Warlords

The Warlords (2007)

This movie begins with the brutal destruction of an army led by General Pang Quinyun (Jet Li). In the opening scene General Pang digs his way out from under the bodies of his men to find that he is the only survivor. He walks along in a daze and eventually collapses in a heap in front of Lian, a beautiful woman who takes him home and nurses him back to health and has a one night romance with him that once more gives him the will to live. A little later, Pang is sitting in a village when a group of bandits ride through lead by Zhang Wen-Xiang, who is recruiting more people for their bandit army. After a scuffle between Pang and himself, Zhang is so impressed that he invites the formal general to join him. They then head to the bandits village where a large feast is held and Pang is to meet Zhao Er-Hu, Zhang’s brother and leader of the bandit army. It is around this time that Pang finds out that Lian is Zhao’s woman. Pang and Zhao have a meeting where Zhao tells Pang that there is no place for him in the bandit army later that evening. The next day a full sized army comes to the village and subjugates it, taking back the food the bandits had stolen from them earlier. They beat many of the villagers badly, leaving them hungry and desperate once more. Pang goes to Zhao and Zhang and tells them that in order to keep this from happening again they must pick sides in the civil war ravaging China at the time, urging them to join the Empresses forces which are currently losing. The rest of the movie is about the rise of the bandit army, lead by Pang, Zhao and Zhang, from humble beginnings to a force that will decide the fate of the entire Chinese Empire. It also deals with Pang, Zhao and Zhang’s blood brother oath they swear to each other and the many strains put on that bond by political and personal factors.

I was very impressed by this movie. It is a complex story that deals with a multitude of issues. One of my favorite aspects is how the movie looks at the difficult decisions made by leaders in times of war. There is a complex dynamic at work between Zhao and Pang as the army moves from being a small bandit army into a large, powerful and well organized army of professional soldiers. You can see the balance of power shift from Zhao to Pang as this goes on and you get to see the difference in their leadership styles and morals as well. This is not a movie with a lot of black and white/good and evil in it. It is a movie with shades of grey, where the viewer can’t easily pick sides about who is right and wrong. Some of the hard choices that General Pang had to make while on the military campaign reminded me a lot Henry V and the choices he had to make in the Shakespearian classic. How Pang deals with his own soldiers who have been caught raping villager girls or with enemy soldiers who have surrendered shows a lot about his character and also leads to major conflict between him and Zhao. Pang is more politically savvy and sees things as part of the Big Picture, whereas Zhao is very loyal to his own and those he gives his word too on a more personal level. The Blood Brother bond that the three share is an important aspect of the story and plays a pivotal role in the movies outcome. The love triangle between Pang, Zhao and Lian seemed less important too me than the political differences that seemed to drive Pang and Zhao apart. I loved how much political maneuvering and manipulating was done in this war movie as well. It was nice to see that it was about more than just beating the enemy through martial prowess. The writing was excellent, but it seemed to me that some aspects were overshadowed by others and it was interesting to me that the focus of the movie didn’t always fall where one thought it might.

The film was very well made. There isn’t as much action as one might expect in a Jet Li movie, but there are some very nice large-scale battles that are excellent. It is made to be more realistic than some martial arts films however and you won’t see Jet Li doing as much of the fancy moves that made him famous around here. One thing that did bother me about the film was the English dubbing, which was kind of bad at times. It was odd hearing Jet Li speaking in someone else’s voice (not as bad as Arnold Schwarzenegger in Hercules goes to New York, but pretty distracting nonetheless. It’s also a bit odd that they had some of the English dubbing done by people with English accents or even really strong Chinese accents, though this may have been done to show that they were from other areas of China, I couldn’t be sure about that though.

This is an excellent movie and well worth watching. However, you have to be ready to think a little bit as you watch it, so if you are just looking for a brainless flick to help you relax and forget about all the worlds’ problems, go with something else. However, when you have time to watch a serious movie with a complex storyline and several layers, this is something you definitely should see.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by Scott Schwarzwalder