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Amazon.co.uk Review
On the DVD: The print, though not perfect, is of fair quality and a new score by Timothy Brock complements the images nicely. However, the so-called "Introduction" turns out to be just a few lines of text scrolling down the screen, telling you less than the information appearing on the sleeve notes. --Ed Buscombe
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I really enjoyed this DVD, although it had the wife and kids scurrying for alternative entertainment within a few minutes, for me it just takes the same "suspension of belief" you naturally make if you're stepping into the cinema today to see a Star Wars or Harry Potter movie.
This is a rare glimpse of Mongolia from way back. For example; the cover notes tell of how the lead actor was truly Mongolian and that the opening sequence was actually filmed on location at his dad's ger (tent), with his real father playing his dad, out on the steppe. There are marvellous sequences of Buddhist ceremonies, dances, temples, statues and architecture. And just seeing the Mongol faces, attire, horse riding and the incredible scenery of this far away land was fascinating. I could easily forgive the outdated style of the movie because of this content.
The film is just over 2 hours long, there is some obvious minor damage to the original at the beginning and ends of reels, but this in no way detracts from the story. The musical score fits very well. And thats pretty much it on the DVD, there is one "extra" on board - "Introduction to Storm Over Asia" - billed as a "special feature", but its simply a few scrolling notes giving supplemental info, there are more notes on the back of the DVD cover too, both sets help you understand the circumstances under which the whole project came together. I purchased this from Amazon Jersey for £6.99 and consider it a real bargain.
Now all I need is for Amazon to re-stock "Urga - Close to Eden" - with English subtitles please! If you are looking for more of Mongolia on film then try "The Story of the Weeping Camel" - a brilliant gentle nomadic tale from the Gobi Desert - that had the wife and kids glued to the telly!
"Storm over Asia" is almost difficult to put into a genre. It is certainly a revolutionary propoganda piece about the peace loving Mongolians being exploited by a British army of occupation supported by ruthless capitalist fur traders. Although the propoganda wasn't sufficiently in your face for Soviet commentators. It didn't quite talk about the Reds and Moscow quite enough.
In fact the Red partisans are rather the means by which a Mongolian hunter gets the support to launch an attack on the British. The storm over Asia, metaphysical and metaphorical, as well as political is as much nationalist, perhaps even more so, than soviet.
This is emphasised by Pudovkin's use of location - actual Monolian peasants and trappers and an extended almost documentary piece of the succession of a new lama in which Pudovkin filmed actual lama ceremonies.
It is therefore a revolutionary propoganda film, a metaphorical nationalist film and a docudrama all rolled into one.
The cinematography is magnificent and the soundtrack is fantastic, much of it Mongolian music.
So why not 5 stars. Well the print suffers a bit from age and without the reconstruction that has marked the recent release of "Metropolis" - this is especially so at the beginning. And the stylised acting, so typical of the time, sometimes gets just a little too irritating. And other than to show a bit of leg and to wear a stolen fox fur what was the pretty European girl doing in the middle of a war zone in Mongolia?
But well worth the seeing.
Fox/Pathe released a version in France (www.amazon.fr), but have yet to be persuaded to release a version in the UK.
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