Landon Santini
lbs001@marietta.edu
Directed by Zhang Yimou, this film tells the very fictional and fantastical story of The Great Wall of China, chronicling mythical battle that ensued during the Song Dynasty between a gigantic army and a horde of mutant alien creatures. But when a group of European mercenaries searching for black powder stumble across these creatures, its leader William Garin, (played by Matt Damon) becomes embroiled in it, at first out of necessity for survival but then because he comes to realize what’s at stake for the people China and the world at large if this seemingly unwinnable conflict is lost. Will William continue to fight just for power and money, or will he fight for something much greater than himself? Furthermore, will his fellow mercenaries follow suit or will they became victims of their own greed?
I can say that I was looking forward to this film, from what I understood, this film is to date the absolutely expensive film to ever to be filmed entirely in the country of China with a budget of $150 million. The film was also a co-production between numerous Chinese and American production companies. It made me really excited to see what Zhang Yimou could do with this high budget, because he has a respectable reputation in China as a director, cinematographer and actor. The film’s main star Matt Damon is primarily here to serve the purpose of selling the film to American audiences.
So of course, there was some controversy over the fact that a white guy is headlining a Chinese film, which left many people worried that film would become a white washed “white savior” film. But let’s discuss how this film holds up first. I was honestly kind of enjoying half of this film. I was having enjoying myself, but probably not in the ways the filmmakers intended. I also found the film to be aggressively cheesy, Matt Damon’s accent to be incredibly shaky, and his role to be incredibly miscast. Damon does not really fit in well and it has nothing to do with the color of his skin. I feel like the focus of this film was rather uneven. Some of the battle sequences in this film are huge and grand. And of course there’s some smaller character moments, some lighthearted very “American” moments, and then there’s some very “Chinese” moments in this film where it very much feels like a foreign film.
But there are moments where it is clear that they were only included because the studio has to sell it to America, and therefore are required to include big superhero moments that don’t really make sense, but that’s perfectly fine for a fantasy film. Things are allowed to not make sense. But after the first half, the film is forced to no longer rely on over-the-top special effects sequences for a time and actually build up some of the characters in the story. And that’s really where the film begins to falter. This film has terrible characters. Matt Damon’s portrayal of William Garin is boring and bland. There’s barely a single thing interesting about him or his partner Pero Tovar played by Pedro Pascal. Even some of the Chinese generals and other people involved with this army don’t really have much depth to them. They mostly stand around, yell a lot, make battle cries and just say things that sound heroic. So whenever the film is not giving us an amazing action sequences, it kind of starts to sink in on itself.
Furthermore, when something is done in CGI, it’s quite obvious that it’s CGI. These creatures just don’t look entirely convincing as “real”. Sometimes there are some fun action sequences with some beautiful use of color, but it’s a very forgettable and throwaway film when it tries to be all deep and dramatic.
Now let’s talk about the controversy surrounding this film. I don’t feel that this film is being “white washed” just because Matt Damon is on the poster. He’s just one actor in this film, and it’s a “fictional” fantasy epic, so it’s not liked this is supposed to be a representation of something that actually happened. This film is in no way about the history of the construction of the Great Wall of China.
Damon’s character arrives in this film early on and is taken prisoner by the Chinese. For the majority of the film he’s either in shackles, behind bars, or simply used as a pawn in the army. He’s never the King or the Queen in fact he’s barely even the Rook if you want this film to be a chessboard. He’s essentially a fantastic archer who helps out with the army. Is it a “White Savior” film?
Is this film about a guy who comes into a culture and teaches them how to be heroes who just so happens to be white? Not really.
The Chinese capture him early on, he’s very dirty, and filthy, and hairy, and the army basically tells him to clean himself out of respect for everyone else, before he shows off what an amazing archer he is. But as for being a “savior”, the only person he actually actively saves is one very young and inexperienced soldier. This character is understandably frightened because he hasn’t seen that much of war, whereas Damon’s character has. But for the rest of the film, Damon’s character is most certainly a team player.
If anything, he learns from the Chinese people around him how to be a more respectable person, how to show honor, and (most importantly) how to trust in others. So I think a lot of the complaints that this film has received are rather unwarranted. In fact, the filmmakers themselves have been rather outspoken about these complaints. From the very beginning, this role was supposed to be for a European character and not someone Chinese. The other thing that is important to note is that the Chinese company that co-produced this film is heavily relying on the film’s success in markets to continue to expand the Chinese film industry internationally.
So the people who are criticizing this film who’ve never actually seen it and want more progressive films made by people outside of America aren’t realizing that the success of this film is kind of important in order for that to happen. I wish I could say that this was a good film, but unfortunately it’s not. For a long majority of the runtime, I found it to be an enjoyably bad film, and I think you can actually watch it and shove popcorn in your face and have a lot of fun. But beyond that, it’s very disappointing in terms of character. So as such, I’m going to give this film a score of 2.5 out of 5.
