By the end of the film, William is a better person for having gone to China.Ģ. But throughout his journey in China, his “yellow fever” for Commander Lin Mae, played by Jing Tian, helps him see that there is more to being a warrior than fighting for money - honor, justice and respect are things no one can ever buy. His character has been a mercenary ever since he could fight and cares for nothing but the money. Then there’s Matt Damon’s character - the casting everyone seems furious about. Qins great accomplishments and also his serious faults are showed in this film. In 221 BC, Qin Shihuangdi conquered the rest of China. With Shintarô Katsu, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ken Utsui, Hiroshi Kawaguchi. So one Westerner died of greed, the other ditched his friend for money. The Great Wall: Directed by Shigeo Tanaka. He hesitantly chose to ditch his friend and partner William, played by Damon, to escape with Ballard and the black powder but ended up being caught by guards and jailed. The Great Wall, a US135 million fantasy epic directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Matt Damon and Andy Lau Tak-wah, is billed as the most expensive Chinese movie to be distributed globally. The other “Caucasian” (in quotations because Spaniards aren’t typically considered Caucasian), played by Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal, is kind of just there for comic relief and the ride in general. The Great Wall - The First Attack: William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal) watch in shock and awe as alien creatures attack the Great Wall and the Name. Of the three Caucasian characters in the movie, Ballard, played by Willem Dafoe, loses his life in an attempt to run off with stolen Chinese black powder which he planned to sell in Europe for a fortune. If anything, the film kind of makes white people look foolish, greedy, and in desperate need of the honor and virtuousness that China has to offer. Along the way, Matt Damon’s character undergoes a transformation for the better as the battle moves from the Great Wall to the capital where the scourge is finally defeated.ġ. After reaching the Great Wall, they are thrust into a raging war against drone-like monsters who threaten not just China, but the whole world. The plot in a nutshell is two Western mercenaries journey to China in search of extremely valuable gunpowder. I was wrong, and I was actually surprised by how fair and refreshingly feminist the film turned out to be. In his review Manohla Dargis writes: Snarling digital monsters, a. I went into this film ready to sniff out every instance that Matt Damon’s character would be thrust into the spotlight as the “white savior” and eventually save all of China. In The Great Wall a mercenary played by Matt Damon helps defend The Great Wall of China against a horde of monsters.