Fantastic!

Boring

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

When Jack Palance signed on to do The Mongols an Italian produced epic shot in Yugoslavia he merely took out his former performance of as Attila The Hun ratcheted it up exponentially. When you're in a turkey like this all you can do is gobble gobble at the moon.The only names we Americans will recognize are that of Palance playing Ogatai son of Genghis Khan and his lovely blond amazon wife played by Anita Ekberg. I will say this the writers did make provision for the fact that she clearly does not look like a Mongol and did mention that she was from a captive people. Perhaps a Viking settlement somewhere in Eastern Europe might explain it. I'll say this with that massive endowment of her's Anita looks good even in that Mongol armor. One fill figured girl she was.When Palance is on there isn't a stick of furniture left standing. He is having one great old time overacting against the background of these continental cast members who sound stiff as usual with their dubbed voices. The Europeans have decided to sue for peace and have sent the film's nominal hero Franco Silva playing Stephen of Cracow as a peace emissary.But Palance really gets his jollies with all the blood and guts and he doesn't want to stop the fighting. In this he's aided and abetted by Anita. So nice when husband and wife have a mutual interest. He and Anita do what they can to sabotage a cease fire.In the end it's pulled out and western civilization itself is saved by a seasoned soldier taking home town advantage of the elements.Jack Palance fans should get a real charge out of this film watching their guy dine on the scenery. The Mongols will give you quite a few unintentional laughs.

This was one of a number of low-brow peplums about ancient warrior tribes made in the wake of THE VIKINGS (1958) – this one even boasted a similarly rousing score by that film’s same composer, Mario Nascimbene. Others in this vein included THE COSSACKS (1960), THE TARTARS (1961) and ATTACK OF THE NORMANS (1962) – the latter being the only one in the bunch that I’ve watched, though I did lose the first one a couple of times on Italian TV.Actually, this one turned out to be pretty good – and, I have to say, it lived up to the review on “Stracult” where special reference is made to its sequences of bloodthirsty action and sadism. Jack Palance gives the role of Ogotai – son of Asian potentate Genghis Khan – his eye-rolling all; he’s abetted by an equally evil Anita Ekberg (the mighty but battle-weary Khan himself perishes by her hand!). The unhistorical narrative involves the Mongols’ raid of Poland and, in particular, the attempts by one of the latter’s leading figures (Franco Silva) to negotiate a peace treaty with the Khan – a plan which Palance vehemently opposes and constantly schemes to thwart.Being a relatively low-budget effort, the triple directorial credit might seem surprising: however, as the Italian credits themselves clearly indicate, this translates to being “A Film by Andre' De Toth” (implying that he was merely engaged in a supervisory capacity), “Directed by Leopoldo Savona”, and “Battle Sequences Staged by Riccardo Freda”. With this in mind, there are fewer of the latter than one would perhaps have appreciated – but these are nonetheless handled with the requisite gusto and grandeur. The rest of the film is largely taken up by various court intrigues on both sides of the fence but also a three-way Polish romance involving the aforementioned Franco Silva, Antonella Lualdi and Pierre Cressoy that tends to swamp Palance’s troubled relationship with his own wife! As I said, the violence is really at the fore in this film – the Mongols themselves are memorably introduced on horseback dragging a statue of the Virgin Mary through the streets of a Polish city they’d just ransacked; besides, there are plenty of floggings (Ekberg herself lends a hand in the punishment of the perennially imperiled Lualdi), crucifixions (two men are even tied to the wheels of an advancing cart!), burnings at the stakes, etc. The finale, then, sees an Alexander NEVSKY (1938)-type strategy at work with the apparently fleeing Silva and his men luring the pursuing Mongol forces into a deadly swamp. The film was good enough almost to merit a *** rating from me…but, at 115 minutes, it’s quite a long haul – especially since it resorts too often to contrived (and repetitive) plotting.

I've wanted to watch this movie for a long time based on the performance of Jack Palance in a previous role as Atilla in "Sign of the Pagan". I wasn't disappointed in Palance's performance as Ogatai but as a whole this film was very inconsistent and horribly incorrect historically. To say the writers of this movie took liberties with history is an understatement. The great battle between the Mongols and the combined armies of Europe did take place, but not with the results described in the movie. In fact, the Mongols did have the opportunity to move much further westward into Europe, except by chance were diverted back home due to the death of the emperor and than later resumed their campaign toward the south/west and the Middle East, considered more attractive at this time in history. The movie does have some lavish costumes and epic battles, but it also often repeats the same footage over and over again. This movie actually had some potential with the amount of money it seemed to have in its production, but somebody dropped the ball in terms of editing, music and story. Blond haired Anita Ekberg as Ogatai's lover at first glance seems absurd, but plausible when you consider that the Mongols conquered all of Asia and most of Eastern Europe. Her acting is actually fairly good. The movie is worth seeing if your a fan of Jack Palance, his character of Ogatai is a unique one.

You read well.So if you do not get a good mark for your next history test,it won't be Andre de Toth's fault but yours.If you do not take it literally,you may find "I mongoli" pleasant,nay entertaining.Jack Palance overplays as hell ,perfectly cast as the villain.The villainess Ekberg matches him,so to speak ,every step of the way.The heroes ,Franco Silva and Antonella Lualdi are Italian cast as Polish pacifists who try to avoid war with the Mongols .Gengis Khan "whose ears cannot hear woman's words" agrees with the good ones.But his son (Palance) is not prepared to accept such a thing ,neither is his slave/lover Ekberg who might have been infuriated by Khan's machismo.There are tortures aplenty ,floggings galore,stakes,even a nasty little thing called "slow death" .Treasons are here too.Igor is not fair-play during the duel,but he must be forgiven since the hero is obviously stealing his fiancée;Henry de Valois (what is this French doing here?) spills the beans but I'd like to see what you 'd have done ,in that slow death stuff.The ideal flick after hard labor ,housework or a Godard Movie.Why not?