Dschingis Khan

I remembered enjoying this film when I saw it as a pre-teen on television in the '60's. I have remained an avid fan of adventure films and epics. So, when it was aired yesterday on TCM, I tuned in with anticipation. It had not aged well. Perhaps all of the anomalies are more difficult for a mature movie fan to accept.

The best parts of this film are the locations, the sets, the costumes and the props. Even so, the sets are never quite convincingly grand enough. They retain the flavor of sets. The photography never captures the locations in a way that conveys the vastness of Central Asia. And the impact of the costumes and props is diminished by the fact that they are at the service of a predominantly Caucasian cast attempting to portray the tribes of Mongolia.

Blonde Francoise Dorleac, who portrays Genghis Khan's wife is the most glaring racial anomaly. But the entire cast is similarly anomalous. At least Stephen Boyd and Omar Shariff aren't blond. But Englishmen, James Mason and Robert Morley look hopelessly out of place. (I personally wondered how people of Oriental heritage reacted to Mason's stereotypical pronunciation of the letter "L" as an "R!") I don't really find a lot of fault with the portrayals offered by Mason and Morley, although I do agree with the suggestion of several reviewers that they seem like they wandered in from a production of the Mikado.

Lastly, I cringed at the soundtrack - typically Occidental-sounding pseudo-epic orchestrations with grandiose flourishes. The heroic-sounding 4/4 marches were typical of the Sword and Sandal epics of the day. Only a stray chord here and there suggested an Oriental setting.

In that era, it was inconceivable to cast Orientals in the principal roles of a film of this one's pretensions. Under the circumstances Hollywood would have done better to simply avoid attempts to depict tales of Asian peoples.

In the end, bizarre casting and completely Occidental-sounding music render this film difficult to swallow for a film-goer looking for anything beyond a shallow adventure story. With the number of Oriental actors in Hollywood films today, a GOOD portrayal of the life of Genghis Khan is ripe for filming!

It stars Omar Shariff as Mongol Temujin who becomes the fearless leader Genghis Khan and unites all Mongol tribes and conquers most of Asia . This Genghis Khan¨ (1965) professional though regularly directed by Henry Levin boasts a good cast as Stephen Boyd , Françoise Dorléac , Telly Savalas , James Mason , Robert Morley , Eli Wallach , Yvonne Mitchell , Michael Hordern , Woody Strode , among others . In this film , there is epic , mammoth spectacle , hokey historical events , a love story , camp dialog to spare , wonderful landscapes and results to be a failed as well a little boring film , at times . Set during the 13th century in which the brutal warrior Mongol chief Temujin conquers most of Asia , Europe and the Middle-East . Temujin was taken prisoner by the rival warlord , the ruthless leader Jamuga and as punishment was forced to wear a large round wooden stock that severely restricted his movements , but with the help of Bortei he manages to getaway . As the fearless Temujin (recently deceased Omar Shariff) battles armies led by Jamuga (Stephen Boyd) and for the love of a princess Bortei (Francoise Dorleac , though Claire Bloom was attached to this project at one point) . He overcomes all of his hardships to become one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known and now starts his quest to unify all of the Mongol tribes . Genghis gets big hits , but his old nemesis keeps appearing at various times in his life leader to a final fight between the two . As Genghis Khan, ruthless leader of the Mongols and sovereign over the vastest empire ever ruled by a single man, was both god and devil , not just in the Middle Ages , but for centuries to come . Temujin with the help of his underlings (Telly Savalas along with his brother George Savalas , Michael Hordern , Yvonne Mitchell , Woody Strode) becomes the emperor of Mongols , the great Gengis Khan . Temujin conquers the Chinese empire and overthrows the Emperor of China (Robert Morley). He subsequently takes on the Shah of Khwarezm (Eli Wallach) who is backed by his eternal enemy , the brutal and revenger Jamuga . Finally , Temujin conquers Khawrezn , India , Persia , Bokara and Samarkanda . Only once in the furied history of adventure and conquest...did one man rule so vast an empire .

This expensive epic film in familiar drawling fashion contains clichéd barbarian dialogue , noisy action , great production design , monumental battles and a cast of thousands . It results to be a little embarrassing film with some unintentionally hilarious images about Chinese scenarios and failed at box office . Colorful cinematography in 70mm blow-up version by the British , Geoffrey Unsworth , being mostly shot in marvelous exteriors ; although the movie takes place in Asia, the film was shot in Yugoslavia . Rousing as well as evocative musical score by Dusan Radic who also composed another historical film : ¨The long ships¨. This sweeping oriental drama was backed by the great producer Irving Allen , being lavishly financed , in fact , at the time , 1965 , surpassed anything ever filmed before .

The motion picture was middlingly directed by Henry Levin . Ex-actor , director Henry Levin was a previous stage player who had a prolific and long career as filmmaker entering the directing in 1943 about every genre over the next 36 years . His heyday was in the 1960s , when he turned out several bright and frothy sex comedies, notably ¨Belles on their toes , Come fly with me , Honeymoon hotel¨ , his greatest films were on the adventure genre as ¨¨ The wonderful world of Brothers Grimm¨ , ¨The bandit of Sherwood Forest¨ , ¨The return of Monte Cristo¨ and ¨Journey to the center of the earth¨ . Although Levin's forte was light comedies, one of his most interesting films was a dark, brooding western ¨Lonely man¨ (1957) and ¨Desperados¨ , both of them with Jack Palance . He finished his career piloting made-for-television movies, and died on the final day of shooting ¨Scout's Honor¨ (1980) (TV) . Other films dealing with this historical figure , ¨Genghis Khan¨ , are the followings : 1956 version titled ¨The conqueror¨ directed by former movie star Dick Powell and financially supported by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and lousily directed by Dick Powell starred by John Wayne , Susan Hayward , Pedro Armendáriz , Agnes Moorehead , John Hoyt , Ted De Corsia ; ¨Gengis Khan¨ (2005) by Edward Bazalgette and the best : ¨Mongol¨(2007) by Sergey Bodrov .

I stumbled across this obscure movie earlier today and it was a pretty decent film. Based on the life of Genghis Khan, it's a little bit too scampy on the script but the scenery and music are gorgeous, and you can't go wrong when Bob Simmons (the early James Bond films) is your stunt coordinator. Omar Sharif gave a good performance, but I kept getting distracted by Stephen Boyd every time he appeared onscreen (mainly because in this movie he looks A LOT like a young Timothy Dalton, which is not a problem for me since I'm a big Dalton fan). The only performance I had a problem with was James Mason's campy Chinese ambassador. All in all, not a bad way to spend a couple hours.

Not quite as bad as John Wayne's famed turkey THE CONQUEROR, but getting there. Problem was with this flick, the makers dumped historical accuracy in favor of developing a Ben-Hur-Messala type confrontation between Genghis Khan (Sharif, at the height of his popularity) and his nemesis, a scowling bewhiskered Jamuga (none other than "Messala" himself - Stephen Boyd)

Plenty of Mongol action and cruelty and the concluding battle between Sharif and Boyd is pretty in-your-face stuff. Production values were OK and suitably epic-ish in feel. The wheels start to fall off though with Robert Morley as the Chinese Emperor, some throwback to his role in 55 DAYS IN PEKING and worse, mega-british James Mason as Kam Ling, as likely a chinese adviser to Morley as Adam Sandler playing Abraham Lincoln. In a minor role as Subatai, Kenneth Cope is struggling to hold down any credibility whatsoever, having been first-string comic relief to David Frost on the THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS TV show.

Not for the epic Hall of Fame I'm afraid!

I haven't seen this in years, but I remember it has some exciting battles, some good acting by Omar Sharif, Michael Hordern and Stephen Boyd, some great acting by James Mason and Robert Morley. I guessing that none of the actors were Mongolian or Chinese. Historically inaccurate, but kind of fun, sort of like some of Erroll Flynn's movies, like "The Charge of the Light Brigade". In recorded history, Genghis Khan was a murderous, merciless tyrant, not the idealist he's seen as in this picture, just wanting to unite all the tribes and live their lives out riding around on their horses not being bothered by the meddling Chinese. Even with all that said, it has some spectacular action and some interesting scenes that do have some historical veracity.