I recommend it.

HIGHLY.

If it has not been discussed yet, let's open it up.

I would almost call this the Mongolian 'Braveheart' except this is such a clearly mythologized story...Temujin is a practically deified in Mongolia, parts of Kazakhstan, os there was a rich canon to draw from, and some of the stuff has strong religious and political metaphors...

Beautifully shot, well-directed, well-acted...

yeah i wanted to check this out. i will.

Looks great.

I'll post up after

I saw it last night, good but not great. Beautifully shot and good chorography in the battle scenes (and i normally dislike action films). The biggest problem that i had with it was the story is quite boring - essentially the structure of the film is captured, escape, battle, captured, escape, battle.

But i would definitely recommend it.

Beautifully shot? Yes. Well-acted? Yes. Complete story? No... but I say this ONLY if they don't cover certain things in the next two films. To my understanding "Mongol" is just the first of a 2-part saga?

For some reason it appeared that this movie would possess everything needed to indeed make it the "Mongolian Braveheart." However, I felt it lacked certain elements needed to give the audience a more in depth feel of what Temudjin actually accomplished.

****SPOILER ALERT*****























How did he get those thousands and thousands of followers? What happened between his younger years up until he was a teenager/adult? They spent a great deal of time on his younger years, which was definitely needed as an introductory to the film - showing the relationship with his father and how the Mongol tradition works. But Given it was a 2 hr + movie, an extra 15 mins split in half to show A) What he did to gather his army and B) Fill in something about his sword fighting/training/war techniques and strategic development, then it indeed would have been complete and had everything needed to give it that epic "Braveheart" feel, or better yet, title.


**SPOILER OVER*


















Nonetheless, it was a beautiful film. Sergei Bodrov did an EXCELLENT job on it's direction and conveying to viewers an informing, thrilling and passionate look into the life of Mongols. I just felt it was incomplete. Perhaps he WILL cover all of what I mentioned aboved in the second part of the trilogy. If so, I'll gladly retract my statement.

Thought the relationship between him and his girl was SOOOO interesting.

Really made me think.

of women? People say his DNA is all over the whole Asian continent today (although through a complex genetic process - his decedents were all picked out as special and had the pick of women too).

Perhaps that'll get more conveyed in the second part (which last I heard was possibly being shelved - let's hope not).

Here we go:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0214_030214_genghis.html

Which is an absolutely incredibly well-researched history of how Temujin rose up from basically some punk kid on a hit list to become an incredibly modern leader for his time (and how his kids and grandkids fucked it up through infighting): http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264701077&sr=8-1

So I'm definitely down for this.