शैडोइंग अभ्यास: The Conqueror (1956) - The Objectively Worst Film Ever Made - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें
लोड हो रहा है...
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When people talk about the worst movies ever made, there are a number of titles commonly thrown around.
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Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Room, Star Wars The Last Jedi, and Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker,
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and Star Wars The Phantom Menace, and damn, were any of these movies ever good?
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I hate them!
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But as bad as these movies are, there is one that is objectively worse.
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A movie whose very production could almost be said to be cursed.
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After all, its creation resulted in dozens of deaths and drove its creator to madness like some kind of Lovecraftian grimoire.
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The Conqueror is a 1956 epic historical film about the life of Genghis Khan.
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It stars John Wayne in the title role of Temujin.
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Yeah, that's right, John Wayne the cowboy as a Mongolian warlord.
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But horrible miscasting is only the tip of this iceberg.
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Beyond the bland dialogue and cardboard performances of the cast, the movie also had one of the most unfortunate productions of any movie ever made,
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and the effect it had on its mysterious producer is a story worth telling, unlike this film.
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So let's take a look back at what I consider to be the objectively worst film ever made.
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This is The Kong World.
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The movie opens with the Merkit chief Targatai crossing the lands of the Mongols to bring home his new wife.
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The Mongol chief Temujin confronts him and is instantly attracted to the wife, a Tartar woman named Bortai.
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Temujin decides to steal her for himself
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and organizes a raid against the Merkits despite his men's warning that the Merkits will seek revenge.
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Temujin and his men ambush the caravan, driving Targatai away and taking Bortai for his own.
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His mother Hunlun despises Bortai, as her father killed Temujin's father many years ago.
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She warns Temujin to get rid of her, lest she bring woe to their people, but he refuses, as he wants to keep her for his wife.
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However, Bortai refuses Temujin, seeing him as a beast beneath a woman like her.
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She approaches Temujin's blood brother and right hand man Jamukha, offering herself to him if he will free her.
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He refuses to betray Temujin, but at that moment, the Marekits attack the camp.
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In the confusion, Temujin sees Jamukha leaving Bortai's tent, sowing seeds of distrust in his mind.
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Temujin manages to escape the fighting along with Bortai.
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Hiding together from the Merkits, they make love.
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When they return to the camp the next day, his mother chastises him for letting a woman bring danger to the camp.
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Temujin again refuses to listen, and instead decides to seek help from his old ally, Wang Kahn.
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His plan is to lie to Wang Kahn and convince him that the Tartars and Merkits are conspiring against him.
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He and Bortai arrive at Wangkan's city, who welcomes him with a feast and a display of dancing women.
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After the celebration, Temujin lies to him about the Tartar threat.
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Wangkan consults with his shaman, who declares that the spirits say Temujin is truthful.
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Wangkan agrees to unite against the Tartars.
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However, as Temujin is leaving, the shaman reveals that he lied because he wants Temujin to take over Wangkan's kingdom after his death.
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On their return to their camp, Temujin is ambushed by the Tartars.
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Bortai manages to escape back to her people, leaving Temujin wounded in a cave.
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Jamukha finds him and pretends to defect
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so the Tartars will trust him enough in order for him to steal horses for their escape.
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However, they follow him back to Temujin's location and end up capturing him.
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Temujin sees Jamika escape, making him believe that he betrayed him.
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The Tartars bring Temujin back to their camp, torturing him and planning on executing him the next day.
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However, Bortai, now realizing her love for him, helps him escape.
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Returning back to his camp, Temujin accuses Jamika of betrayal.
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In order to prove himself, he is sent along with Temujin's actual brother Kassar to Wang Kahn's city in order to organize the attack on the Tartars.
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Arriving in the city, the shaman warns Wang Kahn that Temujin plans on betraying him.
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He orders that Jamika and Kassar be held captive while he goes to investigate the Mongols' plan.
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Jamika manages to escape their captivity, but Kassar is killed in the escape.
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Jamika rides for the camp, but is captured by the Tartars.
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Temujin is at the meeting spot, awaiting Wang Khan's forces.
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The shaman arrives and tells him that Wang Khan has betrayed their agreement.
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He offers to unlock the city gates and allow Temujin to conquer the city.
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Temujin agrees, but is distrustful of the shaman.
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The shaman allows the Mongol forces through the gate, who take the city under their control.
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With his dying breath, Wang Khan reveals the shaman's deception.
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Temujin cuts him down and claims Wang Khan's forces as his own.
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Together, they march on a Tartar camp.
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Temujin finally gets his revenge by killing the Tartar chief, and he and Bortai are reunited.
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She reassures Temujin that Jamukha never betrayed him and only feels love for his blood brother.
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However, Jamukha says that the seeds of distrust can never be undone.
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and asks that Temujin kill him and let him die with honor.
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Temujin reluctantly agrees.
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As the movie ends, Jamika narrates that with all his enemies defeated,
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Temujin assumed the title of Chinggis Khan and conquered the land with Bortai by his side.
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There's so much wrong with this film, I don't even know where to begin.
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The elephant in the room is of course the casting.
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While I'll give the film leeway as casting white actors in non-white roles wasn't as controversial then as it is today, even with that in mind,
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Wayne is horribly out of place as the great Mongol chief.
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Now, John Wayne is a good, if not slightly limited actor.
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He shines in a certain role.
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The gruff cowboy, the stern gunslinger.
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And while the role of the brutish conqueror might seem like something that suits him, he sounds ridiculous delivering lines like this.
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I'm not saying the blame is entirely on him, as the entire cast gives a cardboard performance.
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Much of it has to do with the dialogue.
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These lines are trying to sound vaguely 13th century, but when combined with the cowboy accent, it just comes off as awkward.
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The only actor who comes close to a good performance is Agnes Moorhead, who plays Temujin's mother Hun Lun.
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She's not on camera for long, but she was clearly having fun with the role.
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She is the daughter of Kumlik.
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Kumlik's daughter?
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Spawn of evil!
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Let your slaves have their sport with her.
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I will not have her within our tents.
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I say who stays in our tents.
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This woman is for my pleasure.
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You will take pleasure with the offspring of your father's slayer?
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She will bring woe to you, my son, and to your people.
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The story is also atrocious for many reasons.
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For starters, it isn't even close to historically accurate.
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The real story of Temujin's life, or at least the one we know from the secret history of the Mongols, is so interesting it could be a movie on its own.
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And it's clear the writers at least had some idea of history, as they get the names mostly right.
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But they changed so many details for no reason.
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In real life, Jamika was blood brother to Temujin, but he wasn't the dotering man-servant he's portrayed as in the movie.
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In actuality, he was Temujin's superior by birth, and in time, they developed a rivalry that ended in war.
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It's honestly an epic story about brothers turning into enemies, and it would make for a damn good film.
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But instead, Jamika is devoted to serving Temujin for seemingly no reason.
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I mean he says there's something about Temujin that makes men want to follow him or something, but we never actually see it.
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In fact it's just the opposite in this movie.
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The movie portrays Temujin as a complete jackass.
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He endangers his tribe by recklessly attacking the Merkits in order to steal some woman for himself,
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and then has the gall to accuse his men of failure in stopping the counter attack.
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He complains that he is beset by traitors
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when he himself lied to his benefactor Wang Kahn and tried to trick him into going to war for his own benefit.
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This is all in complete disregard to the real Temujin, who dedicated himself to protecting his people.
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Why the hell would anyone want to follow this tool?
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I'd almost say the movie is trying to criticize Temujin and show that he was a terrible person, if it wasn't for the fact that they show Bortai falling in love with him.
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From her reaction, we get the sense that there's something to love and admire in Temujin.
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But her sudden feelings for Temujin come out of nowhere, and are a complete contradiction to how he has treated her throughout the entire film.
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What exactly is she supposed to love about this guy?
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The way he hits her?
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I mean I know as the 50's and women were expected to just swoon when a big tough guy grabs them, but even as the so called conqueror, Temujin is lacking.
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The first time they make love, it's after Temujin runs away from the enemy, something she mocked her first husband for.
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He's constantly falling into traps and is completely out of touch with the situation around him.
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It makes her sudden love for him contradict her character and make no sense.
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And speaking of making no sense, what the hell is up with that ending?
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Jamika has been a loyal servant of Temujin the entire movie, and even though Bortai confirms that he's never even thought about betraying Temujin,
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for some reason he has to die?
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His reasoning that doubt would creep into Temujin's thoughts makes no sense, as there's no one left for him to betray Temujin to, even if he wanted to.
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I think the writers were hoping his death would give the ending a sense of sadness, Temujin's victory came at the cost of a friend,
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but the problem is we aren't invested into this conflict because the character is flat and boring.
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Instead the scene just serves to confuse the audience and slow the climax down for no reason.
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Now all of that would be enough to call any movie terrible, but the problems this film has go beyond just what's on the screen.
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The film also had one of the most unfortunate productions of any movie ever made, and the decision to film there would result in an untold number of deaths.
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The film was primarily shot near St. George, Utah, which is downwind of the United States nuclear test site in Nevada.
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In fact only 3 years earlier, 11 nuclear weapons had been tested in the area,
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which allowed radioactive fallout to be dispersed and carried downwind to the filming site.
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Of the 220 members of the crew, 91 developed cancer and at least 46 died from it.
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This included Wayne himself, who developed lung and stomach cancer, eventually dying from the latter.
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Pedro Armand Rees would end up committing suicide after a terminal diagnosis of cancer in 1963,
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and Agnes Moorhead, Susan Hayward, and director Dick Powell would all die from cancer as well.
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Even Wayne's sons, Michael and Patrick, who only visited the set,
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developed cancer, and a true number of cases is suspected to be even higher than what was reported.
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The decision to film in St. George was made by the film's producer, the legendary business magnate Howard Hughes.
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Hughes is an interesting figure, having been both a record setting pilot and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.
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He wielded great political and business power and came to be an influential member of Hollywood.
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He financed many films including the original 1931's Scarface, and later came to control RKO Studios,
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which gave us King Kong and Citizen Kane.
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Recluse was known to be an eccentric even in his early days, and suffered from OCD.
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However, later in his life, his eccentricity turned into madness.
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He became a recluse, not taking care of himself and rarely being seen in public.
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While the cause of his decline is impossible to pinpoint, many think that the guilt he felt over the Conqueror was part of it.
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He spent $12 million buying every copy of the film he could so no one could ever see it, and watched it on repeat over and over again in his personal theater.
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He often sat in his chair naked, watching the film for weeks on end, not bathing or cutting his hair or nails.
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When he finally died in 1976, he was so unrecognizable, the FBI had to use fingerprints to confirm it was him.
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To be fair to Hughes, he didn't know the area was dangerous.
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When he went to the Atomic Energy Commission, they told him it was perfectly safe, which is also what they told the residents of St. George.
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However, higher rates of cancer in the area were reported all the way until the 1980s,
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and Congress would later set up a fund to compensate the victims of the nuclear fallout.
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When the film debuted, it was a box office bomb, no pun intended.
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It was met with negative reception, mostly around the casting and a nonsensical story.
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Wayne would later receive the Golden Turkey Award for his performance, and the film would be included in the 50 worst films of all time.
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Unlike some of the other films on that list, like Plan 9, there's nothing even funny bad here.
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Nothing that would bring the film into the so bad it's good category.
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It's a tragic story, for the characters in the film, for the people who made it, and of course for the people who had to watch it.
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But the next time you see a crappy movie and think to yourself this is the worst thing ever, just remember, it can get so much worse.
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आप "The Conqueror (1956) - The Objectively Worst Film Ever Made" के साथ Shadowing तकनीक का उपयोग करके अपनी अंग्रेजी का अभ्यास कर रहे हैं।
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शैडोइंग (Shadowing) एक विज्ञान-समर्थित भाषा सीखने की तकनीक है जो मूल रूप से पेशेवर दुभाषिया प्रशिक्षण के लिए विकसित की गई थी। विधि सरल लेकिन शक्तिशाली है: आप मूल अंग्रेज़ी ऑडियो सुनते हैं और तुरंत इसे ज़ोर से दोहराते हैं — जैसे वक्ता की छाया 1-2 सेकंड की देरी से। शोध से पता चलता है कि यह उच्चारण सटीकता, स्वर, लय, जुड़ी हुई ध्वनियाँ, सुनने की समझ और बोलने की प्रवाहशीलता में काफ़ी सुधार करता है।