Mongol

The Younger Son and I decided Mongol would be worth seeing on a theater screen if it played here, and lo and behold it did. We were surprised The Husband wanted to come along -it is, after all, a foreign-language film with subtitles- but he came with us. And did not like it at all. No surprise there. The Younger Son and I both liked it. I don't know how it did on opening weekend, but there were eight or so of us, I think, in the theater for this Monday matinee showing. I'm continuing to struggle with the price: $7 each for a weekday matinee!

I do wonder why it received an R rating. I don't remember the LOTR films having less gruesome scenes. Ratings seems inconsistent.

The Christian Science Monitor says:

Actually, as revisionist epics go, "Mongol" is often startlingly good. It has epic power and plenty of big battles, but director Sergei Bodrov also has a feeling for the small, intimate moments in the life of Genghis Khan

I was struck by these "small, intimate moments" and felt a connection with the characters. It was as much about the personal relationships as it was about epic battle scenes.

The Cinematical reviewer didn't like it:

Mongol does a lot of "sweeping." It moves from sweeping vistas to sweeping battles and when it stops sweeping, it really has no idea what to do; it merely waits for the next opportunity to sweep.

The New York Times describes it as

a big, ponderous epic, its beautifully composed landscape shots punctuated by thundering hooves and bloody, slow-motion battle sequences.

and says,

While it takes a sympathetic view of young Genghis Khan — whose name, in the West, is a synonym for rapacity — it does not force him into conformity with modern sensibilities. His world feels authentically raw and refreshingly archaic, and also strangely beautiful.

TimesOnline reviews it here. Slate wonders how such a nice man can become Khan. Roger Ebert didn't like it.

trailer:


The picture at the top of the post is of the Ridgeway Four, the theater where we saw the movie, and is from Wikipedia.

7/8:
Positive Liberty has review.