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Movie Review: THE GREAT WALL

Fighting monsters in 12th-century china.

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Matt Damon, Ting Jian, Pedro Pascal, Andy Lau, Willem Dafoe, Hanyu Zhang, Lu Han Writers: Carlo Bernard & Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy, story by Max Brooks and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz Director: Zhang Yimou Distributor: Universal Release Date: February 17, 2017

THE GREAT WALL | © 2017 Universal

Despite its title (barriers aren’t known for their motion), THE GREAT WALL hurtles along at an impressive pace, usually slowing only so that characters can come up with strategy. Set in 12 th -century China, THE GREAT WALL begins with a supertitle that explains the size and amount of time it took to build the Wall, then adds that this is one of the legends surrounding its origins (just in case anybody was liable to think anything along these lines actually happened).

As the film opens, after some fun use of distributor Universal’s spinning-planet logo, we zero in on desert plains in China, where five Europeans are riding hell for leather to outrun a group of mounted tribesmen. During the night, the men are attacked by a mysterious creature. William (Matt Damon) manages to cut off the thing’s leg and it falls to its death.

Only William and Tovar (Pedro Pascal) make it until dawn. Pursued again by the tribesmen, they run until their path is blocked by the Wall. They are promptly taken prisoner by the army there, called the Nameless Order. The soldiers don’t even have time to lock up the prisoners before the Wall is besieged by thousands of huge, voracious, lizard-like monsters known as the Tao Tei.

Fun fact: the Tao Tei are actually part of ancient Chinese mythology and images of the creatures can be found on Chinese currency. However, THE GREAT WALL adds its own spin on things, deciding the monsters have been attacking the Wall every sixty years for generations, which has given the Nameless Order a lot of time to figure out how to fight these things. Alas, it turns out that the Tao Tei have also had time to plan, so that the stakes rise considerably as the film progresses.

There are a couple of subplots, but the main thrust of the film is what the Nameless Order, and their surprised conscripts, can do to stop the Tao Tei. Director Zhang Yimou has come up with some fabulous visual ideas that are executed by phenomenal design and stunt departments. Each branch of the Nameless Order has its own color scheme, which makes for beautiful patterns when the various parts of the army interact with one another. Anybody interested in the possibilities of medieval Chinese weapons and fighting techniques should be enthralled with this aspect. The Tao Tei are likewise intricately conceived and wonderfully executed. Audience members given choice may want to watch in 2D rather than 3D, so as to better enjoy the gorgeous interplay of colors.

The main problem with THE GREAT WALL may not bother strict action fans. There isn’t a whole heck of a lot of either plot (there’s strategy, but that’s not the same thing) or character development. Damon’s William goes through the expected growth and Ting Jian’s Lin Mae, a key warrior in the Nameless Order, learns that not all outsiders are necessarily evil. Pascal is consistently entertaining as the pragmatic Tovar, but it would be a stretch to say he changes much.  Nobody’s trying to make a character study here, but a little idiosyncrasy would have gone a long way.

Still, THE GREAT WALL shows is things we haven’t seen, moves with speed and bristles with action. As these things go, it’s good if not especially thought-provoking.

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Tags: Andy Lau , Carlo Bernard , Doug Miro , Edward Zwick , Hanyu Zhang , Lu Han , Marshall Herskovitz , Matt Damon , Max Brooks , Pedro Pascal , Tao Tei , The Great Wall , The Great Wall movie , The Great Wall movie review , The Great Wall review , Ting Jian , Tony Gilroy , Willem Dafoe , Zhang Yimou

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Chinese/American co-produced action-fantasy "The Great Wall" doesn't feel like a McDonald's-ified version of a Chinese film. True, when square-jawed Matt Damon fights alien monsters side-by-side with Chinese soldiers, the film sometimes feels like a spectacular big-budget action epic with a golden-age western-style hero. But the makers of "The Great Wall" succeed where many westerns fear to tread, namely by un-ironically valorizing the selfless collectivism that has become a cultural touchstone of modern Chinese cinema. "The Great Wall" has significant problems—namely with Damon and sidekick Pedro Pascal's lack of bromantic chemistry—but chief among its rewards is its ability to marry its Eastern and Western sensibilities.

Damon and Pascal play William and Tovar, respectively, wandering European mercenaries who are captured by the Chinese army of the Nameless Order shortly after they slay a mysterious green monster. The monster, they are told, is a "Tei Tao," one of a horde of creatures that attacks the now-famous Great Wall of China once every 60 years. William and Tovar are initially unmoved by the Nameless Order's considerable plight; they want to make their fortunes by stealing gunpowder from their hosts, and selling it to European traders. But eventually, William and Tovar's agendas drift apart after William becomes seduced by the formal control and selfless zeal that defines the Nameless Order. 

And who wouldn't be impressed? The Nameless Order marches around in colorful suits of armor that come in hues of indigo, crimson and cerulean. They launch themselves at their enemies using pulleys, bungee cords, hot-air balloons, boulder-spewing catapults, and many, many arrows. Each crowd shot in this film is remarkable, but not because director Zhang Yimou ("Hero," " House of Flying Daggers ") and his assistant directors know how to direct extras. On the contrary, the impassive faces of the Nameless Order's soldiers remind us that all of these people, together, are remarkable. In that sense, the scene where William admits that he killed a Tei Tao "alone," without the aid of Tovar or his slain mercenary colleagues, is a significant reminder of the film's communal ideology: William, as an undisciplined loner, must prove that he's worth just as much as a selfless Chinese soldier. 

The film's action scenes also exemplify a sense of precise, shared responsibility that one rarely sees in action-spectaculars. The army works together as a unit, just as the Tei Tao do. You can imagine how hard that philosophy might be to enforce given that it demands a big enough budget to focus on two warring armies' clashing maneuvers. But no, the film's action set pieces are not only thrillingly large-scale, but visually rapturous, despite a preponderance of computer-generated imagery. There are a handful of well-choreographed and well-directed, Damon-centric action sequences, but it's very easy to be seduced by scenes that focus on impersonal warfare. In the latter scenes, the art department flexes their collective muscles with every lionhead-shaped helmet and barbed offensive weapon. Who could remain unmoved after watching a group of individuals dangle, thrust, and throw everything they've got at a legion of deranged-looking creatures?

Unfortunately, the film slows down whenever it becomes a buddy comedy starring William and Tovar. If I had to guess, I'd say that screenwriter Tony Gilroy (" Duplicity ," " The Bourne Legacy ") was brought on to the film to punch up Damon and Pascal's wobbly scenes of light banter. But there's no spark between the two actors. In these scenes, Damon and Pascal perform time-honored roles that you'll find in many Asian films: the Caucasian performers who look like they wandered onto the wrong set and are unsure of what acting is. Damon orates through clenched teeth, which suits his fight scenes, but makes him sound constipated. Combine that with a weird Irish-inflected accent that presumably is meant to be generically European—his character boasts about fighting in various European conflicts—and you've got a crucial black hole where your leading man should be.

Thankfully, "The Great Wall" isn't really about Damon's character. In fact, it works best when he's part of a group, though he does predictably drift into a leadership role eventually. William's story is an assimilation narrative, after all, one where the hero sees the error of his past and tries to fit into a society that values utilitarian goals over individual needs. "The Great Wall" is unlike any American blockbuster you've seen, a conservative movie with action set pieces that are actually inventive and thrilling enough to be worthwhile. See it on as big a screen as you can.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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The Great Wall (2017)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy action violence.

103 minutes

Matt Damon as William Garin

Willem Dafoe as Ballard

Pedro Pascal as Pero Tovar

Andy Lau as Wang Junshi

Tian Jing as General Lin Mei

Hanyu Zhang as General Shao

Eddie Peng as General Wu

Lin Gengxin as General Chen

Ryan Zheng Kai as General Deng

Xuan Huang as Commander Deng

Lu Han as Peng Yong

Cheney Chen as Imperial Officer

Numan Acar as Najid

• Zhang Yimou

Writer (story)

• Marshall Herskovitz
• Edward Zwick
• Carlo Bernard
• Tony Gilroy

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• Stuart Dryburgh
• Xiaoding Zhao
• Mary Jo Markey
• Ramin Djawadi

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The Great Wall

In ancient China, a group of European mercenaries encounters a secret army that maintains and defends the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures. In ancient China, a group of European mercenaries encounters a secret army that maintains and defends the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures. In ancient China, a group of European mercenaries encounters a secret army that maintains and defends the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures.

• Yimou Zhang
• Carlo Bernard
• Tony Gilroy
• Willem Dafoe
• 563 User reviews
• 276 Critic reviews
• 42 Metascore
• 3 wins & 2 nominations

• Commander Lin Mae

• Strategist Wang

• General Shao

• Commander Chen

• Commander Wu

• Commander Deng

• (as Zheng Kai)

• (as Junkai Wang)

• Imperial Officer

• Lieutenant Xiao Yu
• (as Xintian Yu)

• Lin Mae's 2nd Lieutenant Li Qing
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia For his role as an archer, Matt Damon was trained in Hungary by Lajos Kassai, a world-champion archer.
• Goofs When we're first seeing Lin Mae jumping off of the wall to fight, during her jump in which she has a spear in each hand and does a back-flip, one of the spears can be seen phasing through the rope when the two should have collided.

William : I fought for Harold against the Danes. I saved a Duke's life. I fought for him until he died. Fought for Spain against the Franks. Fought for the Franks against the Boulogne. I fought for the Pope. Many flags.

• Crazy credits The Universal logo appears quicker than usual, and after appearing the Earth zooms into China, going all the way to a section of the Great Wall and through a crack in the section. During the zoom the Legendary Pictures logo appears (in reverse).
• Alternate versions This film will be released in the Mandarin language separately in English-speaking countries --- that is, at least Australia. Both English and Mandarin versions have been classified.
• Connections Featured in Hollywood Express: Episode #14.32 (2016)
• Soundtracks At the Border Vocal by Zhao Mu-Yang Lyrics by Wang Changling Melody by Leehom Wang

User reviews 563

• Dec 29, 2016
• How long is The Great Wall? Powered by Alexa
• February 17, 2017 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
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• Tử Chiến Tường Thành
• New Zealand
• Legendary East
• Atlas Entertainment
• China Film Co., Ltd.
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $150,000,000 (estimated)
• $45,540,830
• $18,469,620
• Feb 19, 2017
• $334,933,831

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 43 minutes
• IMAX 6-Track
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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The Great Wall review – lavish Chinese spectacle

O n the hunt for precious “black powder”, rogue mercenaries William Garin (a grizzled-looking Matt Damon) and Pero Tovar ( Game of Thrones ’s Pedro Pascal) are captured by The Nameless Order, an ancient military operation occupying the Great Wall of China. The order are preparing to battle the mythical Tao-Tie – giant, green, lizard-y looking monsters that are resurrected every 60 years to teach the Chinese a lesson about unchecked greed and swarm the wall in their millions.

Commander Lin (the film’s sole speaking female character, played by Jing Tian) takes a shine to William, pointing out their similarities. However, though both are dab hands with a bow, the two fight for different reasons; he for food and money, she for trust and honour, a lesson William inevitably learns by the film’s conclusion (perhaps making an oversimplified case for Chinese communism).

Damon and Pascal are less white saviour figures than they are an entry point for western audiences, presumably cast in an attempt to maximise the crossover between Hollywood and Chinese blockbuster markets. With a budget of £120m, the English-language debut from Chinese director Zhang Yimou ( House of Flying Daggers , Hero ) is the most expensive China-US co-production to date. From its swooping, acrobatic camerawork, to the fight scenes unfolding in eye-popping 3D, it’s easy to see where the money has been spent. It works well enough as an action-adventure romp, too, despite its simplistic plotting.

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Movie Review: The Great Wall

The movie sits uneasily on the dividing line between propaganda and art

This movie is a carefully woven tapestry that showcases the glory of China before it spectacularly declined after the opium wars, then succumbed to the consequent colonial exploitation from the West, and, still later, military aggression from Japan.

‘The Great Wall’ is set in an earlier golden era, in a nation that was at the forefront of science and technology. As the movie begins, China has invented gunpowder, and soldiers of fortune have come to this land to steal the secrets of ‘the black powder’. Clearly, cannon fire takes the art of warfare to a new level and the European looters, William (Matt Damon), Pero (Pedro Pascal) and Sir Ballard (Willem Dafoe), are here to hack the code, so to speak. During their search, they bump into another wonder of this ancient land, the Great Wall of China.

This is the essential problem of Chinese cinema – the difficulty of sifting nationalism from art and entertainment. It is particularly true of a big budget film like ‘The Great Wall’, where an international cast is helmed by well known director, Zhang Yimou. In the narrative, when the unwashed Europeans are captured by the special force that guards the Great Wall, the lady commander, Lin Mae (Jing Tian), is intrigued by the best looking white male of the ensemble, and engages in animated discussions with the Matt Damon character about why different civilizations go to war over food and money. Her take is that Westerners do it for greed, citing William’s own dubious status as a warrior who has fought for many flags. Whereas, she claims, that her war is not for material causes, but for reasons like trust, faith and nation. There is no doubt that she is attracted to William, but her personal life is subsumed under the onerous weight of duty and loyalty to her clan.

So though the film is well made, with superb use of 3D and special effects and lovely use of colour coding, it sits uneasily on the dividing line between propaganda and art. Individual choices like love, friendship and romance, seem to be missing.

But, ironically, for an English and Mandarin language film extolling the virtues of China, the movie pays obeisance, not to local folklore or to historical reasons for the building of the Great Wall, but to Hollywood science fiction. The marauders in the film are not the mongols hordes, or miscellaneous bandits who traumatized the forces guarding the wall, but the fictional Tao Tie , creatures that look like something out of Jurassic Park , and who are supposed to have evolved from a meteor that struck China.

So, eventually, the battle with the Tao Tie reduces a movie that is set in a historical period, and about the conflict between Western and Chinese values, to yet another American inspired video game cinematic adaptation. This is unfortunate.

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The Great Wall

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Watch The Great Wall with a subscription on Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

For a Yimou Zhang film featuring Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe battling ancient monsters, The Great Wall is neither as exciting nor as entertainingly bonkers as one might hope.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Yimou Zhang

William Garin

Commander Lin Mae

Pedro Pascal

Willem Dafoe

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Film Review: ‘The Great Wall’ is The Best of Zhang, The Worst of Zhang

• BY Jonathan Landreth
• Feb 22, 2017

Every day while CFI’s Hollywood readers take in the business of the Chinese film industry, the actual movies can sometimes seem exotic or remote. But in major US cities, mainstream Chinese films are increasingly available: thanks to Wanda’s purchase of AMC and distributors like China Lion, they get American theatrical releases practically simultaneous to their premieres at home. Though they receive virtually no publicity outside the non-Chinese community, these films are more than worth seeking out by anyone serious about engaging the Chinese industry, understanding the Chinese sensibility and familiarizing themselves with China’s talent pool. Periodically, CFI will review and point readers in the direction of noteworthy US releases of contemporary commercial and independent Chinese titles.

The Great Wall (2016), story by Max Brooks, Edward Zwick & Marshall Hershkovitz; screenplay by Carlo Bernard & Doug Miro, Tony Gilroy; directed by Zhang Yimou

Distributed by Universal Pictures (cinemas here )

The first coproduction between China and the US directed by an A-list auteur from either country, Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall was long anticipated, and then anticlimactic once its Chinese run last December failed to attain the record-breaking earnings necessary to justify its megabudget cost.  Arriving in the US this past weekend and earning some US $21.5 million as of Tuesday morning, the hybrid monster movie/war epic is a curious specimen, representing Zhang at both his best and worst.

Visually, it’s nearly as stunning in scale and scope as the 66-year-old director’s design of the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies, presenting a crisp parade of striking costumes, beautiful production design, mist-shrouded desert landscapes, rousing battle sequences and lightning flashes of deep, resonant color inside its muted palette.

From a script originally hatched by producer Thomas Tull (reportedly an old fashioned fantasy/monster movie fanboy), and subsequently labored over by a succession of high-paid Hollywood pros to feature the adventures of wandering Euro-mercenaries in Song Dynasty (11th-Century) China, Zhang has created a vehicle to spotlight China as the source of military might and moral right, from an overwhelming number of troops with unshakable loyalty to their emperor, to the magical black powder that “turns air into fire” and the fortitude to use that powder only for good.

It’s the hunt for gunpowder—a 9th century Chinese discovery—that draws the stateless Anglo soldier-of-fortune, William (Matt Damon) into conflict with a Chinese army stationed atop the titular massive wall built to defend their capital against a mysterious enemy. William and Tovar, his axe-wielding Spanish sidekick (Pedro Pascal) have wandered the desert in search of the storied black powder, hoping to plunder some and return to Europe to retire rich.

Narrowly escaping attack by an unseen beast, they sever its giant green reptilian claw in the shadows beyond their campire’s glow. The next day, when forced to surrender to the Chinese garrison, they present the monster limb to their captors— a boastful distraction from the lie that they are but humble traders who got lucky with their weapons.

William and Tovar speak no Chinese, so it is the beautiful lady Commander Lin (Jing Tian) who translates for them, explaining that the claw heralds the arrival of the Taotie, a horde of scaly, emerald-colored, dinosaur-dragon-lizard creatures that appear every sixty years in search of human flesh to feed their elephant-sized queen—a punishing reminder to the Chinese emperor never to take his earthly dominion for granted.

Burly but fleet, the beasts attack by the thousands, counterposing sharp fangs, state-of-the-art special effects and Zhang’s sweeping compositions, surveying huge crowds in action. William and Tovar shine, too, saving a young Chinese soldier and gaining their captors’ trust as the battle rages on—a trust Tovar shatters when he flees the fight with black powder that he steals with the help of a sniveling Anglo captive (Willem Dafoe).

Predictably, after declaring their differences, William and Lin end up flirting and saving the day together. (“Perhaps we were both wrong. We are more similar than I thought,” she says). He sets her up for the kill shot and they drink from the same humble cup. The disciplined and selfless Chinese commander and the unruly and egotistical Western mercenary need each other. To those who slighted Zhang for casting Damon as a white knight, consider trying to see The Great Wall for what it is: a Chinese film with Hollywood characteristics trying to earn some cheddar selling the age-old message about the need to overcome differences to beat a common enemy.

That the transpacific movie business today is one of the few relative bright spots in a widening climate of distrust between Washington and Beijing could not have been lost on Zhang’s backers, both Chinese and American. Damon’s leading role could help sugarcoat for the American heartland that the U.S. needs to trust China and get along in global trade (and against North Korea and radical Islam). Or, if, for once, Damon’s star power fizzles at American cinemas, then The Great Wall will have failed at what feels like its core project: to become the first Hollywood-grade Chinese propaganda film.

Which, you know, cool.  But also, not really.  Because it is precisely this aspect of Zhang’s enterprise that rankles—more than the half-baked characterization of any of the Chinese roles (despite providing facetime to luminaries including Andy Lau, Eddie Peng and Zhang Hanyu, as well as recently minted idols like Lu Han and Karry Wang Jukai), more than the discrepancy between Jing Tian’s emoting in Chinese (pretty good) and English (girl needs a way better dialogue coach), more than Zhang’s greatest-hits reprise of bits from Hero and the Olympics opening ceremonies, and more than the deep dopiness of a scheme that pits a serious military force against an army of opponents with reptile intelligence, it is the film’s weakest link.

Those with some knowledge about Zhang’s early career as a pioneering Fifth Generation director, making stunning, introspective films about common, individual Chinese struggling against injustice ( Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, The Story of Qiu Ju, To Live ), may wonder what he’s up to with this stuff, and the answer would begin in 1997, with the government’s suppression of a contemporary black comedy, Keep Cool (It was withdrawn from its competition slot at the Cannes Film Festival before it had a chance to show, subject to recuts including the imposition of a happy ending, and little seen in China).

A few years later, when Zhang made Hero , Western audiences were stunned by its cinematic elegance, bold color sense, thrilling widescreen battle scenes, and Kung Fu and swordfight choreography designed to one-up that of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Chinese intellectuals, however, saw its story of an emperor’s strength in the face of revolt as an apologia for the government’s actions at Tiananmen Square, and noted that its philosophical catchphrase, tianxia (all under heaven) happened to be the same language used by the Communist Party with regard to China’s claim on Taiwan.

Since that time, Zhang has been almost a kind of Jeckyll-and-Hyde filmmaker, capable of fantastic, aestheticized entertainments ( House of Flying Daggers ), and smaller, grittier dramas ( Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop ), but also films seemingly conceived to present a particular image of China and its rulers to the rest of the world ( Curse of the Golden Flower, Under the Hawthorn Tree, Coming Home )—these were achieved so skillfully as to secure him the Olympics job, orchestrating thousands of dancers and performers and detonating tons of fireworks to conjure 5,000 years of Chinese culture for the entire world, a presentation that it is certain many more Americans know him for than any of his films.

Ramping up these outward-facing efforts in cinema, Zhang subsequently made The Flowers of War, about Japan’s atrocities in Nanjing in 1937. The director and his American co-producers enlisted Christian Bale to play an unlikely savior of downtrodden Chinese, but even Bale’s star power could not prevent the film from wilting on both sides of the Pacific.

With The Great Wall, Zhang, driven as ever, has tried again, and this time, with the flimsiest of B-movie scenarios, has managed to come near to achieving the elusive transpacific China-meets-Hollywood ideal. What remains to be seen is whether Western stars on the order of Matt Damon can continue to be recruited to sell a superpower other than America at the core of the films they’re starring in, whether mainstream US audiences can also accept Asians as heroes (especially if their pronouncements about greatness need to be read in subtitles), and whether government messages can ever be dropped in favor of the compelling human drama that made Zhang’s name in the first place.

WHAT DOES THE GRADE MEAN?

Here are some recent & modern-era vintage Chinese and Hong Kong films for comparison

• PLATFORM (2000, dir Jia Zhangke)
• THE WORLD (2004, dir. Jia Zhangke)
• DRUNKEN MASTER 2 (1994, dir. Lau Kar Leung & Jackie Chan)
• KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004, dir. Stephen Chow)
• LET THE BULLETS FLY (2010, dir Jiang Wen)
• THE MERMAID (2016, dir. Stephen Chow)
• A TOUCH OF SIN (2013, dir. Jia Zhangke)
• STILL LIFE (2006, dir. Jia Zhangke)
• MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART (2015, dir. Jia Zhangke)
• LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (2010, dir. Ding Sheng)
• EXTRAORDINARY MISSION (2017, dir. Alan Mak & Anthony Pun)
• MR SIX (2015, dir. Guan Hu)
• A WORLD WITHOUT THIEVES (2004, dir. Feng Xiaogang)
• SUZHOU RIVER (1999, dir. Lou Ye)
• HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (2004, dir Zhang Yimou)
• RAISE THE RED LANTERN (1991, dir. Zhang Yimou)
• DUCKWEED (2017, dir. Han Han)
• I BELONGED TO YOU (2016, dir. Zhang Yibai)
• THE GREAT WALL (2016, dir. Zhang Yimou)
• OLD STONE (2016, dir. Johnny Ma)
• CRAZY STONE (2006, dir. Ning Hao)
• GO, LALA GO (2010, dir. Xu Jinglei)
• KUNG FU YOGA (2017, dir. Stanley Tong)
• RAILROAD TIGERS (2016, dir. Ding Sheng)
• THE WASTED TIMES (2016, dir. Cheng Er)
• CHONGQING HOT POT (2016, dir. Yang Qing)
• MONSTER HUNT (2015, dir. Raman Hui)
• JOURNEY TO THE WEST: THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK (2017, dir. Tsui Hark)
• SOME LIKE IT HOT (2017, dir. Song Xiaofei & Dong Xu)
• BORN IN CHINA (2016, dir. Lu Chuan)
• BUDDIES IN INDIA (2017, dir. Wang Baoqiang)
• THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X (2017, dir. Alec Su)
• TINY TIMES (2013, dir. Guo Jingming)

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How the great wall lost almost $75m despite its box office more than doubling its budget.

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Why Matt Damon's The Great Wall Is So Controversial

Vin diesel teases fast 11 will include key brian car in bts video, how david bowie was almost cast in sylvester stallone’s $255m action classic recalled by director.

• The Great Wall aimed to cater to both American and Chinese audiences, boasting a star-studded international cast.
• Despite its success in China, the film underperformed in the US, leading to a significant loss for its producers.
• With a whopping budget of $150 million, The Great Wall's box office returns fell short, resulting in a $75 million net loss.

In 2017 Legendary Pictures released The Great Wall , which, despite its box office performance, still managed to lose a significant amount of money. The film is a fantasy story following a group of European mercenaries who travel to China and get caught up in the fight to defend the Great Wall from monsters. The film was directed by fantastic Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who's had some crossover hits in America like Hero , House of Flying Daggers , and Raise the Red Lantern . He was a natural choice for a project designed to appeal to both American and Chinese audiences.

The film stars Matt Damon, who later admitted The Great Wall was a disaster , and Pedro Pascal as the European mercenaries, and beside Willem Dafoe, the rest of The Great Wall cast is entirely Chinese. Jing Tian plays the commander of a secret army that protects the Great Wall of China from a force of alien creatures that attack it every 60 years, and Andy Lau rounds out the main cast as a strategist looking for a way to finally defeat the monstrous threat. The Great Wall , which is now on Netflix , aimed to be a huge action blockbuster and its large budget reflected that, but that budget ultimately hurt the film's chances of success.

Matt Damon's epic historical fantasy drama The Great Wall was extremely controversial during its release, causing massive widespread backlash.

The Great Wall's Budget Explained

$150 million budget.

The Great Wall was co-financed by several studios, with Universal Pictures putting up between 20-25% percent of the budget and handling the distribution of the film in North America . The rest of the budget was covered by Legendary Pictures, which had the largest stake and were the main production company behind the project. Legendary chose to strategically bring in Chinese production companies and investment groups for the rest of the budget. This was in a bid to have the film appeal in particular to Chinese audiences, and thus much of the marketing was targeted at China.

The Great Wall became the most expensive movie ever filmed entirely in China, and it swelled to a reported $150 million budget. This figure didn't include the marketing costs, which Legendary Pictures and its Chinese partners primarily handled. Marketing added a hefty amount to the final cost of the film, but the gamble didn't pay off: box office returns on The Great Wall were, to say the least, disappointing for all involved. In short, The Great Wall was a box office bomb .

How Much The Great Wall Made At The Box Office

$45,157,105 at the domestic box office.

The Great Wall, upon its release in North America, made $45,157,105 at the domestic box office. For a film of its scale, it was considered a significant underperformance. As a point of comparison, Denis Villeneuve's first Dune movie made nearly that much money domestically in its opening weekend alone. The lack of success in the United States was surely a severe blow to Legendary and Universal, who were seeking a hit that would be as successful in America as it would overseas, but the film just couldn't hit the mark.

What's so impressive is just how big a portion of this gross was solely from China.

The other side of this coin is its performance in China and the rest of the world. It actually did quite well internationally, making over six times as much overseas as in America. Its international gross was $289,329,747 for a worldwide total of $334,486,852. What's so impressive is just how big a portion of this gross was solely from China. The Chinese box office return for the film was $170,590,000, which accounts for over half of the film's total gross. Notably, the opening weekend in China also outgrossed the film's entire U.S. box office return.

How The Great Wall Lost Nearly $75 Million

The marketing costs added at least $90 million to the budget.

This wasn't enough to save The Great Wall , however. According to a report by Deadline from 2018, the film garnered a total net loss of $75 million . The main problem was that the budget was just so high that The Great Wall needed to be a much bigger hit in order to make up for the costs. On top of that, as with most large-scale film productions, the reported budget is only part of the picture. The marketing costs added at least $90 million to the budget on top of everything else.

In America, it was hobbled by a release in the middle of February, a month often seen as a dumping ground for projects in which studios have little confidence.

The issue the picture faced was that, while it was popular in China, it didn't catch on anywhere else. It famously received severely negative reviews upon its release thanks to a formulaic plot and whitewashing controversy. In America, it was hobbled by a release in the middle of February, a month often seen as a dumping ground for projects in which studios have little confidence. Legendary Pictures succeeded on some level, as they set out to make a film that appealed to the Chinese market, and it worked. However, The Great Wall needed more than that to appeal to a truly global audience and justify its huge budget.

The Great Wall

The Great Wall is a 2016 action-adventure film starring Matt Damon, who helps defend the Great Wall of China from a horde of monsters. The Great Wall received mixed to negative reviews upon release and was criticized for falling into the white savior narrative. Also starring in the movie are Tian Jing, Willem DaFoe, and Andy Lau.

The Great Wall

reviewed by: Gabriel Mohler CONTRIBUTOR

Fantasy monsters

About dragons and dinosaurs —discover how they are connected

dragons in the Bible

FEAR —What does the Bible say? Answer

Self-sacrifice / bravery / courage

About bows and arrows in the Bible

About horses in the Bible

“1700 years to build. 5500 miles long. What were they trying to keep out?”

W hen I first heard about this film, I thought it was going to be a historical epic based on true events, or at least speculating as to what the true events could have been. I was thrilled and jumped at the opportunity to review it (and I was also curious as to what in the world Matt Damon would be doing in the film). When I found out that it was actually a fantasy film about Chinese dragons, my first reaction was a “facepalm,” but then I started hoping that it might still be a decent little popcorn flick. Was it?

Pretty much. I felt that this film was pretty self-aware. It’s silly, crazy entertainment, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, as some other action-fantasy films do (oh yeah, last year’s “Warcraft” is firmly in mind!). Because of this, I was able to have a pretty good time watching. I’m kind of surprised Matt Damon agreed to be in this film, but it’s nice to see that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, either. He did a really good job, and his presence did make a difference!

The CGI has some bad moments, but it is mostly pretty good and pretty cool. The monsters may be frightening to little kids, but teens and up will love them (if they’re into this kind of film). There are several scenes of combat between the humans and the dragons. Relatively little harm is shown happening to the humans, and the harm shown happening to the monsters is more comic than graphic. Their blood is green!

There is a little more language than I expected, but it isn’t constant, either. There are 3 misuses of God’s name, 8 misuses of h**l, a few s-words, and one each of b***h and ba***d. The sexual content is fairly minimal, as well; there are a few non-explicit references and a scene showing a shirtless male.

Despite being nothing more than pure popcorn fun, the film does manage to throw in a few serious moments and teach a few positive messages, like sacrifice, bravery, and not being greedy. While there’s nothing exceptionally praiseworthy here, there’s not much to complain about either. It’s definitely forgettable, but if you like this kind of film, it’s not half bad for an evening when you just need a break for recreation.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Mild

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

The Great Wall

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The Great Wall streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "The Great Wall" streaming on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads. It is also possible to buy "The Great Wall" on AMC on Demand, Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store online.

Where does The Great Wall rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Streaming charts last updated: 1:17:42 AM, 05/19/2024

The Great Wall is 517 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 298 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than The Cabin in the Woods but less popular than How to Have Sex.

European mercenaries searching for black powder become embroiled in the defense of the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures.

Videos: Trailers, Teasers, Featurettes

Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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The Great Wall Is Problematic, but Jing Tian Makes It Worth Watching

• The Great Wall 's casting was criticized for whitewashing, but Jing Tian's performance as Commander Lin Mae was a standout.
• Jing Tian's role in The Great Wall highlights her strong potential as a modern action star in international cinema.
• Despite the film's flaws and criticism, Jing Tian's performance showcased her talent and future promise in genre cinema.

If the recent critical and commercial success of films like Godzilla Minus One, The Boy and the Heron, and Parasite have taught the film industry anything, it's that American audiences are more than enthusiastic about supporting great works of international cinema on the big screen. This will hopefully put an end to the insulting trend of whitewashing that has dominated the industry for years, and denied many actors of color the opportunity to appear in films reflective of their cultural experience. There’s perhaps no more egregious case of whitewashing in recent years than the release of the fantasy action epic The Great Wall . Despite being named after one of the most significant pieces of Chinese architecture, The Great Wall ’s cast was led by white actors, with Chinese performers only given supporting roles .

What’s most disappointing about the creative direction that The Great Wall took was that the concept had potential. The film reframes an interesting era of Chinese history with a genre blend, and features stunning action sequences courtesy of the legendary Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou , whose past credits included Raise the Red Lantern and Hero . The decision to give the film’s leading role of Matt Damon was a mistake, but a terrific performance by Jing Tian makes The Great Wall worth watching.

The Great Wall

Release Date December 16, 2016

Director Yimou Zhang

Cast Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Numan Acar, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau

Rating PG-13

Runtime 104

Genres Drama, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Who Does Jing Tian Play in 'The Great Wall?'

The conceit of The Great Wall is a rather ingenious one. While history has taught that the Great Wall of China was first developed by the Ming dynasty to protect the Imperial facilities from nomadic warring groups, Yimou’s film suggests an entirely different origin story. It is revealed that the massive structure was constructed to defend against a group of alien monsters of unknown origin, and that China’s military has spent years preparing for an assault that could spell doom for the entire human race. Jing co-stars as Commander Lin Mae, a military official who is tasked with leading the Crane Troop militia. When the first wave of the alien invasion begins, Jing is placed in the thick of combat to defend her country’s honor.

Despite how ludicrous the premise may seem, Jing commits to playing a seasoned military leader and grants the film a greater sense of authenticity. While turning the Great Wall of China into the setting of an action movie is a cool concept, it’s only effective if the film engages with the structure’s history and serves as a means of celebrating Chinese innovation. This proud cultural legacy is evident through Jing’s performance. It’s evident that Lin bears the responsibility of protecting something that generations of her ancestors worked to achieve. She has spent her entire life preparing to protect her nation. Despite the extensive training that she endured, Jing is able to show how vulnerable the situation makes Lin.

The Matt Damon Movie That Everyone Talked About, But No One Bothered To See

The Great Wall gets progressively less interesting when it diverts attention away from Jing’s performance . The film opens by showing how the two European mercenaries, William Garin (Damon) and Pero Tovar ( Pedro Pascal ), become captives of the Chinese military and thus begin to learn the true history of the wall. Damon and Pascal don’t give bad performances , but the characterization is very broad, and they’re given largely expositional lines. Comparatively, Jing is able to show the active work that Lin is doing to protect her people, which greatly improves the film’s pacing.

Jing Tian Gives 'The Great Wall' a Character It Desperately Needs

The Great Wall is least successful when it attempts to negate the cultural background of its premise in favor of being a more traditional summer blockbuster . The quippy humor and cheesy emotional beats become more prominent when Damon and Pascal are on screen, as the film begins to feel more geared towards a Western audience. However, Jing serves as a reminder of the film’s cultural background, and shows respect for the real history of the Great Wall of China. It doesn’t go unnoticed that Jing succeeds in leading the wall’s defense force by strategizing how to move her troops in the most dynamic way. While by herself, she may be brave, her greatest strength is recognizing that no one soldier is more important than the ideal that they fight for.

It’s established that Lin is a seasoned veteran, but a tragic backstory given to the character allows Jing to give a more emotional performance. During the first wave of the monsters’ assault, the beloved General Shao ( Zhang Hanyu ) of the Nameless Order is killed, leaving Lin to step up to fulfill his responsibilities. Beyond their professional relationship, Lin came to view Shao as a paternal mentor figure. This turns the stakes of the film into a personal one, as Jing shows how Lin’s mission becomes one of revenge .

Jing Tian Is a Modern Action Star

The Great Wall was a financial disappointment , with many critics suggesting that whitewashing was among the film’s chief flaws. While it certainly didn’t perform as well as expectations had indicated, The Great Wall was able to introduce international audiences to Jing . In the years since, she has joined the MonsterVerse with a role in Kong: Skull Island and co-starred alongside John Boyega in Pacific Rim: Uprising . These roles indicated that Jing has a strong future ahead of her in genre cinema.

It’s often most reflective of an actor’s talents when they can stand out in a bad movie. The Great Wall missed the mark as a blockbuster, and failed to merge its fantasy and military themes. Nonetheless, it did serve as a showcase for how dynamic of a performer Jing was, and will hopefully lead to stronger roles for her in the near future.

The Great Wall is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

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How Biden Adopted Trump’s Trade War With China

The president has proposed new barriers to electric vehicles, steel and other goods..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Donald Trump upended decades of American policy when he started a trade war with China. Many thought that President Biden would reverse those policies. Instead, he’s stepping them up. Today, my colleague, Jim Tankersley, explains.

It’s Monday, May 13.

Jim, it’s very nice to have you in the studio.

It’s so great to be here, Sabrina. Thank you so much.

So we are going to talk today about something I find very interesting and I know you’ve been following. We’re in the middle of a presidential campaign. You are an economics reporter looking at these two candidates, and you’ve been trying to understand how Trump and Biden are thinking about our number one economic rival, and that is China.

As we know, Trump has been very loud and very clear about his views on China. What about Biden?

Well, no one is going to accuse President Biden of being as loud as former President Trump. But I think he’s actually been fairly clear in a way that might surprise a lot of people about how he sees economic competition with China.

We’re going after China in the wrong way. China is stealing intellectual property. China is conditioning —

And Biden has, kind of surprisingly, sounded a lot, in his own Joe Biden way, like Trump.

They’re not competing. They’re cheating. They’re cheating. And we’ve seen the damage here in America.

He has been very clear that he thinks China is cheating in trade.

The bottom line is I want fair competition with China, not conflict. And we’re in a stronger position to win the economic competition of the 21st century against China or anyone else because we’re investing in America and American workers again. Finally.

And maybe the most surprising thing from a policy perspective is just how much Biden has built on top of the anti-China moves that Trump made and really is the verge of his own sort of trade war with China.

Interesting. So remind us, Jim, what did Trump do when he actually came into office? We, of course, remember Trump really talking about China and banging that drum hard during the campaign, but remind us what he actually did when he came into office.

Yeah, it’s really instructive to start with the campaign, because Trump is talking about China in some very specific ways.

We have a $500 billion deficit, trade deficit, with China. We’re going to turn it around. And we have the cards. Don’t forget —

They’re ripping us off. They’re stealing our jobs.

They’re using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China, and many other countries are doing the same thing. So we’re losing our good jobs, so many.

The economic context here is the United States has lost a couple of million jobs in what was called the China shock of the early 2000s. And Trump is tapping into that.

But when the Chinese come in, and they want to make great trade deals — and they make the best trade deals, and not anymore. When I’m there, we turn it around, folks. We turn it around. We have —

And what he’s promising as president is that he’s going to bring those jobs back.

I’ll be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I’ll take them back from China, from Japan.

And not just any jobs, good-paying manufacturing jobs, all of it — clothes, shoes, steel, all of these jobs that have been lost that American workers, particularly in the industrial Midwest, used to do. Trump’s going to bring them back with policy meant to rebalance the trade relationship with China to get a better deal with China.

So he’s saying China is eating our lunch and has been for decades. That’s the reason why factory workers in rural North Carolina don’t have work. It’s those guys. And I’m going to change that.

Right. And he likes to say it’s because our leaders didn’t cut the right deal with them, so I’m going to make a better deal. And to get a better deal, you need leverage. So a year into his presidency, he starts taking steps to amass leverage with China.

And so what does that look like?

Just an hour ago, surrounded by a hand-picked group of steelworkers, President Trump revealed he was not bluffing.

It starts with tariffs. Tariffs are taxes that the government imposes on imports.

Two key global imports into America now face a major new barrier.

Today, I’m defending America’s national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum.

And in this case, it’s imports from a lot of different countries, but particularly China.

Let’s take it straight to the White House. The president of the United States announcing new trade tariffs against China. Let’s listen in.

This has been long in the making. You’ve heard —

So Trump starts, in 2018, this series of tariffs that he’s imposing on all sorts of things — washing machines, solar panels, steel, aluminum. I went to Delaware to a lighting store at that time, I remember, where basically everything they sold came from China and was subject to the Trump tariffs, because that’s where lighting was made now.

Interesting.

Hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods now start falling under these Trump tariffs. The Chinese, of course, don’t take this lying down.

China says it is not afraid of a trade war with the US, and it’s fighting back against President Trump with its own tariffs on US goods.

They do their own retaliatory tariffs. Now American exports to China cost more for Chinese consumers. And boom, all of a sudden, we are in the midst of a full-blown trade war between the United States and Beijing.

Right. And that trade war was kind of a shock because for decades, politicians had avoided that kind of policy. It was the consensus of the political class in the United States that there should not be tariffs like that. It should be free trade. And Trump just came in and blew up the consensus.

Yeah. And Sabrina, I may have mentioned this once or 700 times before on this program, but I talk to a lot of economists in my job.

Yeah, it’s weird. I talk to a lot of economists. And in 2018 when this started, there were very, very, very few economists of any political persuasion who thought that imposing all these tariffs were a good idea. Republican economists in particular, this is antithetical to how they think about the world, which is low taxes, free trade. And even Democratic economists who thought they had some problems with the way free trade had been conducted did not think that Trump’s “I’m going to get a better deal” approach was going to work. And so there was a lot of criticism at the time, and a lot of politicians really didn’t like it, a lot of Democrats, many Republicans. And it all added up to just a real, whoa, I don’t think this is going to work.

So that begs the question, did it?

Well, it depends on what you mean by work. Economically, it does not appear to have achieved what Trump wanted. There’s no evidence yet in the best economic research that’s been done on this that enormous amounts of manufacturing jobs came back to the United States because of Trump’s tariffs. There was research, for example, on the tariffs on washing machines. They appear to have helped a couple thousand jobs, manufacturing jobs be created in the United States, but they also raised the price of washing machines for everybody who bought them by enough that each additional job that was created by those tariffs effectively cost consumers, like, $800,000 per job.

There’s like lots of evidence that the sectors Trump was targeting to try to help here, he didn’t. There just wasn’t a lot of employment rebound to the United States. But politically, it really worked. The tariffs were very popular. They had this effect of showing voters in those hollowed-out manufacturing areas that Trump was on their team and that he was fighting for them. Even if they didn’t see the jobs coming back, they felt like he was standing up for them.

So the research suggests this was a savvy political move by Trump. And in the process, it sort of changes the political economic landscape in both parties in the United States.

Right. So Trump made these policies that seemed, for many, many years in the American political system, fringe, isolationist, economically bad, suddenly quite palatable and even desirable to mainstream policymakers.

Yeah. Suddenly getting tough on China is something everyone wants to do across both parties. And so from a political messaging standpoint, being tough on China is now where the mainstream is. But at the same time, there is still big disagreement over whether Trump is getting tough on China in the right way, whether he’s actually being effective at changing the trade relationship with China.

Remember that Trump was imposing these tariffs as a way to get leverage for a better deal with China. Well, he gets a deal of sorts, actually, with the Chinese government, which includes some things about tariffs, and also China agreeing to buy some products from the United States. Trump spins it as this huge win, but nobody else really, including Republicans, acts like Trump has solved the problem that Trump himself has identified. This deal is not enough to make everybody go, well, everything’s great with China now. We can move on to the next thing.

China remains this huge issue. And the question of what is the most effective way to deal with them is still an animating force in politics.

Got it. So politically, huge win, but policy-wise and economically, and fundamentally, the problem of China still very much unresolved.

Absolutely.

So then Biden comes in. What does Biden do? Does he keep the tariffs on?

Biden comes to office, and there remains this real pressure from economists to roll back what they consider to be the ineffective parts of Trump’s trade policy. That includes many of the tariffs. And it’s especially true at a time when almost immediately after Biden takes office, inflation spikes. And so Americans are paying a lot of money for products, and there’s this pressure on Biden, including from inside his administration, to roll back some of the China tariffs to give Americans some relief on prices.

And Biden considers this, but he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t reverse Trump’s tariff policy. In the end, he’s actually building on it.

We’ll be right back.

So Jim, you said that Biden is actually building on Trump’s anti-China policy. What exactly does that look like?

So Biden builds on the Trump China policy in three key ways, but he does it with a really specific goal that I just want you to keep in mind as we talk about all of this, which is that Biden isn’t just trying to beat China on everything. He’s not trying to cut a better deal. Biden is trying to beat China in a specific race to own the clean-energy future.

Clean energy.

Yeah. So keep that in mind, clean energy. And the animating force behind all of the things Biden does with China is that Biden wants to beat China on what he thinks are the jobs of the future, and that’s green technology.

Got it. OK. So what does he do first?

OK. Thing number one — let’s talk about the tariffs. He does not roll them back. And actually, he builds on them. For years, for the most part, he just lets the tariffs be. His administration reviews them. And it’s only now, this week, when his administration is going to actually act on the tariffs. And what they’re going to do is raise some of them. They’re going to raise them on strategic green tech things, like electric vehicles, in order to make them more expensive.

And I think it’s important to know the backdrop here, which is since Biden has taken office, China has started flooding global markets with really low-cost green technologies. Solar panels, electric vehicles are the two really big ones. And Biden’s aides are terrified that those imports are going to wash over the United States and basically wipe out American automakers, solar panel manufacturers, that essentially, if Americans can just buy super-cheap stuff from China, they’re not going to buy it from American factories. Those factories are going to go out of business.

So Biden’s goal of manufacturing jobs in clean energy, China is really threatening that by dumping all these products on the American market.

Exactly. And so what he wants to do is protect those factories with tariffs. And that means increasing the tariffs that Trump put on electric vehicles in hopes that American consumers will find them too expensive to buy.

But doesn’t that go against Biden’s goal of clean energy and things better for the environment? Lots of mass-market electric vehicles into the United States would seem to advance that goal. And here, he’s saying, no, you can’t come in.

Right, because Biden isn’t just trying to reduce emissions at all costs. He wants to reduce emissions while boosting American manufacturing jobs. He doesn’t want China to get a monopoly in these areas. And he’s also, in particular, worried about the politics of lost American manufacturing jobs. So Biden does not want to just let you buy cheaper Chinese technologies, even if that means reducing emissions.

He wants to boost American manufacturing of those things to compete with China, which brings us to our second thing that Biden has done to build on Trump’s China policy, which is that Biden has started to act like the Chinese government in particular areas by showering American manufacturers with subsidies.

I see. So dumping government money into American businesses.

Yes, tax incentives, direct grants. This is a way that China has, in the past decades, built its manufacturing dominance, is with state support for factories. Biden is trying to do that in particular targeted industries, including electric vehicles, solar power, wind power, semiconductors. Biden has passed a bunch of legislation that showers those sectors with incentives and government support in hopes of growing up much faster American industry.

Got it. So basically, Biden is trying to beat China at its own game.

Yeah, he’s essentially using tariffs to build a fortress around American industry so that he can train the troops to fight the clean energy battle with China.

And the troops being American companies.

Yes. It’s like, we’re going to give them protection — protectionist policy — in order to get up to size, get up to strength as an army in this battle for clean energy dominance against the Chinese.

Got it. So he’s trying to build up the fortress. What’s the third thing Biden does? You mentioned three things.

Biden does not want the United States going it alone against China. He’s trying to build an international coalition, wealthy countries and some other emerging countries that are going to take on China and try to stop the Chinese from using their trade playbook to take over all these new emerging industrial markets.

But, Jim, why? What does the US get from bringing our allies into this trade war? Why does the US want that?

Some of this really is about stopping China from gaining access to new markets. It’s like, if you put the low-cost Chinese exports on a boat, and it’s going around the world, looking for a dock to stop and offload the stuff and sell it, Biden wants barriers up at every possible port. And he wants factories in those places that are competing with the Chinese.

And a crucial fact to know here is that the United States and Europe, they are behind China when it comes to clean-energy technology. The Chinese government has invested a lot more than America and Europe in building up its industrial capacity for clean energy. So America and its allies want to deny China dominance of those markets and to build up their own access to them.

And they’re behind, so they’ve got to get going. It’s like they’re in a race, and they’re trailing.

Yeah, it’s an economic race to own these industries, and it’s that global emissions race. They also want to be bringing down fossil-fuel emissions faster than they currently are, and this is their plan.

So I guess, Jim, the question in my mind is, Trump effectively broke the seal, right? He started all of these tariffs. He started this trade war with China. But he did it in this kind of jackhammer, non-targeted way, and it didn’t really work economically. Now Biden is taking it a step further. But the question is, is his effort here going to work?

The answer to whether it’s going to work really depends on what your goals are. And Biden and Trump have very different goals. If Trump wins the White House back, he has made very clear that his goal is to try to rip the United States trade relationship with China even more than he already has. He just wants less trade with China and more stuff of all types made in the United States that used to be made in China. That’s a very difficult goal, but it’s not Biden’s goal.

Biden’s goal is that he wants America to make more stuff in these targeted industries. And there is real skepticism from free-market economists that his industrial policies will work on that, but there’s a lot of enthusiasm for it from a new strain of Democratic economists, in particular, who believe that the only chance Biden has to make that work is by pulling all of these levers, by doing the big subsidies and by putting up the tariffs, that you have to have both the troops training and the wall around them. And if it’s going to work, he has to build on the Trump policies. And so I guess you’re asking, will it work? It may be dependent upon just how far he’s willing to go on the subsidies and the barriers.

There’s a chance of it.

So, Jim, at the highest level, whatever the economic outcome here, it strikes me that these moves by Biden are pretty remarkably different from the policies of the Democratic Party over the decades, really going in the opposite direction. I’m thinking of Bill Clinton and NAFTA in the 1990s. Free trade was the real central mantra of the Democratic Party, really of both parties.

Yeah, and Biden is a real break from Clinton. And Clinton was the one who actually signed the law that really opened up trade with China, and Biden’s a break from that. He’s a break from even President Obama when he was vice president. Biden is doing something different. He’s breaking from that Democratic tradition, and he’s building on what Trump did, but with some throwback elements to it from the Roosevelt administration and the Eisenhower administration. This is this grand American tradition of industrial policy that gave us the space race and the interstate highway system. It’s the idea of using the power of the federal government to build up specific industrial capacities. It was in vogue for a time. It fell out of fashion and was replaced by this idea that the government should get out of the way, and you let the free market drive innovation. And now that industrial policy idea is back in vogue, and Biden is doing it.

So it isn’t just a shift or an evolution. It’s actually a return to big government spending of the ‘30s and the ‘40s and the ‘50s of American industrialism of that era. So what goes around comes around.

Yeah, and it’s a return to that older economic theory with new elements. And it’s in part because of the almost jealousy that American policymakers have of China and the success that it’s had building up its own industrial base. But it also has this political element to it. It’s, in part, animated by the success that Trump had making China an issue with working-class American voters.

You didn’t have to lose your job to China to feel like China was a stand-in for the forces that have taken away good-paying middle-class jobs from American workers who expected those jobs to be there. And so Trump tapped into that. And Biden is trying to tap into that. And the political incentives are pushing every future American president to do more of that. So I think we are going to see even more of this going forward, and that’s why we’re in such an interesting moment right now.

So we’re going to see more fortresses.

More fortresses, more troops, more money.

Jim, thank you.

You’re welcome.

Here’s what else you should know today. Intense fighting between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops raged in parts of Northern Gaza over the weekend, an area where Israel had declared Hamas defeated earlier in the war, only to see the group reconstitute in the power vacuum that was left behind. The persistent lawlessness raised concerns about the future of Gaza among American officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the return of Hamas to the North left him concerned that Israeli victories there would be, quote, “not sustainable,” and said that Israel had not presented the United States with any plan for when the war ends.

And the United Nations aid agency in Gaza said early on Sunday that about 300,000 people had fled from Rafah over the past week, the city in the enclave’s southernmost tip where more than a million displaced Gazans had sought shelter from Israeli bombardments elsewhere. The UN made the announcement hours after the Israeli government issued new evacuation orders in Rafah, deepening fears that the Israeli military was preparing to invade the city despite international warnings.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Carlos Prieto, Sidney Harper, and Luke Vander Ploeg. It was edited by M.J. Davis Lin, Brendan Klinkenberg, and Lisa Chow. Contains original music by Diane Wong, Marion Lozano, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

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Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Carlos Prieto ,  Sydney Harper and Luke Vander Ploeg

Edited by M.J. Davis Lin ,  Brendan Klinkenberg and Lisa Chow

Original music by Diane Wong ,  Marion Lozano and Dan Powell

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

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Donald Trump upended decades of American policy when he started a trade war with China. Many thought that President Biden would reverse those policies. Instead, he’s stepping them up.

Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy at the White House, explains.

On today’s episode

Jim Tankersley , who covers economic policy at the White House for The New York Times.

Background reading

Mr. Biden, competing with Mr. Trump to be tough on China , called for steel tariffs last month.

The Biden administration may raise tariffs on electric vehicles from China to 100 percent .

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