‘Marco Polo’ or — Better Than ‘Lawrence of Arabia’?

‘Marco Polo’ (1975) is a historical epic concerning the famous merchant/explorer’s time as an advisor to the court of Kublai Khan. Now if that sounds potentially somewhat stuffy and po-faced I should also point out that ‘Marco Polo’ is a Shaw Brothers production directed by Chang Cheh so it’s about as stuffy and po-faced as an exploding panda and so deranged it could be legitimately classified as certifiably insane.

The film opens with Marco Polo (Richard Harrison) arriving at the Khan’s court where he… er…

Look, the thing is it’s quite hard to describe the plot to ‘Marco Polo’ because the first half hour of this movie is nothing but non-stop action, so it’s only when the craziness finally stops for a breath that you actually have the time to figure out what the hell’s going on.

And what’s going on is that the Khan has ordered Polo to lead a team of bodyguards to crush the Chinese rebels who have made an attempt on the Khan’s life. Once crushed the surviving Chinese strip to the waist and train in various ridiculous and unique ways so they can then whack the shit out of the Mongols in return. Along the way Polo is impressed by the Chinese and their glistening chests so becomes sympathetic to their cause, ultimately deciding to help them by standing around and doing absolutely nothing other than looking about with a vacant grin on his face like he’s just taken a hit from a massive bong.

As I’m sure you can tell, historical accuracy is something that goes flying out the window with the velocity of a stuntman kicked in the chest so if you’re watching this hoping to learn anything about the life of Marco Polo you’re going to be either massively disappointed or profoundly confused.

If you’re going in to be entertained, however, you’ll be any but disappointed or confused because ‘Marco Polo’ is so deliriously and furiously enjoyable it boggles description. A good comparison could be with the period adventure films of Don Sharp or the Italian Westerns of Gianfranco Parolini where a historical setting is used as a backdrop for unrestrained mayhem and muscular action, the only difference being Cheh manages to cram in even more lunacy than those two combined, which is really saying something. A great example is the climactic fight which includes lone fighters tackling dozens of opponents at once and the most hilariously violent use of masonry I’ve ever seen in my life. And STILL Cheh keeps piling on the gleeful absurdity.

So yeah, if you’re looking to learn anything about Marco Polo, his exploits or historical significance then you won’t learn a bloody thing from watching ‘Marco Polo’. What you will learn, however, is just how incredibly and consistently entertaining a filmmaker Cheng Cheh could be and, for me, that’s the more deeply valuable knowledge to have acquired.