The epic is dead. At least for Hollywood it is. Long gone are the days of The English Patient. If Cold Mountain was a sign of interest wavering, Kingdom of Heaven and Alexander showed that people were getting tired of swords, sandals, and sand. Even the excellent The Assassination of Jesse James, epic at least in its running time and cinematography, was a bit of a box-office disaster. But is there life outside of Hollywood? The glorious trailers of Mongol, the biopic of Genghis Khan, suggested that there very well may be, but did the film live up to its expectations?

Genghis Khan was once known as Temudgin, son of a local tribe leader. Khan was brought to a nearby village of his father’s enemies to make piece by having young Temudgin marry one of their daughters. However, Temudgin displays his stubbornness by picking a girl from a nearer village, which results in a rather unhappy fate for the boy’s father and family. Temudgin spends much of his life running from his new enemy, one of his father’s tribesmen Targutai. Temudgin grows up fast when living in a land where Mongols are not living by etiquette, and when his bride is kidnapped, he convinces his blood brother Jamuqa. But differences in attitude causes the two to be split apart, ending in further misery for Temudgin, as he is imprisoned once again, giving him time to decide on his future: to unite the Mongolian tribes and honour the ancient way of living.

This all sounds pretty far from the traditional image we have of Khan: as a barbarian. This Western image is not quite replicated in the East, where Khan is seen as more of a hero, perhaps in a similar light to Alexander the Great. Indeed, this film shows the genesis of Temudgin’s idea of bringing together the Mongol clans to avoid inter-clan bickering. However, the film goes too far in glorifying Temudgin. He is portrayed as a great father, a man who cares deeply for his wife, and also as aman dedicated to his tribesmen. But where is the Khan we have heard of… where is the balance between noble leader and violent warrior? The film sorely lacks in even the faintest foreshadowing of the intimidating image that Khan became.

But if the story and its ambitions are interesting in a mostly positive way, the storytelling is interesting in a sometimes negative way. Director Bodrov should be commended for not losing focus of the story’s characters and focussing on the battles, like most American epics do. Indeed, the big final battle at the film’s end is pretty much bypassed, having proven its point. But Bodrov’s decisions can be distracting. Early in the film we see Temudgin trapped in a stocks and fleeing his captors. After praying to his god we see him suddenly freed, with no explanation given. At another stage we see Temudgin falling into a frozen lake, but the drama is ignored as the next scene shows him suddenly alive and being discovered by his future blood brother. It almost feels as if the Weinsteins, who are distributing the film, insisted on some harsh cuts that weren’t fully considered. Plus, we aren’t really shown how Temudgin’s leadership and warrior skills are developed during his years of exile. Showing them would risk facing the Hollywood clichés of the training montage, but it could have also introduced us to his more aggressive side too.

The true joy of Mongol lies in its cinematography. The landscape of Mongolia/ Kazakhstan is utterly stunning, and at times rather harsh, acting as the ideal setting for an epic. The film is shot with technical brevity, graceful but not too intrusive. Even the CGI used during battles is not too distracting. The performances are also impressive. An adult Temudgin is played by Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano, and his serenity and appeal shines through. Other noteworthy performances are by Khulan Chuluun as his wife Borte, and especially Honglei Sun as Jamukha. His turn from ally to nemesis is all the more tragic after his charming presence in the early battles.

Mongol remains a slight disappointment in that it had the potential to reinvent the modern epic and become a true classic, but instead just falls short of the mark. However, Mongol is designed to be part of a trilogy, and presumably the next two films will more successfully chart Khan’s moral descent and fearsome rise to power.