Appreciation: Mongol

Did I mention how much I enjoyed Mongol, Sergei Bodrov's biopic about Genghis Khan (link)? I don't usually hold still for this kind of thing but Mrs. Buce, the commander of the good ship Netflix, brought it on board and we gave it a whirl. It's beautiful to be sure, and fascinating with all those Mongol actors. But from what little I know, it captures the spirit of the young Temujin (before he took on the trappings of regality) and the grim, harsh anarchic world from which he emerged. Per Wiki, the director says he found it “difficult making the film because of the lack of recorded Mongol history.” But I wouldn't get carried away with that; in fact we know quite a good deal about the Mongols—they did, after all, make a world-class nuisance of themselves, which is enough to inspire curiosity in their adversaries. And scholars like René Grousset, Thomas Barfield and Jack Weatherford have been able to develop a plausible picture of the traditional culture of steppe nomads.

Bodrov takes Hollywood-style liberties: he turns the relationship with his wife Börte into a People Magazine love story. And I know of nothing in the record to support Bodrov's story of Genghis' capture, enslavement and rescue. Still, Bodrov captures the essence of the chronicle as we know it: Genghis (Chinggis, Temüjin), virtually without assistance, clawed his way from nowhere. Thomas Barfield summarizes:

Chinggis Khan rose to leadership of a great nomadic empire from an extremely marginal position. He lacked a secure base of tribal support and encountered a series of obstacles in his attempts to gain power and unite the nomads. His bitter experience with steppe politics and the fickelness of tribal military units shaped his ideas about military strategy and political organization which gave the Mongol empire a unique structure. Chinggis Khan took more risks in battle than other steppe leaders because he needed victories to establish himself. … At the time of Temüjin's birth the steppe was in anarchy. … Any leader who gained power also gained enemies and provoked new alliances against himself.

--Thomas Barfield, The Perilous Frontier 188-9 (1989).

For all his impact, it is hard to believe that Genghis Khan didn't really appear on the world stage until he was around 40, and that his presence as a world figure lasted less than 20 years (the lasting conquests were achieved by his sons and grandsons). Plenty of material, then, for the promised sequels, but Mongol remains as convincing an account of where he came from as you are likely to get.