Nomad: Not So Nice Moviefilm For Make Bored Glorious Filmgoers of U, S, and A

Nomad (The Warrior)
Directed by Sergei Bodrov and Ivan Passer
Released March 16, 2007

I suppose it's only fair since Kazakhstan sent over Borat that the United States in turn should send over two if its actors for them to use in their film, the first one ever submitted for consideration as Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars (it didn't make the cut). The film stars Jay Hernandez and Jason Scott Lee, both native Californians, sporting ridiculous-looking mustaches. They lead a pretty much uniformly terrible cast, which at least for the most part is made up of some non-Americans.

The plot itself is not terrible: the story of a sultan's son whose destiny is to grow up to lead his people and unite them against the tyrannic Jungars. An accompanying friend noted the historical accuracy of the story, as far as how it might have been back then, something about which my knowledge is substantially lacking. The presence of cannons, however, seems heavily anachronistic and unfitting. The film relies on lengthy action sequences which contain very little new or engaging material, save for a sequence where Hernandez's character, Mansur, actually flings himself around a horse for a few minutes while dodging spears.

The version I saw was entirely in English, though the Internet Movie Database lists the language of the film as Kazakh. Some of the character voices were clearly dubbed, so I cannot be certain if the writing is quite as bad as the lines I heard. Overall, the overarching story is nothing too original, and on top of that it is relatively poorly written (even if the dialogue is slightly better in the original Kazakh). The Golden Globe Awards recognized the musical score with a nomination, but it feels repetitive and not too new, and occasionally sounds like something from Sesame Street. The cinematography is generally able enough, but the film fails to really offer anything new.

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