''Genghis Khan'' is a 1965

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by Henry Levin and starring

Omar Sharif Omar Sharif (, ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub ; 10 April 1932 – 10 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the 1950s. He is bes ...

, depicting a fictionalized account of the life and conquests of the

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

emperor

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

. Distributed in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1965 by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

, the film also features

James Mason James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning once) and two ...

, Stephen Boyd,

Eli Wallach Eli Herschel Wallach ( ; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. Known for his character actor roles, his entertainment career spanned over six decades. He received a British Aca ...

, Françoise Dorléac and Telly Savalas. A 70 mm version was released by CCC Film in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. It was filmed in Yugoslavia with

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

and

Panavision Panavision Inc. is an American motion picture equipment company (law), company founded in 1954 specializing in cameras and photographic lens, lenses, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk a ...

Plot

The young Temujin sees his father tortured and killed by a rival Mongol tribe led by Jamuga. He is yoked with a wheel around his neck and tormented by children. He meets the beautiful Bortai, but is punished by Jamuga. Temujin escapes and hides in the hills, followed by holy man Geen and mute warrior Sengal, who pledge their allegiance to him. He vows to unite all the Mongol tribes. Temujin liberates Salkit prisoners from a group of

Merkit The Merkit (; ; ) was one of the five major tribal confederations of MongolYesugei tribe. Raids along caravan routes increase the size of his army, and Temujin decides to capture and take Bortai as his wife, and he succeeds. Jamuga finds Temujin's camp by following Bortai's brothers when they defect from Jamuga's tribe. Jamuga recaptures Bortai, and rapes her before Temujin is able to steal her back. Temujin subsequently raises the resulting child as his own. Temujin's army heads east in order to escape Jamuga. Kam Ling, a stranded Chinese ambassador, is helped by Temujin, and he accompanies the diplomat into Song China, where he meets the Emperor. Despite being well fed, given elegant clothing and experiencing luxuries such as bathing, wine and the arts, Temujin, Geen and Bortai's brothers agree that they are prisoners. After the Mongols successfully defeat Manchurians led by Jamuga, Jamuga is taken prisoner; the Emperor proclaims Temujin to be "Genghis Khan, the Prince of Conquerors". Temujin's Mongol army stays in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

for a long period, training and learning. Although Jamuga has been captured, he refuses to let his Merkit tribe join Temujin's united Mongol tribes. Temujin expresses to the Emperor his desire to take the Mongol tribes back to their homelands, but the Emperor refuses, revealing to his ambassador Kam Ling that he is worried that the Mongols will return to China as conquerors and so he must keep them inside China. The Emperor decides to assassinate Genghis Khan using Jamuga, because Jamuga is a Mongol and therefore would leave the Chinese people blameless. Kam Ling secretly discloses to Temujin and his group that the emperor fears the Mongols staying in China. He suggests the emperor is a subtle man and there is another solution, where his people stay and Temujin goes on a "very long journey, alone", implying the emperor wishes to assassinate Temujin. When Temujin inquires who might kill him, Kam Ling reveals that only a Merkit would be the assassin, which Temujin deduces is Jamuga. He orders Subodai and one of his brothers to bring Jamuga to him, but when they release Jamuga, he escapes. The Mongols break out of their captivity by tricking the Emperor to personally light the final fireworks display at the end of a festival. The resulting explosion blows up a gate in the city wall, killing the Emperor. The Mongols break out, taking the Emperor's daughter and Kam Ling with them and begin their legendary conquest of Asia. Temujin instructs Bortai's brothers Jebi, Subotai and Kassar to conquer China, Russia and India respectively. After laying waste to everything from

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, the Mongol army prepares to face the Shah of Khwarezm. The escaped Jamuga flees to Khwarezm, where he convinces the Shah to ally his forces with Jamuga's Merkits. The Mongol army faces the Shah's army and the Merkits on a battlefield. Temujin sends the ambassador Kam Ling as an envoy to ask Jamuga one last time to ally with him, Jamuga responds by killing Kam Ling and dragging his body back to the Mongols; he will never ally himself with Genghis Khan. The Mongols, with the help of cannons from China, engage in battle with the Shah's army. The Shah orders a retreat and Jamuga responds by killing him. Jamuga orders the Merkits to stay and fight. They are easily defeated, but Jamuga challenges Temujin to a Mongol duel. Temujin fights Jamuga in a final battle and kills him, although he is gravely wounded. Temujin addresses the Merkits, who all bow down and join the Mongol tribes. Temujin announces that he has accomplished his dream of uniting the Mongol peoples. He succumbs to his wounds and dies soon after, following his loving farewell to Bortai and her two remaining brothers. A voiceover speaks of Genghis Khan's reputation and successors in expanding his empire - his grandson Babur founded the Mughal Dynasty of India and

Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the ...

became

Emperor of China Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" () was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the " Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine mandat ...

Cast

as Temujin, later

* Stephen Boyd as Jamuga *

as Kam Ling, the Chinese Ambassador *

as Shah of Khwarezm * Françoise Dorléac as Bortei * Telly Savalas as Shan * Robert Morley as Emperor of China * Michael Hordern as Geen * Yvonne Mitchell as Katke *

Woody Strode Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 – December 31, 1994) was an American athlete, actor, and author. He was a decathlon, decathlete and American football, football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National ...

as Sengal *

Kenneth Cope Kenneth Charles Cope (14 April 1931 – 11 September 2024) was an English actor and scriptwriter. He was best known for his roles as Marty Hopkirk in '' Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'', Jed Stone in ''Coronation Street,'' Ray Hilton in '' ...

as Subotai * Roger Croucher as Kassar * Don Borisenko as Jebai * Patrick Holt as Kuchiuk * as Chin Yu * George Savalas as Toktoa * Gustavo Rojo as Altan

Production

The film was shot over 125 days. Allen and Euan Lloyd (who worked in publicity) wanted to make a follow-up called ''Clive of India'' based on a script by Terence Young but it was never made.

Box office

In the United States and Canada, the film earned $2.25 million in distributor rentals. In Europe, the film sold tickets in

and 879,532 tickets in France, for a combined tickets sold in West Germany and France.

References

External links