By The Will Of Genghis Commentator

I sat to watch 'By the will of Genghis Khan' expecting, well, I didn't know what to expect since it was a Canadian-Russian-Khazakstani-American production.

Part of me wanted to see how he consolidated power (which I think was sloppily and hastily done) and the other part of me wanted to see his hordes of warriors invade Europe which didn't happen. Alas, it was an introspective film (with some decent scenes) before he became conquerer although I thought that was the purpose of the first part of this film- Mongol: The Rise of Genhis Khan - which came out in 2007. Naturally, I thought the "sequel" was going to explore his military prowess. Unless I'm mixing my sequels.

It was a slow moving story with a lot of (and I paraphrase) "he sings with the wind" and "by the word of Tengri" and "the birds whistle wail past my ancestors" and "you sing like the stars and the moon and wind" and "the water nourishes our souls with bones" lines reminiscent of Native American myths. In fact, if there's one thing that stuck with me with this film was how similar Mongolian and Native culture and myths seem to be. Of course, there's a belief Native American culture has its roots in Asia - the so-called crossing of the Bering Strait. Yes, it read like an Andrew Lang narrative.

I'm all for that but it gets to be cumbersome after one hour.

The movie seemed disinterested in exploring further the impact Genghis Khan had, negative and positive (if applicable) on world and European history.

This point was disappointing albeit a personal perspective and opinion.

On the other hand, maybe the film makers wanted to offer a side of Temuchin (Genghis Khan) most of us in the West didn't see or know. It perhaps went poetic showing a sympathetic side (didn't Oliver Stone sorta want to do this with Hitler?) of Khan willingly. Actually, that's exactly what it did and it mentioned that his obsession with consolidating Mongolian power was making him essentially evil according to his mother who turned on him along with his wife Borte.

My thoughts. No one paid me for it. So there.

On a side note, Hollywood will be taking a shot at Genghis Khan with none other than Mickey Rourke playing the part.