10 Films Substantially Different From Their Source Material
5. The Conqueror
There's an awful lot that The Conqueror changes about its historical source material, but really only one thing needs to be pointed out: John Wayne plays the Mongol conqueror. What can you say to that?
The swaggering über cowboy par excellence is perhaps the worst possible choice for the medieval Mongol ruler, and the result is a frankly bizarre film riddled with racism and curiously strange choices.
The tale The Conqueror tries to tell is one of the soon-to-be Genghis Khan and his odd love affair with a Tartar princess, as they rebuff and fall for one another, are captured and escape, with all sorts of war hijinks in between. It is somewhat all over the place, to say the least.
It is difficult to encapsulate just how far removed from the truth The Conqueror is, which all but attempts to reduce the career and conquests of Genghis Khan as he forms one of the largest empires ever known into a box-standard western romance.
Widely considered one of the worst films ever made, Golden Raspberry Award creator John Wilson considers The Conqueror to be one of the 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Films Ever Made. I cannot share this assessment.