Most of the historical epics of the fifties and early sixties took their subject-matter from what can be regarded as the three pillars of Western civilization; the Bible ('King of Kings', 'The Ten Commandments'), Graeco-Roman antiquity ('Spartacus', 'Cleopatra') or the Middle Ages ('The Vikings', 'El Cid'). Apart from the occasional film with an ancient Egyptian theme ('The Egyptian', 'Land of the Pharaohs'), ventures into other cultures were rare. 'The Conqueror' is one of these rare exceptions.
The story is based upon the life of the young Genghis Khan, or Temujin to use his original Mongol name. Temujin has fallen in love with the Tartar princess Bortai. There are, however, several obstacles to a successful romance. The Mongols and the Tartars are traditional enemies, Bortai's father was responsible for the death of Temujin's father, she herself hates him and she is betrothed to another man. The film narrates the story of how Temujin overcomes these obstacles and wins Bortai's heart, while simultaneously waging war on her father, the Tartar chieftain Kumlek, as well as a treacherous ruler named Wang Khan. (Wang Khan is the ruler of a city-state; there seems to be a deliberate contrast between the primitive barbaric vigour of the Mongols and the effete, decadent civilization of their enemies). The film is shot in the spectacular epic style against some striking scenery (actually in Utah; presumably political considerations precluded filming in Mongolia, at the time under Communist rule). Visually, like most of the epics, it is attractive - besides the scenery, the costumes are good and the horseback stunts are well done- but it is a hollow shell of a film, with little behind its façade. The main reason for this is that the story of Temujin is rooted in a culture quite alien to the filmmakers and which they make little attempt to understand. John Wayne made a much-quoted statement that "The Conqueror is a Western in some ways. The way the screenplay reads, it is a cowboy picture and that is how I am going to play Genghis Khan. I see him as a gunfighter." This is a good example of what I mean by a failure to understand an alien culture. Rather than trying to see Genghis Khan for what he was, Wayne simply associated him with what he thought to be the nearest American equivalent. To see him as a 'gunfighter' is, in any case, inaccurate, and not merely because Mongolians of this period did not have firearms. The gunfighters played by Wayne in his other movies, whether outlaws or lawmen, were typically loners, working on their own. Genghis Khan was a leader of men, both as a political ruler and as a military commander. It is hardly surprising that Wayne's portrayal of Temujin fails to convince if he so fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the role he was playing.
Susan Hayward's performance as Bortai is even less convincing than Wayne's. She wears the same expression throughout the film, a sort of sulky pout, which is presumably her best shot at conveying her character's proud, independent and tempestuous nature. It is difficult to believe that it was during the same period of her career that she produced two of her best performances in 'I'll Cry Tomorrow' and 'I Want to Live'. Her appearance in 'The Conqueror' presents even more problems than does her acting. All the male actors in the film, who are primarily of European descent, are made up to look Oriental, but for some reason no attempt was made to change Hayward's looks, with the strange result that the 'Tartar Princess' is a voluptuous, blue-eyed redhead.
None of the other acting performances are distinguished- Pedro Armendariz as Temujin's loyal brother Jamuga is about the best- and at times they verge on the ridiculous, particularly Wang Khan and his scheming shaman, both embodiments of the western stereotype of the 'wily Oriental'. While deliberately elevated, formal, often slightly archaic, language was something of a convention in epic films, much of the dialogue here has a particularly stilted flavour to it, along the lines of 'You're beautiful in your wrath' and 'She is a woman- much woman. Should her perfidy be less than that of other women?' If John Wayne still thought of his character as a 'cowboy', he should have tried to imagine a real cowboy- or even a fictional cowboy- speaking lines like that.
While the film is not quite the classic of badness that some have claimed, it is certainly one of the weakest in the epic genre, and it shows how wise other Hollywood film-makers were to confine themselves to cultures more familiar to Westerners. For the large amounts of money that were evidently spent on 'The Conqueror' the producers should have ended up with a much better film than this one. 4/10.
The story is based upon the life of the young Genghis Khan, or Temujin to use his original Mongol name. Temujin has fallen in love with the Tartar princess Bortai. There are, however, several obstacles to a successful romance. The Mongols and the Tartars are traditional enemies, Bortai's father was responsible for the death of Temujin's father, she herself hates him and she is betrothed to another man. The film narrates the story of how Temujin overcomes these obstacles and wins Bortai's heart, while simultaneously waging war on her father, the Tartar chieftain Kumlek, as well as a treacherous ruler named Wang Khan. (Wang Khan is the ruler of a city-state; there seems to be a deliberate contrast between the primitive barbaric vigour of the Mongols and the effete, decadent civilization of their enemies). The film is shot in the spectacular epic style against some striking scenery (actually in Utah; presumably political considerations precluded filming in Mongolia, at the time under Communist rule). Visually, like most of the epics, it is attractive - besides the scenery, the costumes are good and the horseback stunts are well done- but it is a hollow shell of a film, with little behind its façade. The main reason for this is that the story of Temujin is rooted in a culture quite alien to the filmmakers and which they make little attempt to understand. John Wayne made a much-quoted statement that "The Conqueror is a Western in some ways. The way the screenplay reads, it is a cowboy picture and that is how I am going to play Genghis Khan. I see him as a gunfighter." This is a good example of what I mean by a failure to understand an alien culture. Rather than trying to see Genghis Khan for what he was, Wayne simply associated him with what he thought to be the nearest American equivalent. To see him as a 'gunfighter' is, in any case, inaccurate, and not merely because Mongolians of this period did not have firearms. The gunfighters played by Wayne in his other movies, whether outlaws or lawmen, were typically loners, working on their own. Genghis Khan was a leader of men, both as a political ruler and as a military commander. It is hardly surprising that Wayne's portrayal of Temujin fails to convince if he so fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the role he was playing.
Susan Hayward's performance as Bortai is even less convincing than Wayne's. She wears the same expression throughout the film, a sort of sulky pout, which is presumably her best shot at conveying her character's proud, independent and tempestuous nature. It is difficult to believe that it was during the same period of her career that she produced two of her best performances in 'I'll Cry Tomorrow' and 'I Want to Live'. Her appearance in 'The Conqueror' presents even more problems than does her acting. All the male actors in the film, who are primarily of European descent, are made up to look Oriental, but for some reason no attempt was made to change Hayward's looks, with the strange result that the 'Tartar Princess' is a voluptuous, blue-eyed redhead.
None of the other acting performances are distinguished- Pedro Armendariz as Temujin's loyal brother Jamuga is about the best- and at times they verge on the ridiculous, particularly Wang Khan and his scheming shaman, both embodiments of the western stereotype of the 'wily Oriental'. While deliberately elevated, formal, often slightly archaic, language was something of a convention in epic films, much of the dialogue here has a particularly stilted flavour to it, along the lines of 'You're beautiful in your wrath' and 'She is a woman- much woman. Should her perfidy be less than that of other women?' If John Wayne still thought of his character as a 'cowboy', he should have tried to imagine a real cowboy- or even a fictional cowboy- speaking lines like that.
While the film is not quite the classic of badness that some have claimed, it is certainly one of the weakest in the epic genre, and it shows how wise other Hollywood film-makers were to confine themselves to cultures more familiar to Westerners. For the large amounts of money that were evidently spent on 'The Conqueror' the producers should have ended up with a much better film than this one. 4/10.