Enzian theatre/Mongol
So last night my parents and I headed out to the Enzian Theatre, a rather nice little art moviehouse with marvelously round and comfy seats (although not, alas, overly stadium setup, with the result that short people like me sitting in the back saw a lot of heads), casual dining while you watch the film, booze, and tiramisu. I immediately wanted to bring coldecho there. Alas, I found out about the tiramisu only after I came home, with the result that this was a decidedly tiramisu free evening.
But we were not there for the tiramisu, but rather to see Mongol, a film explaining why Genghis Khan grew up to be Genghis Khan, which appears to be because several people were very, very mean to him when he was a kid and end up hitting him a lot, so, naturally, his lifetime goal became world conquest and unification, which you can kind of see. (I'm not worrying about too many spoilers here, since, after all, we all kinda know what happened to Genghis Khan, and to most people that ran into his armies, eventually.) Also, a wolf is involved somehow, but the movie doesn't make that part clear. Indeed, probably because of the sheer complexity of the subject matter, the film does choose to skip over several parts of Genghis Khan's life, leading to quite a few "Huh? Where exactly did he get that army again?" moments, particularly at the end, when what appears to be about ten years army building (my guess - I know pretty much zilch about the life of Genghis Khan prior to the whole invading of central Asia part, so if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me) is kinda squished into about 45 seconds of film - and we still have two more films to go, since he's barely started the whole "I'm so gonna rule the world and kick everyone's butt for hitting me" bit. (A rather overdeveloped sense of revenge, I suppose, but if I'd been sold into slavery as many times as Genghis had, I'd probably get some delusions of world grandeur as well.)
Fascinatingly, for a film focused on exploring the roots of Mongolian history and tradition, and the life of the traditional Mongolian hero, the film also spends an extraordinary amount of time showing how many things go seriously, seriously wrong every time someone follows these traditions (lots of people end up dead.) And Genghis appears to win, in the end, partly because he learns to defy one sensible Mongolian tradition: fear thunder. Yes, we're celebrating the life of the man who created Mongolian traditions, says the film, but to really kick butt, don't follow any of them.
Later today, another little revenge flick - bring on the Batman! Who-hoo!
But we were not there for the tiramisu, but rather to see Mongol, a film explaining why Genghis Khan grew up to be Genghis Khan, which appears to be because several people were very, very mean to him when he was a kid and end up hitting him a lot, so, naturally, his lifetime goal became world conquest and unification, which you can kind of see. (I'm not worrying about too many spoilers here, since, after all, we all kinda know what happened to Genghis Khan, and to most people that ran into his armies, eventually.) Also, a wolf is involved somehow, but the movie doesn't make that part clear. Indeed, probably because of the sheer complexity of the subject matter, the film does choose to skip over several parts of Genghis Khan's life, leading to quite a few "Huh? Where exactly did he get that army again?" moments, particularly at the end, when what appears to be about ten years army building (my guess - I know pretty much zilch about the life of Genghis Khan prior to the whole invading of central Asia part, so if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me) is kinda squished into about 45 seconds of film - and we still have two more films to go, since he's barely started the whole "I'm so gonna rule the world and kick everyone's butt for hitting me" bit. (A rather overdeveloped sense of revenge, I suppose, but if I'd been sold into slavery as many times as Genghis had, I'd probably get some delusions of world grandeur as well.)
Fascinatingly, for a film focused on exploring the roots of Mongolian history and tradition, and the life of the traditional Mongolian hero, the film also spends an extraordinary amount of time showing how many things go seriously, seriously wrong every time someone follows these traditions (lots of people end up dead.) And Genghis appears to win, in the end, partly because he learns to defy one sensible Mongolian tradition: fear thunder. Yes, we're celebrating the life of the man who created Mongolian traditions, says the film, but to really kick butt, don't follow any of them.
Later today, another little revenge flick - bring on the Batman! Who-hoo!