Before I Die #613*: A Storm over Asia (1928)

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*It's that time again. The fine people at the "1,001...Before You Die" headquarters have issued a new edition of their list, including 12 new movies from the last year or so. I'd already seen five of them, but this all requires an adjustment to my overall numbers. Hence the jump from film #607 to #613. With that out of the way...

This is the 613th movie that I've now seen out of the 1,199 movies on the "Before You Die" list that I'm gradually working my way through.

Original Russian Title: Potomok Chingis-Khana

Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin

Bair, the Mongol fur trader, offers his wares for sale. The
insulting price given sets into motion an ever-expanding chain
of events that lead to an massive outright revolt.

A curious old silent movie that, while overly long by today's standards, offered some social and political commentary that was novel for its day.

The movie mostly follows Bair, a Mongol fur trader who runs afoul of a chiseling, white supremacist English trader. After a scuffle during which an Englishman is killed, Bair goes on the run and joins a group of Russian partisans for a time, as they fight against English forces in the region. He is eventually captured and sentenced to death by the British; however, it is discovered that he is likely the only living descendant of Genghis Khan, the powerful ruler from centuries past whose legend still has a firm grip on the Mongolian people. Knowing this, the British enact plan to raise Bair to the status of ruler of the Mongols, hoping to use him as a puppet ruler through whom they can control the Mongolian people. Unfortunately for the scheming British, Bair ultimately erupts into fury at his and his people's being used and manipulated, and he rallies his fellow Mongols to war against the British.

The version I watched of this is apparently the "full" two-hour-and-change version, as opposed to the 74-minute version that is referred to on several database websites. Well, I could really feel those extra 45 minutes at times. The movie features more than a few slow-moving segments during which I presume the audience was meant to simply take in the scenery, as opposed to seeing the plot move along. This is especially true during the first half hour or so, when little happens beyond Bair bringing a rare, high-quality fur into town for sale. Things do get more engaging once he goes on the run from the infuriated

British, but often the pace slows while scenes linger on repetitive sequences or mundane activities such as men smiling at each other. It also doesn't help that there are absolutely no well-rounded or fully explored characters in the picture. This is not completely uncommon for stories which tackle large socio-political and military themes, but it can be rather dull when all but one character acts in completely predictable ways.

There is one fascinating (if overly long) sequence where we
get some documentary-style footage of authentic Buddhist
ceremonies being performed. The precision and pageantry
of these ceremonies is curiously juxtaposed with English
military leaders donning their garb. Such commentary was
relatively sophisticated, based on other silent films I've seen.

All that said, A Storm over Asia does stand out from most other silent films that I've seen, including its contemporaries. It's the earliest film I've seen that offers a fairly straightforward tale of social manipulation, whereby one group - the British in this case - seeks to use religious belief and historical capital to create a shadow regime over a region. This shows a deeper and darker vision of international politics than what one would see in the films of D.W. Griffiths or a movies like Battleship Potemkin and October, two Russian revolution films which had a very obvious bias. This movie does the same, but expands its scope to outside of Russia's borders.

The end of the tale is quite unusual as well. Whereas many directors would have built an entire third (and even perhaps a second) act around a Mongol horde erupting with fury against their oppressors, it is this outburst of anger that serves as a foreboding exclamation point at the end of A Storm over Asia. It certainly has a very particular effect of leaving one with a sense that one overly arrogant group has just grabbed the tiger by the tail, and we viewers are left with the image of the snarling tiger just turning around and starting to take its first vicious swipe at its aggressor. I can appreciate how the story is much more about the causes behind a revolution rather than the actual fighting which eventually break out.

Overall and interesting film for its day, and one that does show why it is still considered important, nearly a century after its release.

That's 613 films down. Only 586 to go before I can die. 
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