The Warlords

If someone enjoys films that contain bravery, betrayal and dramatic action sequences then The Warlords is the perfect choice. This film begins in the year 1861 when the Taiping rebels have already obtained half of the China Empire. General Ho was the man in charge of the Taiping rebels. He and his soldiers quickly earned the reputation as being unmerciful and unintimidated. However, due to General Pang Qingyun (Jet Li) the reign of the Taipings would eventually come to an end. General Pang was determined to provide everyone with the ability to live as he or she chooses instead of being under the control of the Taipings.

In the opening scene of the film, all of the Ching soldiers were brutally killed by the Taiping rebels in battle leaving only one survivor. This one fortunate individual was General Pang. He avoided his death by pretending to be dead. He eventually found his way to a town of bandits where he became a blood brother with two other men, Er-Hu and Zhang. All three of these men took a sworn oath stating they would protect the lives of each other at all costs. When General Pang learned that the Taiping rebels had already overtaken both Nanking and Suzhou and were heading to Beijing, he knew that he and his blood brothers must overtake them. The picture below displays Pang, Er-Hu and Zhang after they have successfully become blood brothers.

As a result of General Pangs willingness and desire to defeat the Taipings, Lord Chen provided Pang with hundreds of soldiers and food. This event began several battles with the Taiping in various locations throughout China. The first battle depicted, between China and the Taipings proved to be very effective at utilizing cinematic devices. The Taibings were walking through a large canyon while Pang and his soldiers were the top of the canyon cliff looking down upon them. During this particular battle scene, the camera continuously switched angles from looking down to looking back up. In my opinion, the change in camera angles was very effective because I was able to visually see what each army was also able to see.

A narrative pattern was also depicted in this film when General Pang and his soldiers went to Nanking to take control. The screen displayed that three years had past since Pang and his troops had been at Nanking fighting. This allowed me as the observer to understand the time line of events.

Furthermore, at the start of the film General Pang is laying next to all of his dead his solders on the ground. Pang walks around and agonizes over all of the deaths that had been lost. Towards the end of the film Pang orders the assassination of more 4,000 unarmed civilians against the will or Er-Hu. After this slaughter Pang once again goes down and walks beside all of the dead bodies lying on the ground. These two scenes were a clear example of a visual trope used in the film.

However, decisions like the one just mentioned were a main factor in the blood brothers eventual betrayal of each other. Due to the Pang’s contradictions and his dishonest decisions, he was conflicted with Er-Hu and Zhang. After a shocking ending both Pang and Er-Hu died while Zhang survived suffering broken legs fighting Pang. On his way to become Governor of Nanking Pang was then killed. It was never explained what had happened to the Taiping rebels; nor did the film explain if Zhang had survived his fight with Pang.