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Temudgin and his wife in Mongol (Picturehouse)
In this scene, the nine-year-old boy displays confidence as he picks his future bride.
CLIP Temudgin chooses his future wife
In tackling Temudgin's life story, Bodrov takes on not only Russian stereotypes but also those of Hollywood.
John Wayne: "I have returned my mother."
John Wayne starred as the teenaged Temudgin in the 1956 movie, The Conqueror.
John Wayne: "You didn't suckle me to be slain by Tartars my mother but to destroy them."
JACK WEATHERFORD: "I saw it and it was quite appalling."
Jack Weatherford wrote the book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World .
JACK WEATHERFORD: " The Conqueror was really just one more attempt to make a cowboy movie of which people were getting tired but this time make it Asian, and put scotch tape on the eyes and change the costumes a little bit and it makes it slightly different."
But history got tweaked along with the western genre. Weatherford -- and Bodrov, with his new film -- want to give the Mongolian ruler more credit for what he achieved back in the 13th century.
JACK WEATHERFORD: "He introduced religious freedom throughout his empire, a totally new concept. The protection of all ambassadors, diplomatic freedom. These kinds of ideas were way before their time and even now we have trouble implementing some of them."
But Sergei Bodrov says bringing the life of Temudgin to the screen wasn't easy.
SERGEI BODROV: "I came to Mongolia before the shoot and scandal happened because I didn't know he's still living god in Mongolia, and you know of course it's very difficult to make movie about god."
So Bodrov looked to Kazakhstan for some of his location shooting. He took advantage of the fact that the country was still smarting from its portrayal in the movie, Borat , and was eager to present a different image of itself to the world. But filming in places that had been part of the Mongolian Empire presented challenges.
SERGEI BODROV: "I was shooting in remote locations and to reach some locations we build the roads, it was incredibly difficult with a huge crew, 600 people and some weeks we had thousands extras."
Those extras participated in some of the film's vigorous battle scenes.
CLIP Battle
Mongol (Picturehouse)
But author Jack Weatherford takes issue with the way Bordov depicts the blood flowing freely.
JACK WEATHERFORD: "For a Mongol, the blood contains the soul of a person you don't even want to see your victim's blood much less touch it because it can pollute you forever. It's one of the worst things imaginable. The Mongols refused to engage in hand-to-hand combat. That frustrated the armies of the world because they were often accustomed to hand-to-hand combat."
Bodrov defends his decision, and points out that his refusal to use computer generated effects makes the scenes more realistic.
SERGEI BODROV: "I'm proud of my action scenes it's real it's not CGI, it's real stuff. It's a war, it has to be blood."
Mongol may serve up a few historical inaccuracies..... still it goes a long way toward correcting ones perpetuated by some Russian history books and by the Hollywood film where conquering the world took a back seat to bedding Susan Hayward.
John Wayne: "I feel this Tartar woman is for me, my blood says take her."
You'll find none of that in Mongol , although Temudgin's wife Borte (compellingly played by Khulan Chuluun) still doesn't quite come into her own. Nonetheless, Mongol (in Mongolian with English subtitles and rated R for sequences of bloody warfare) is an impressive epic that also captures intimate moments in the early life of the Mongolian leader.
Companion viewing: The Conqueror, Genghis Khan (with Omar Shariff in the title role), Prisoner of the Mountains, Nomad, Ichi the Killer
