The Great Wall
Directed by: Yimou Zhang
Written by: Carlo Bernard & Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy
Starring: Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau, Lu Han, Hanyu Zhang, Kenny Lin, Eddie Peng, Junkai Wang
Action/Adventure/Fantasy - 103 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 17 Feb 2017
Written by: Carlo Bernard & Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy
Starring: Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau, Lu Han, Hanyu Zhang, Kenny Lin, Eddie Peng, Junkai Wang
Action/Adventure/Fantasy - 103 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 17 Feb 2017
No matter how hard Universal and Legendary Entertainment Pictures tried to thread the needle with The Great Wall, commentators would either accuse them of whitewashing or pandering. This China and Hollywood co-production may be a sign of things to come as movie studios attempt to attract larger Chinese audiences, but to truly crack markets and make money, they still require an international star; hence why Matt Damon is fighting dragons alongside a couple thousand Chinese soldiers on top of the most famous wall in the world. Rare is the film arriving in theaters nowadays without some tinge of controversy, but The Great Wall can answer most of the accusations lobbed at it if folks would only watch the film instead of judging it unseen. While the story is cookie cutter as can be centering on the selfish mercenary learning the value of teamwork and fighting for a cause greater than himself, the film as a whole is on the head nod side of entertaining.
The Great Wall is not whitewashing. The writers and casting directors did not replace an original Asian character with a white savior. Matt Damon (The Martian), playing a west European of indeterminate nationality named William, follows rumors of black powder, a substance, if harnessed correctly, could alter the battlefield however you choose. Most of the world continues to rely on swords and bows and arrows, but the Imperial Chinese, well, there are those who say they’ve figured it out. Therefore, William and his mercenary friend, Tovar (Pedro Pascal), are strangers in a strange land. The story wouldn’t work very well if it was regional Koreans or Japanese sneaking into China to steal the secret of black powder.
The Great Wall is not whitewashing. The writers and casting directors did not replace an original Asian character with a white savior. Matt Damon (The Martian), playing a west European of indeterminate nationality named William, follows rumors of black powder, a substance, if harnessed correctly, could alter the battlefield however you choose. Most of the world continues to rely on swords and bows and arrows, but the Imperial Chinese, well, there are those who say they’ve figured it out. Therefore, William and his mercenary friend, Tovar (Pedro Pascal), are strangers in a strange land. The story wouldn’t work very well if it was regional Koreans or Japanese sneaking into China to steal the secret of black powder.
The movie isn’t pandering either. Remember how Transformers: Age of Extinction straight up pandered to the Chinese market with its afterthought character played by Li Bingbing and the not so subtle praise of Beijing’s central government? If anything, The Great Wall reverse-panders to Americans. How many folks do you know would pay to see The Great Wall on opening weekend if it were all Chinese actors speaking Mandarin? Don’t be hypocritical. Of course the film will earn millions more dollars in America since movie-goers are eager to see the latest Matt Damon action hero. The Great Wall is an example of diversity. It’s a mostly sub-par and by the numbers story bringing everybody together, but it’s still diverse.
Beginning with some Great Wall facts splashed on the screen to impress the audience with the wall’s scale and history, we quickly learn in this world, generations of Chinese workers labored to construct it not just to keep out Mongolians and bandits, but hordes of telepathic dragons. As the legend is explained to William, who like every other non-Chinese person on Earth did not know dragons exist, the dragons are a punishment and a reminder sent down from the heavens to keep man’s greed in check. These are not the sort of dragons who can fly and breathe fire, but if their teeth get ahold of you, you’re done for.
While the thousands of dragons swarming the wall are quite literal, they are also a metaphor describing the culture clash between east and west philosophies. William comes from a continent where the strongest take what they want, where men fight for food, money, and women, and he came to steal secrets from another land. The Chinese, on the other hand, fight in perfect unison, strive to protect their fellow-man, and shun the idea of the individual. They are group-focused and have no time for the white man’s selfish attitudes. It’s a not so subtle aspect of The Great Wall’s propaganda machine. The Chinese military in this movie is not only technologically superior than anything the westerner has ever seen, they are also more logistically adept, and sport a higher morale amongst the rank and file.
One dig the script makes toward Chinese history is at the Emperor. Portrayed as weak and effeminate, I believe he is mocked to remind Chinese audiences of the merits of overthrowing the Imperial past to make way for the collective. Everybody in the Chinese Army certainly knows their place. The respective skill sets wear distinctive colors such as archers in red, long distance catapult operators in yellow, and just wait until you see what the ladies clad in blue do for a living. At lunch, you eat with your fellow uniform colors making the cafeteria resemble Hogwarts with it long tables of recognizable hues. It is an impressive sight.
In fact, the movie's look is gorgeous. Director Yimou Zhang, who most western audience are familiar with from Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), creates an imposing, fortress-like wall. The dragons border on cartoonish but their attack waves against the armies on the wall are fun to watch. Usually abhorred by me, the 3D effects work here with select arrows and axes whizzing toward us and it all combines in a sort of campy amusement. Perhaps the most unsettling and puzzling choice is Matt Damon’s shifty accent. Sometimes he sounds Irish and other times he forgets he is supposed to have an accent. Bookended with adrenaline-pumping battles, The Great Wall noticeably sags in an overly-melodramatic middle; however, for the action junkies out there, here be dragons and it’s not a bad time at the theater watching Matt Damon figure out how to kill them.
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