Marco Polo (1254-1324) really lived and almost certainly trekked to China, as he wrote in the book he published in the late 1290s.

But much of what he wrote that was true seemed so fantastic to his Italian contemporaries that his tales were considered at least partly fiction.

According to Polo, he and his father and uncle spent 3½ arduous years slogging to Mongolia, endeared themselves to Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, and became officials and emissaries in his court.

The 1938 Gary Cooper film “The Adventures of Marco Polo” simply borrowed bits from Polo’s book and created a Hollywood adventure with no Asian actors in any prominent roles.

The Hallmark Channel adventure “Marco Polo” – which airs today at 8 p.m. – does much the same, starring “Lost” fatality Ian Somerhalder as a Polo who ages about a year over 24 years.

This film at least has travelogue value. It is beautifully filmed in China, and all Asian characters are played by Asian actors, except one. Written by Ron Hutchinson and directed by Kevin Connor, “Marco” does include many incidents from Polo’s account (though, mysteriously, this film has Dad going home).

As in his book, Polo is given a servant/friend, whom he called Pedro or Pietro. Played by B.D. Wong, he is Pedro here.

The great Kublai Khan, however, is played by Brian Dennehy, joining Hollywood’s long list of Occidentals who have played Asians: Katharine Hepburn, Paul Muni, Curt Jurgens, Luise Rainer, Walter Huston, Sidney Toler and Warner Oland.

Dennehy is given little makeup to look Asian. Moreover, while Polo reported that he was treated well, this script has him constantly in danger from jealous rivals, as if he had joined the court of Henry VIII. It was likely thought that a film about Italian merchants who prospered lavishly for 17 years would be insufferably boring.

Thus, we get a palace revolution against Khan, treachery from courtiers and romance that Polo didn’t mention. We assume that the Polos were not celibate, especially in their prosperity, but they did not come back with wives or children, and Polo was discreetly mum on the topic.

In “Marco,” Polo falls in love with one woman who is given to him (but was betrothed to another) and, later, her sister, both played by Desiree Ann Siahaan.

Posterity has been at least a little skeptical regarding Polo’s accounts for reasons including the fact that he never learned to speak Chinese, despite being a gifted linguist who spent two decades in China. (Everyone speaks the same language in “Marco.”)

Also, Polo never mentioned the Great Wall, even though he marveled at gunpowder, coal, paper currency and noodles. He did, however, mention huge birds that swept up elephants, dropped them and then ate them.

The Polos’ departure from Khan’s palace was perhaps even more perilous than his journey in, although his account was sparse. It took three years, during which they were instructed to deliver a princess bride to the ruler of Persia. During the journey both Khan and the Persian ruler died, but the Polos took the woman to the succeeding Persian ruler.

That’s all Polo says. In “Marco,” he is tragically in love with the princess and plans to defy Khan. His most dangerous rival is on this journey, also unmentioned in Polo’s book.

Polo might not have written his book, despite being a famous raconteur, if he had not been given the leisure of a prison term and a willing scribe. After his return to Venice he commanded a galley in a war with Genoa, became a prisoner of war and passed the time with his cellmate, a writer of romances, Rustichello de Pisa, as depicted in “Marco.”

The original manuscript was lost, and so was a revised version Polo wrote later. Succeeding versions, translated and amended by many writers, are sometimes contradictory and may account for some of the book’s more sensational or dubious elements.

“Marco” is a handsome production but really more a delight for the eye than a satisfying adventure. Several martial arts scenes are added at intervals, and one suspects that their choreography includes moves invented for Hong Kong movies rather than for Kublai Khan’s soldiers.

Dennehy never seems Asian, always looking and sounding like a beefy American in gorgeous gowns being surly to everyone. However, Khan was quite corpulent at the end.

Somerhalder looks fine in the role of the teenage Marco Polo starting out but seems callow for the increasingly powerful official that Polo became over the ensuing 24 years.

Perhaps another crew of filmmakers will give the Polos another try in 20 years. They should use the same locations as “Marco.”

Copy the Story Link