The Great Wall (2016) - Review by Madison Williams

History of The Film

The Great Wall is an American and Chinese co-production that was directed by Zhang Yimou and premiered in Beijing on December 6, 2016. Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy were the screenplay writers of this film that was based on a story idea from Max Brooks, Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. The film stars Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, and Andy Lau as the main cast. The principal photography started on the 30th of March 2015 in Qingdao, China. During production three walls were built because no one could film on the actual Great Wall of China, and there were more than 100 translators on set. It was released by China Film Group in China on December 16, 2016, and in the United States on February 17, 2017 by Universal Pictures. Other interesting facts are that The Great Wall is currently the most expensive film that was shot entirely in China, and is the largest collaboration movie ever attempted between China and the United States of America’s film industries.

Historical Analysis of The Film

Despite being set during the Song dynasty The Great Wall distorts reality to make this film purely fantasy. The main idea of this film is that the Great Wall of China was built to keep monsters out rather than Mongols/barbarians. There is some resemblance of Song dynasty armour however, social structure is completely different and several types of weapons exaggerated to a degree where every thing resembles a boyhood fantasy. This film was made to be a bilingual action block buster that did not live up to expectations for both Chinese and American audiences.