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Excellent but underrated film

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It stars Omar Shariff as Mongol Temujin who becomes the fearless leader Genghis Khan and unites all Mongol tribes and conquers most of Asia . This Genghis Khan¨ (1965) professional though regularly directed by Henry Levin boasts a good cast as Stephen Boyd , Françoise Dorléac , Telly Savalas , James Mason , Robert Morley , Eli Wallach , Yvonne Mitchell , Michael Hordern , Woody Strode , among others . In this film , there is epic , mammoth spectacle , hokey historical events , a love story , camp dialog to spare , wonderful landscapes and results to be a failed as well a little boring film , at times . Set during the 13th century in which the brutal warrior Mongol chief Temujin conquers most of Asia , Europe and the Middle-East . Temujin was taken prisoner by the rival warlord , the ruthless leader Jamuga and as punishment was forced to wear a large round wooden stock that severely restricted his movements , but with the help of Bortei he manages to getaway . As the fearless Temujin (recently deceased Omar Shariff) battles armies led by Jamuga (Stephen Boyd) and for the love of a princess Bortei (Francoise Dorleac , though Claire Bloom was attached to this project at one point) . He overcomes all of his hardships to become one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known and now starts his quest to unify all of the Mongol tribes . Genghis gets big hits , but his old nemesis keeps appearing at various times in his life leader to a final fight between the two . As Genghis Khan, ruthless leader of the Mongols and sovereign over the vastest empire ever ruled by a single man, was both god and devil , not just in the Middle Ages , but for centuries to come . Temujin with the help of his underlings (Telly Savalas along with his brother George Savalas , Michael Hordern , Yvonne Mitchell , Woody Strode) becomes the emperor of Mongols , the great Gengis Khan . Temujin conquers the Chinese empire and overthrows the Emperor of China (Robert Morley). He subsequently takes on the Shah of Khwarezm (Eli Wallach) who is backed by his eternal enemy , the brutal and revenger Jamuga . Finally , Temujin conquers Khawrezn , India , Persia , Bokara and Samarkanda . Only once in the furied history of adventure and conquest...did one man rule so vast an empire .This expensive epic film in familiar drawling fashion contains clichéd barbarian dialogue , noisy action , great production design , monumental battles and a cast of thousands . It results to be a little embarrassing film with some unintentionally hilarious images about Chinese scenarios and failed at box office . Colorful cinematography in 70mm blow-up version by the British , Geoffrey Unsworth , being mostly shot in marvelous exteriors ; although the movie takes place in Asia, the film was shot in Yugoslavia . Rousing as well as evocative musical score by Dusan Radic who also composed another historical film : ¨The long ships¨. This sweeping oriental drama was backed by the great producer Irving Allen , being lavishly financed , in fact , at the time , 1965 , surpassed anything ever filmed before .The motion picture was middlingly directed by Henry Levin . Ex-actor , director Henry Levin was a previous stage player who had a prolific and long career as filmmaker entering the directing in 1943 about every genre over the next 36 years . His heyday was in the 1960s , when he turned out several bright and frothy sex comedies, notably ¨Belles on their toes , Come fly with me , Honeymoon hotel¨ , his greatest films were on the adventure genre as ¨¨ The wonderful world of Brothers Grimm¨ , ¨The bandit of Sherwood Forest¨ , ¨The return of Monte Cristo¨ and ¨Journey to the center of the earth¨ . Although Levin's forte was light comedies, one of his most interesting films was a dark, brooding western ¨Lonely man¨ (1957) and ¨Desperados¨ , both of them with Jack Palance . He finished his career piloting made-for-television movies, and died on the final day of shooting ¨Scout's Honor¨ (1980) (TV) . Other films dealing with this historical figure , ¨Genghis Khan¨ , are the followings : 1956 version titled ¨The conqueror¨ directed by former movie star Dick Powell and financially supported by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and lousily directed by Dick Powell starred by John Wayne , Susan Hayward , Pedro Armendáriz , Agnes Moorehead , John Hoyt , Ted De Corsia ; ¨Gengis Khan¨ (2005) by Edward Bazalgette and the best : ¨Mongol¨(2007) by Sergey Bodrov .

If Genghis Khan were made today a whole lot of Asian players would be in the various roles cast. Although not as ridiculous looking as Dragon Seed or even The Good Earth to today's audiences by 1965 when this film was made casting Occidental players in Oriental roles was not looked on favorably no matter how could they are. One who could get away with it was Yul Brynner who must have been contacted for the lead and he was from that part of the world.Nevertheless Omar Sharif is a credible Genghis Khan and Stephen Boyd unearths his Messala character playing Jamuga the life long sworn enemy of the boy Temujin who grows up to be Genghis Khan. Sharif realizes his dream of uniting all the Mongol tribes into one nation and then starting to conquer. By the time he was done his Mongols were advancing into Eastern Europe. I wonder why Boyd who was the villain was first billed before Sharif in the title role. I'm sure there's a story there. One who did look bad was James Mason playing a mandarin adviser to Chinese emperor Robert Morley. He really looked and sounded like a road company Fu Manchu.Genghis Khan is better than John Wayne's infamous and legendary The Conqueror, but that's not saying much.

Dull, and a tad culturally insensitive.The story of the life of Genghis Khan / Tumujin, the man who built the largest empire in history. Starts out interestingly enough, but pretty soon degenerates into soap opera. Light on history, high on empty melodrama.Add in the fact that hardly any of the cast are actually Mongol or Chinese and the whole thing looks a bit hokey, and embarrassing. It is a toss up which is more embarrassing: Robert Morley as the Chinese Emperor, James Mason as a stereotypical Chinese person or blonde Francoise Dorleac (Catherine Deneuve's sister, by the way) as Genghis Khan's wife.At least Omar Sharif looks closer to the part than John Wayne...

Genghis Khan (1965) This is probably not the most accurate of films about Genghis Khan, but at least it's enjoyable in a silly, entertaining way. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I can see it's not all it should be, but I like it nonetheless.I'm not a big fan of Omar Sharif, but, in the title role, he's rather good and a lot better here than he was in DOCTOR ZHIVAGO or LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.The film features very stereotypical Chinese characters and co-stars Robert Morely and James Mason both look and act like two characters from Gilbert and Sullivan's THE MIKADO. It's rather ludicrous, but, once again, enjoyable.Production values are high and Dusan Radic's music score is not only evocative but one of the best from the mid-1960's.