GENGHIS KHAN (1965) **1/2 I get the definite feeling that the character depicted has much more to do with Omar Sharif than Genghis Khan, but that probably makes for a more pleasant movie anyway. Not that this film isn't unpleasant-oh no! it's filled with epic unpleasantness-just that that's all downplayed and there's this emphasis on Genghis' fair and gentle side? Genghis Khan's fair and gentle side ? As I say, Omar Sharif is a fine actor and the chicks dig him. Stephen Boyd and Françoise Dorléac (as the hot blonde Mongol princess with a French accent) are also good leads-she pleasant, he decidedly less so-who elevate several scenes, even if a few others seem to elude them. They're good, but somehow I'm not sure that on balance they're more convincing than James Mason and Robert Morley as Chinamen. I mean no disrespect, I guess there weren't enough recognizable Chinese actors running around back then, and Mason and Morley really are convincing…if you can get past looking at them. So liberties are taken with the historical realities but the spirit's in tact; the spirit's understated in favor of something more pleasant; but if you're determined enough you can get the idea. And if you're not determined that's probably best of all, and you can just kick back and enjoy a pleasant tale of violence and degradation, mass slaughter, clever alchemists, etc.
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