The Rising Hawk

In the 13th century, common folks escape the bloodshed from the Mongol invasion in Kyiv for the safety of the Carpathian Mountains. Maksim (Alex MacNicoll) saves Myroslava (Poppy Drayton) and she convinces her powerful father Tuhar Vovk (Tommy Flanagan) to attend a celebration in Maksim's settlement led by Maksim's father Zakhar Berkut (Robert Patrick). Tuhar looks down upon and distrusts these mountain folk. After an attack, Maksim and his brother rescue many prisoners and in the process, kill the son of Mongol general Burunda Khan. The Khan intends on revenge.

This is an Ukrainian sword and sandal historical drama. MacNicoll has the looks but he does need a bit more charisma to lead. Drayton does have both. It is odd that the story and production is Ukrainian but most of the actors are English westerners. It is what it is. It's a fine B-movie. It's too long at just over two hours. There are sections in the second half which drags. This can't be the highest Khan. Also the action is a little over the top. I do like some of it and that's enough to keep my attention. It's barely passable.

I don't understand all the hate in here. Sure, the plot isn't the best, and some things (mix of American and British accents, obvious plastic surgery on one female character's face) feel a bit out of place, but you got lots of good action, good costumes (one guy said the costumes are bad, I don't know what he's on about), good landscape shots, and the Mongols have fitting Asian actors (the Khan is played by a Mongolian actor, I didn't check what country the others are from), and actually spea Mongolian, which is a huge authenticity plus. Speaking of which, I noticed a few people in here complaining about no subtitles for the Mongolian parts. I don't know which version they watched, the one I watched had subtitles for every single bit of Mongolian dialogue, of which there is actually quite a bit btw, so I can't imagine watching it without subs. Overall, I think this movie was decent. If I have one other minor complaint, it's that it would be nice if a bit more people survived, but oh well.

They had a lot of good thing going,but it was ruined by horrible shaky camera work, some obvious directing problem, acting issues, at times bad fight scenes( some were good)script issues and so forth. Director and camera people should learn to use the camera for their next flick as it was one of the worst I've seen in many years. With a bit more attention to detail and a bit better cast, it would've rivaled all the Hollywood big production studios. The known actors did a good job,but the rest were less than stellar. Lot's of cliches, as another reviewer said. Questionable stunts. Some reviewers gave it a 10 seem to be "patriotic" and not truthful and the current 7.1 rating is certainly not real,but I can see it settling to 5-6 over time - to what it really deserves.

PS. the best actor in this movie was the swordsmith...

¨The Rising Hawk: Battle for the Carpathians¨ is based on facts , as the Mongol Empire had grown to the largest the world had ever known. Its armies now laid siege to much of Eastern Europe . A small village fights for freedom in the frontier landscape of the Carpathian Mountains. During the 13th century, Zakhar Berkut (Robert Patrick) and his wife Rada (Alison Doody) lead a group of high-landers in Carpathian Mountains. Unfortunately, their tranquil existence is soon threatened by Burunda Khan, a powerful Mongol general who leads his massive armies west in search of new lands to conquer. Forced to protect their village, Zakhar and Rada send their sons, Ivan (Rocky Myers) and Maksim (Alex MacNicholl) , to ask for help from Tugar Volk (Tommy Flanagan) , a wealthy boyar who has recently arrived from King. After his strong-willed daughter Myroslava (Poppy Drayton) and Maksim survive a dangerous encounter together, Tugar Volk pledges to defend the villagers against the Mongols. Family, Freedom, Legacy !.

Historical and epic film with big budget and hundreds of extras and others by means of computer generator . In the picture there are struggles , epic events , history and being very interesting . There's also a wonderful romance , at the beginning a mutual attraction sparks between Myroslava and Maksim, subsequently a sensitive love story emerges. Production design is breathtaking , battles competently staged , fights are incredible and impressive . Scenarios with the cliffs , mountains and flood are overwhelming and spellbound . Colorful and evocative cinematography shot on location in Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Ukraine. This Ukraine/United States was well directed by John Wynn, Akhtem Seitablaev. Rating : 6.5/10 . Worthwhile watching .

The film developed in the Carpathian mountains is based on historical events , these are the following ones : The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, destroying numerous southern cities, including the largest cities, Kiev and Chernihiv , with the only major cities escaping destruction being Novgorod and Pskov, located in the north . The campaign was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in May 1223, which resulted in a Mongol victory over the forces of several Rus' principalities . A full-scale invasion of Rus' by Batu Khan followed, from 1237 to 1242. The invasion was ended by the Mongol succession process upon the death of Ögedei Khan. All Rus' principalities were forced to submit to Mongol rule and became vassals of the Golden Horde, some of which lasted until 1480. The invasion, facilitated by the beginning of the breakup of Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, had profound ramifications for the history of Eastern Europe, including the division of the East Slavic people into three separate nations: modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,and the rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Moscow started its independence struggle from the Mongols by the 14th century, ending the so-called "Mongol yoke" in 1480, and eventually growing into the Tsardom of Russia. As it was undergoing fragmentation, Kievan Rus' faced the unexpected invasion of a foreign foe coming from the mysterious regions of the Far East. "For our sins", writes the Rus' chronicler of the time, "unknown nations arrived. No one knew their origin or whence they came, or what religion they practiced. Although this defeat left the Rus' principalities at the mercy of invaders, the Mongol or Tartar forces retreated and did not reappear for thirteen years, during which time the princes of Rus' went on quarreling and fighting as before, until they were startled by a new and much more formidable invading force. The vast Mongolian Great Khanate army of around 40,000mounted archers, commanded by Batu Khan and Subutai, crossed the Volga River and invaded Volga Bulgaria in late 1236. It took them only a month to extinguish the resistance of the Volga Bulgars, the Cumans-Kipchaks and the Alans. Immediately prior to the invasion, Friar Julian from Hungary had travelled to the eastern border of the Rus' and learned of the Mongol army, which was waiting for the onset of winter so that they could cross the frozen rivers and swamps. In his letter to the Pope's legate in Hungary, Julian described meeting Mongol messengers who had been detained by Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal on their way to Hungary. Yuri II gave their letter to Julian. In mid-1238, Batu Khan devastated the Crimea and pacified Mordovia. In the winter of 1239, he sacked Chernihiv and Pereiaslav. After many days of siege, the horde stormed Kiev in December 1240. Despite the resistance of Danylo of Halych, Batu Khan managed to take two of his principal cities, Halych and Volodymyr. The Mongol Tartars then resolved to "reach the ultimate sea", where they could proceed no further and invaded Hungary (under Batu Khan) and Poland Batu Khan captured Pest, and then on Christmas Day 1241, Esztergom. The former Rus' principalities became part of the Jochid appanage ruled by Batu. Batu sited a semi-nomadic capital, called Sarai or Sarai Batu , on the lower Volga. The Jochid appanage came to be known as the Golden Horde. For the next three hundred years, all of the Rus' states, including Novgorod, Smolensk, Galich and Pskov, submitted to Mongol rule. After Mongol and Turco-Mongol suzerainty was fought off, this period of rule by the Golden Horde is commonly referred to negatively by Russian historiography as the Mongol or Tatar "yoke". The Golden Horde Tartars instituted census, taxes, and tributes on the conquered lands, which were usually collected by local princes and brought to Sarai. In the 14th and 15th centuries, with the rise of the Tatar khanates, the slave raids on the Slavic population became significant, with the purpose of trading slaves with the Ottoman Empire. The raids were catastrophic for both Muscovy and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and they largely prevented the settlement of the "Wild Fields" , the steppes extending from about 100 miles south of Moscow to the Black Sea and contributed to the development of the Cossacks.

I hadn't heard about this 2019 movie titled "The Rising Hawk" from writers Rich Ronat and Yaroslav Voytseshek prior to sitting down now late in 2020 to watch it. So I wasn't sure what I should be expecting from the movie. But I have to admit that I sort of feared that the movie would be another one of those movies that have a really interesting cover/poster and the movie itself turns out to be utter rubbish.

So I am relieved to say that "The Rising Hawk" was actually an entertaining and enjoyable movie. Sure, the movie's plot and storyline was very generic and actually rather predictable. But the movie's action, costumes, props and sets more than made up for the shortcomings in terms of script and storyline.

I enjoyed the cast that were in the movie, with the only familiar faces being Tommy Flanagan and Robert Patrick for me. But I will say that all people on the cast list actually performed quite well. Andrey Isaenko, playing Petro, really had a great on-screen charisma and added something memorable to the movie with his character.

There is a good amount of action throughout the course of the movie, which definitely also helped to bring enjoyment to the movie.

My rating of "The Rising Hawk" is a six out of ten stars. While the movie was entertaining and watchable, I doubt that this is a movie that I will ever watch a second time, because the plot and storyline just didn't have enough contents to it to support more than a single veiwing.