantly as an eight-year-old, but he’s so dedicated to the Mongolian people that he actually doesn’t spend any time with her. It was supposed to be based on a Russian academic’s book, but it also clearly wanted to revel in the myth and got caught between the two.
J: That’s interesting because my first reaction was that if you were looking for an accurate portrayal of Genghis Khan’s life, this was not it. The filmmakers were clearly trying to make an epic film about a great hero to the Mongolian people but it never quite got there. Also it was very much a story told in fits and spurts. Especially at the end…
S: How did he raise that great army?
J: Well they told you, ‘He raised a great army’. You never got any more. Then it finished and after the last battle, ‘Then he conquered the world’. When did he become a great tactician, when did he become the great leader?
S: There was too much where we were told something rather than being shown. In the end, it’s only two hours, you can’t do too much. I never saw the toughness in the young Kahn that would inspire people to follow him.
S: If you’re making a film about Genghis Khan, what are the things that everyone knows about him? The raping and pillaging. You can’t really have a hero rapist, so they had to reposition him as a good guy early on. It felt to me like a massive re-branding exercise.
J: They could have gone another way and just made a visually spectacular action epic.
S: Visually, it was quite impressive. I liked the skirmishes, the close quarters combat – not so much the big battle scenes. I didn’t see anything to make me think that the director could do big battles well, which would be critical to the success of future films. That could have been a budget issue.
J: I suppose I’d like to have seen more money spent on fight scenes!
