Nomad (2005): A Movie Review

Nomad is a historical drama starring Kuno Becker as Mansur and Jay Hernandez as Erali. Jason Scott Lee plays Oraz, their wise mentor and instructor. Nomad is set in 18^th century Kazakhstan. Mansur is a young prince destined to unite his country's three warring tribes against an evil invader. Warning: my movie review contains plot spoilers.

Nomad is an entertaining two hour movie. It is full of great fight scenes, great character interaction, and beautiful scenery. The story is not very original. It is the typical story of a tyrant, the eventual hero who will defeat the tyrant, and a girl that the hero has to rescue. The plot is very predictable but I for one never tire of the classic hero saves his people plot.

I thought all the actors did exceptionally well in the movie. Mark Dacascos was a nice surprise as the tyrant's right hand man Sharish. Mark usually plays the good guy but he also plays bad very well. He brutally kills Mansur's mom and entire caravan in hopes of also killing Mansur as a baby. Of course Mansur is saved and eventually gets his revenge on Sharish in a particularly violent dual.

The fight scenes are very graphic and spellbinding to watch. I was amazed by Mansur's scene as he rides down a gauntlet of archers and manages to escape getting hit. The stunt coordinators and stunt actors deserve high praise for all the battle scenes.

My only complaint with the movie was a couple of scenes that seemed important but don't really go anywhere. For instance, there is a scene where the tyrant's daughter offers herself in marriage to a captured Mansur in order to save him. Of course he declines since he is in love with someone else. I really thought the daughter was later going to play a bigger part in the story but she never appears again. So she is introduced to the plot but then the director never does anything with her again. I don't see the point. Also the king's right hand man clearly betrays them but they never show the betrayal discovered or if the betrayer was every punished. Perhaps I pay too much attention to detail because those little plot holes really bug me.

I did enjoy the movie and was highly entertained the whole time. I give the movie 4 out of 5 stars.