THE GREAT WALL: Of China

Director: Yimou Zhang
Writers: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro, Tony Gilroy, Max Brooks, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz
Cast: Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau, Hanyu Zhang
Runtime: 103 mins.
2017

The recent surge of conscientiousness surrounding diversity in Hollywood has done immeasurable good. Any social movement has collateral damage, however; for this issue it comes in the form of an unwillingness to watch a movie on its own terms if there are problematic surface elements. Or worse, the dismissal of films that haven't even been released.

One such dialogue cropped up around the trailer for The Great Wall, in which Matt Damon appeared to be a white dude so good at archery that he saves the entire nation of China from horrible monsters. This was decried as classic Hollywood whitewashing.

Let's put aside the somewhat simpleminded but worthwhile argument that this is a (partially) Chinese film, and director Yimou Zhang can cast the movie any damn way he pleases: maybe he sees Damon as international flavor, or wants the significant box office bump of Damon's reputation, or maybe he just thinks Damon is a good actor. There are related conversations to be had about the global supremacy of American culture, but it seems odd to point fingers at a Chinese director for whitewashing.

Anyhow, putting all that aside, the golden rule of film criticism and discussion is that you must meet a movie on its own terms. If you do so, and find those terms vile, then criticize away. But it does a cultural dialogue harm to pass judgment before seeing the work itself.


Four times out of five, you'll find that the problematic-seeming thing is indeed thinkpiece worthy, but there is a clear degree of uncertainty that comes with making conclusions based on advertising. In the case of The Great Wall, the resulting film functions as an inverse of what everyone was complaining about. It's true that Damon is the protagonist, and he does save the day in the end. Yet I would hesitate to call it whitewashing. If anything, the casting is a mechanism of Chinese propaganda.* The white Western individualist stumbles across this incredible Chinese war effort, and their sheer dedication to conformity and self-sacrifice for the sake of the nation inspires him to fight patriotically rather than selfishly for once in his life. The real heroes are the Chinese warriors. Damon's character is only worth his salt insofar as he chooses to subscribe to their methods. This leveraging of Damon's international star power for the sake of a screed on nationalism is an interesting twist.

*If there is anything racially problematic about The Great Wall, I would say it's the subliminal equation of foreign invaders to bloodthirsty alien creatures.

Unfortunately, it's also the only interesting thing about the story. William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal) just sort of meander into this enormous secret war. They get kicked around for about an hour until they make up their mind about where their allegiances lie. This involves a whole lot of horrendously stilted dialogue and vacant decision-making looks. The biggest problem I have with Damon's involvement in this movie is that it's the worst performance of his career, only exacerbated by his hilarious untrackable accent. Damon and Pascal are a bit embarrassing to watch, as they play out a thirteen-year-old boy's conception of male camaraderie.

The only performances that hold a modicum of water are those of the Chinese actors, who aren't asked to do much more than perform dedication--both physical and ideological. Meanwhile, Willem Dafoe plays a squirrely fellow named Ballard who is mostly ignored by everyone and won't stop talking about "black powder"--one of the plot's several Macguffins. It's clear to me that Yimou Zhang had little interest in modulating his actors' performances.

The Great Wall remains worth seeing for one reason and one reason only: the spectacle. Zhang presents a vision of humanity at its maximum combat potential, synced cogs in a massive war machine. To face the unstoppable hoard, the army is split into a handful of perfectly trained factions, including the acrobatic Crane Troop, an all-female battalion who plunge over the wall attached to a harness system. All of this could easily become dour and busy, but Zhang color codes the factions in bright fantasy armor. Thanks to cinematographers Stuart Dryburgh and Xiaoding Zhao, as well as some incredible work by those who contributed in the capacity of colorist, the coordinated motion of battle is a feast for the eyes. The monstrous Taotie are fearsome, but frankly less interesting than the synchronicity of the human side. I mean that to be a compliment. After a series of escalating battles (including an imaginatively constructed fog fight with breathtaking sound design), and some plotty wheel spinning, the action culminates in an against-all-odds fight in the nation's capital. Damon's part plays out in what appears to be a towering cathedral, and the way the light pours in through the innumerable stained glass windows while the creatures attack is immaculate. But then, I'm a huge sucker for stained glass.

Let suckerhood be the metric that draws you to this movie, or pushes you away. If you are a sucker for monster armies, pop war imagery, or the scale of the battle from The Two Towers without any of the earned narrative beats, then go for it. If not, don't. The Great Wall has a few stellar battles sandwiched by a forgettable plot. Normally I'm repulsed by the idea of fast forwarding through a movie to get to the "good parts," but if ever a movie called for it, this is one.

2 / 5  BLOBS