Unless you are a history buff, you probably don’t realize that 1242 was arguably the most important year in European history. Several Mongol armies were sweeping almost unchecked through Central Europe and Russia. Cities like Kyiv, Buda and Pest had been conquered and looted. Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary’s two million population at that time were killed during the Mongol invasion of Europe.
And then, the invaders disappeared, as swiftly as their mighty cavalries had arrived. The Russian chronicler wrote of the northern Mongol army:
They turned back from the river Dnieper, and we know not whence they came and whither they went. 1
The Mongol armies just left.
The standard explanation is that they received news that The Great Khan had died, requiring all the princes to go to a sort of tribal council, where they would choose a new Even Greater Khan from among their ranks. Because you know what they say: you can’t be too rich, or too beautiful, or have too great a Khan. I myself was stripped of my Khanship for being a Merely Competent Khan. They will simply not accept mediocrity in the Khan community, just as the Martinizing community will not accept a 63-minute man.
Other historians have cast doubt on that “vote for the new Khan” explanation.
Rashid Al-Din, a historian of the Mongol Ilkhanate, explicitly states in the Ilkhanate’s official histories that the Mongols were not even aware of Ögedei’s death when they began their withdrawal.
In addition to the actual accounts from the Mongol chroniclers, modern historians have argued that the timelines don’t work. They argue that it would not have been possible for the news of the Khan’s death to have reached the armies by the time the withdrawal started.
This film poses an alternate explanation for why they left.
When the Great Mongolian army is about to invade Europe in 1242 it doesn’t expect that a Hungarian castle and its Priest, Eusebius will stop it. After the Hungarian army was annihilated by the Mongols at the battle of Mohi, only the castle of Esztergom stood in the Mongolians’ way of invading the rest of Europe. Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, reaches the walls of Esztergom with his invincible troops. The castle’s defenders, led by Eusebius, the canon of Esztergom, and a Spanish mercenary, Captain Simon, are preparing for the final battle. The sudden arrival of Cardinal Cesareani, the Papal Legate, coinciding with the Mongol Lunar New Year celebrations and the mystical practices of Eusebius, combine to offer the defenders a small glimmer of hope.
Apparently the mighty Horde just had a little pow-wow with Eric Roberts, and he offered them the sex chair that he kept from the set of Star 80. They liked his ideas, accepted the chair, and subscribed to his newsletter. Then Eusebius did some religious mumbo-jumbo, and the would-be conquerors left peacefully. As one reviewer wrote:
The Glorious Hungarian Man single-handedly sent Batu Khan home from the fields of Esztergom with a portion of fried scones and a fatherly kiss.
I just fast-forwarded through the film. I guess you already figured that out. Life is not only too short to dance with ugly women, but it is also too short to see Eric Roberts play an ancient Hungarian, but I’m going to force you to see it anyway.
I do know that Eric didn’t play Eusebius, so he wasn’t the man who stopped the Mongol Horde. I doubt that he had enough time to stop an invading army, as he had eleven other films to shoot that month, in locations from Perth to Svalbard.
This film has had a troubled history. IMDb has it labeled 2025, which would be a pretty neat trick, given that one of the leading players, Ray Stevenson, died in early 2023. Incidentally, Stevenson’s part was originally to be played by Kevin Spacey, but I think we all know what happened there.
Anyway, here’s Genevieve Chenneour to cleanse the palate:
Footnote 1: I know that sounds like a pretentious translation, but it’s just literal. While English has all but discarded whence (from where) and whither (to where), and when used, whence is usually used wrong (people say “from whence,” which is redundant), Russian retains three different words for “where,” and two of them translate exactly as whence (otkuda) and whither (kuda).
This is a propaganda movie by Viktor Orbán’s government to imply the Hungarians saved Europe. They spend lots of public to make propaganda films trying to show Hungarian history more glorious than it is.
Sort of like Trump trying to suppress discussion of slavery in order to show those times in a better light.
Here’s a google translated article about the movie’s falsifications:
The latest Hungarian billionaire course film is such a blatant falsification of history that it’s mind-boggling
“but I’m going to force you to see it anyway.”
Bastard! 🙂
`Anyway, here’s Genevieve Chenneour to cleanse the palate“
All is forgiven.
Watch the A&E explanation and push all other scholars into a mass grave.
More history lessons should also have topless girls.
From Spacey to Stevenson is certainly a casting choice, assuming you weren’t kidding.
I was not.
I’m at least glad to see this is the type of movies with Eric Roberts that cares about it’s visuals a tad. Nice looking girl.
I highly recommend reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World”. It’s a fascinating book and the beginning is like a fantasy novel as it charts his rise from destitute herder to conquering hero.
From what I remember reading (either from this book or elsewhere), the Mongols turned back because Europe was just too poor so it wasn’t worth conquering.
Patton Oswalt has this bit where he was tracing his genetic lineage and found an expected mix of European and then a surprising percentage of “Mongolian”. He asked about it and the response was, “oh, yeah, Genghis Khan . . “