113 Minutes, Color Computer Animation, USA,
2007
Written By: Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary (based on the
epic poem, author unknown)
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
Dramatis Personae:
Ray
Winstone is Beowulf, Geatish warrior,
professional monster slayer, and the most bad-ass man of the Dark Ages.
Sir
Anthony Hopkins is Hrothgar, Lord of Heorot,
formerly a great warrior, now a gluttonous wanton drunk with a sordid past.
Robin
Wright-Penn is Wealtheow, HrothgarÕs trophy
wife.
Brendan Gleeson is Wiglaf, BeowulfÕs level-headed
right-hand man.
John Malkovich is Unferth, HrothgarÕs sniveling
advisor, abuser of slaves, and future Christian priest (the jokes just write
themselves).
Crispin Glover is Grendel, mutant hellbeast with
the monumental bad luck of having been born with one eardrum on the outside of
his headÉand the fact that thatÕs not even the worst thing wrong with him
should tell you something.
Angelina Jolie is GrendelÕs
Mother, water demon and seductress. Grendel clearly got his looks from his
fatherÕs side of the family.
Alison Lohman is Ursula, pert and perky
housemaid, and BeowulfÕs belly-warmer in his twilight years.
Commentary:
IÕve waited a long time for this. As a scholar
of Medieval and Renaissance history, I hold the epic poem Beowulf in special regard. As
the oldest surviving work of fiction in the English language, Beowulf has garnered a
legendary reputation, a reputation well deserved. The poem is one of the few
remaining literary artifacts of the Anglo-Saxon culture of the Dark Ages. Much
of what is known of their customs and history and folklore come from secondhand
sources; very few written records survive, of which Beowulf is the longest and
most famous. Nothing says more about a culture than its myths, and Beowulf stands as a
prototypical example of an adventure of a mythic hero within Anglo-Saxon
culture. Such a legendary character in such a legendary tale, thought I,
deserved an epic retelling when it came to the big screen. And while the
efforts of modern-day Scopings Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary didnÕt fully satisfy
the scholar in me, they did manage to re-imagine the epic tale with sentiments
that are equally modern and timeless, and managed to pay tribute to the
grandness of the original poem.
Beowulf starts off on a high
note: the 6th-century Danish lord Hrothgar has completed
construction of his grand mead hall, Heorot, and is throwing a wild party for
all his thanes and subjects. Being rowdy Norsemen, everyone gets drunk and
sloppy in short order, making a din loud enough to wake the neighbors.
Unfortunately, HrothgarÕs closest neighbor is Grendel, a hideous giant mutant
who lives in a cave across the moors. Driven mad by the noise, Grendel descends
on Heorot and tears HrothgarÕs guests limb from limb. But he stops short of
attacking Hrothgar himself; indeed, when Hrothgar confronts him, Grendel merely
glares at him and lopes off into the night. The next morning, Hrogthar orders
the mead hall sealed, and commands no singing or merriment to be made there. He
also commands Unferth to send word throughout the land that any warrior who can
defeat Grendel and bring peace to Heorot will have his pick of HrothgarÕs
treasure.
Enter Beowulf. Arriving from Geatlund (southern
coastal Sweden, for those of you without degrees in Medieval literature) in a
magnificent Viking ship on a stormy night, Beowulf and his fourteen thanes
promise Hrothgar that they will rid their land of this monster. The inhabitants
of HrothgarÕs kingdom are skeptical; Beowulf is not the first warrior to come
to Heorot to try his luck against Grendel, and Unferth in particular takes
umbrage at this blowhard foreigner coming to Denmark and making all the Danes
feel like pansies (granted, Unferth really IS a pansy, but thatÕs neither here nor
there). A brief Alpha Male Dance between the two results in Beowulf sharing a
grand tale of his adventure against some sea monsters (which may or may not be
a complete load; the movie remains wonderfully ambiguous), and itÕs enough to
convince Hrothgar to let Beowulf take a crack at his problem. Heorot is
re-opened, and singing and carousing are done to lure Grendel from his lair.
The civilians are removed to safety before Grendel arrives, and Beowulf and his
men lie in wait. Beowulf himself strips completely naked, intending to vie with
Grendel strength for strength.
Sure enough, an angry sleep-deprived Grendel
busts into Heorot and starts tossing Geats around. Beowulf wrestles the
creature, in a battle that rages all across the mead hall. It ends when Grendel
gets entangled in the fallen chandelier, allowing Beowulf to wrench the
monsterÕs arm completely off. Mortally wounded, Grendel staggers back to his
cave to die. Beowulf is honored as a hero, as HrothgarÕs heir apparentÉand as
the object of WealtheowÕs desire. But the honor and celebration is short-lived,
for the next morning more thanes are found dead. Grendel was not alone. His
mother is now very pissed off at the man who killed her baby boy. Not one to
shirk another opportunity at glory, Beowulf heads off to the cave across the
moors.
There, in a watery cavern filled with gold,
Beowulf at last meets GrendelÕs mother. Rather than fight with him, however,
she offers his a bargain. It is in her power to grant him everlasting glory.
She will make him the most famous warrior of all time, revered, honored,
respected, forever. And all he has to do is replace what he took from herÉby
giving her a son.
Many years later, Beowulf is now a king, having
inherited HrothgarÕs power and wealth. His name is known and feared throughout
the northern world, but he is not happy. Wealtheow is his queen, but the two of
them have grown estranged over the years, and Beowulf has taken a mistress,
Ursula. His troubles, however, are only beginning; a mysterious monster is
menacing the borders of his kingdom, burning and killing. It soon becomes clear
that BeowulfÕs youthful indiscretions are coming back to haunt him: his son has
grown up, and now heÕs coming home.
Although it lacks the old-fashioned
straightforwardness of the epic poem, Beowulf works quite well as an
adaptation, and manages to be pretty epic in his own right. The movie is less a
modern re-imagining than it is a deconstruction of the original poem. Gaiman
and AvaryÕs script thankfully resists the temptation to modernize the story, to
put modern sentiments in the mouths of our characters so that modern audiences
might better relate to the story. Instead, the screenplay touches upon timeless
themes, pieces of the human condition that were as true a thousand years ago as
they are today. Mediations abound on the nature of heroism, fame, and male
preoccupations with self-image and virility. The result is a tale that is
relevant to a 21st-century audience despite its 6th-century
setting without seeming like it has been drastically altered. In short, it is a
myth in the pure Joseph Campbell-ian sense of the word; a story that anyone can
understand. A thing to be expected from Neil Gaiman, frankly.
The best example of this – and, not
coincidently, the greatest departure from the original story – is the
relationship between Beowulf and GrendelÕs Mother. Gone is the monstrous hag of
the epic poem; this is a demon that looks like a naked Angelina Jolie. This is
the kind of demon would you would willingly give your soul to. However, when
she not taking the form of a voluptuous woman, the demon has another form. We
only see fleeting glimpses of her true form, but we know she is the color of
shimmering gold. When she first arises from her pool to seduce Beowulf,
GrendelÕs Mother looks like a golden statue, perfectly sculpted and perfectly
seductive. In a sense, she is an incarnation of fame and glory: beautiful,
precious, seductive – yet at the same time dangerous, inconstant, and
ultimately ruinous. Especially to a man like Beowulf: a bellicose,
self-aggrandizing warrior, dripping with machismo, Beowulf is quick to boast of
his exploits and quick to add more trophies to his collection. His one saving
grace is that his bravado is fully justified; any man who can hold his own
against a crazed mutant hellbeast armed with nothing but what Odin graced him
with upon his birth has bragging rights.
And bravado has its dark side. Several of
BeowulfÕs thanes die in the confrontation with Grendel, but he shows little
remorse over their fate, to the chagrin of Wiglaf (who can be viewed as
BeowulfÕs conscience, always at his shoulder trying to appeal to his reason and
compassion). He cares little about anyone but himself, what songs the poets
will sing of him, how many enemies he can kill and how many women he can bed.
Other people are just means to his end of being the warrior of greatest renown.
ItÕs a scene laden with symbolism when he gives his golden mead horn –
HrothgarÕs gift to him for killing Grendel – to GrendelÕs Mother as proof
of his bond to her. Beowulf so easily gives up the prize he earned with his own
hands in exchange for nebulous promises of greater ones. Perhaps no better
depiction of the compromises men make for fame and fortune has ever been seen
on screen.
There are some great moments to found on
screen. If nothing else, Beowulf is a feast for the senses, presenting
us with sumptuous computer-generated visuals and wonderful sound design. Gold
glitters, torchlight gleams, armor clanks, horse hooves clatter, with loving
attention and startling realism. Almost TOO real, really. ItÕs a personal pet
peeve of mine; I believe in using the right tool for the right job, and that
CGI should be used where reality cannot deliver. Computer Generated Imagery is
a powerful tool in a filmmakerÕs arsenal, but it should not be a substitute for
props and locations. And, as in Beowulf, when the CGI is good
enough to make everything look photo-real (except for the people, of course;
Robert Zemeckis and his team still havenÕt quite overcome that Òdead eyeÓ
effect that made Polar Express so bloody distressing), it makes me
wonder why they bothered. I mean, why make a CG movie if youÕre going to make
it look real? Why not hire actors and make props? Unless youÕre just trying to
show off. A sort of ÒHey! Look what we can do now!Ó thing.
Of course, there are moments when the CGI is
appropriate, as in the monsters that Beowulf must face. The sea monsters, the
dragon (a truly awesome dragon, I must say), and of course Grendel himself.
This mutant hellspawn is a real piece of work, something like FrankensteinÕs
Monster with Ôroid rage. The movie resists the temptation to make the monster
TOO sympathetic, as previous iterations of the legend have done, while at the
same time not making him completely without motivation. The Grendel of the epic
poem wasnÕt some misunderstood freak; he was a big ugly thing that wanted to
EAT YOU. So it wasnÕt hard to flesh out the character without completely
defanging him. This Grendel is more a force of nature, untamable and
frightening. His issues with his noisy neighbors are understandable (especially
since GrendelÕs deformities make him particularly noise-sensitive), but his
response is not. His psychotic rampage in Heorot is frankly one of the most
terrifying things IÕve ever seen. Mad, unreasoning rage coupled with superhuman
strength makes for crushed heads and rended limbs. Add to that Crispin GloverÕs
inhuman primal shrieking as Grendel, and you have the makings of some real
nightmare fuel. The fact that he goes back to his cave to be comforted by his
Mother afterward gives him a weird sense of innocence. Yes, heÕs a monster, but
he canÕt help that. Maybe itÕs better that heÕs put out of his misery by some
buff Geat looking to make a name for himself.
So, Gaiman and Avary did not disappoint with
their re-telling of the legend of Beowulf. They took the story and made it
their own in a way that did not diminish the power of the original. And yet, I
canÕt help but feel a little regret at how it turned out. There is something to
be found in Beowulf, a mythic aspect which I fear has been lost in
modern literature. The notion of the hero as the Òparagon,Ó the incarnation of
his cultureÕs values. This type of character crops up a great deal in the
definition myths and legends of a civilization. Like the Everyman, the Paragon
is the product of his society, but rather than be a character everyone can
RELATE to, he is a character everyone should ASPIRE to. The Greeks had Herakles.
The Hindi had Ramachandra. And the Anglo-Saxons had Beowulf. These characters
are all preternaturally strong, or wise, or honorable, because they are not
quite human. They are incarnations of their cultureÕs values. They are
everything their cultures require men to be – because when their cultures
are threatened by outside forces, whether it be monsters, barbarians, or fallen
gods, such men are uniquely qualified to defend them.
IÕm hard pressed to find such a Paragon
character in modern mythology. We seem to prefer our heroes to be flawed and
relatable, on par with us rather than a level above us. Or perhaps weÕve grown
so cynical that we find nothing in our own culture worth conjuring up a mythic
hero to defend. Perhaps that is why we find it so easy to re-imagine old
stories, and strip them of some of their magic in doing so. But some things
never change. Some conditions persist, and some virtues continue to be honored.
This, I think, is why the need for myth stays with us. And so long as that is the
case, Beowulf will be with us, in one form or another.
Westu Hal, freonden. Westu Hal.
Things To Look For:
- The original epic poem
was written somewhere between 700 and 100 AD, and depicts a society in
transition quite well. There is a thematic melding of Christian and pagan
themes and terminology, as if the story was being written down at a time and
place where Christianity is just taking hold. And the movie pays homage to that
as well. Our human characters speak Modern English, but Grendel and his Mother
speak a form of Old English to each other – a clear depiction of them as
demons of an older world. Unferth is one of the early converts to Christianity,
his embracing of the new religion perhaps a result of his inability to find a
place among the burly laugh-at-death types that characterize the old ways. As
king, Beowulf waxes philosophical of how the coming of this new One God has
brought an end to the age of epic heroes like himself. His nonplussed reaction
to the news that the annual re-enactment of his slaying of Grendel coincides
with the celebration of Christmas, so he will have to share the spotlight with
the baby Jesus, speaks volumes – not just about the clash of cultures,
but about the kind of man Beowulf is.
- Beowulf was also shot in Digital
3D, and it represents the first 3D movie IÕve seen since time immemorial. 3D
films have come a long way, I must admit. ThereÕs no gratuitous thrusting of
objects at the screen here. Well, okay, maybe one or two such shots. But in
general, the 3D is used to great effect, giving the movie a real sense of depth
and grandeur. ItÕs quite enjoyableÉor at least, it would be, if 3D in general
didnÕt make me ill. Well, IÕm sure someone will enjoy it.
- As is often the case,
what works on the page doesnÕt always work on screen, and often when something
that sounds really cool on paper is translated to moving images, it just
becomes silly. Or rather, its inherent silliness is finally made plain to the
reader. Such is the case when Beowulf strips down to face Grendel in unarmed
combat. Sure, that sounds quite awesomeÉuntil you realize that it translates to
a naked Swede hopping around a mead hall. Many a movie critic has already
discussed the Austin Powers-esque extremes the movie goes to to conceal
BeowulfÕs, ahem, little epic hero, as he does mortal combat with Grendel, and
itÕs oh so painfully true. I wonder if the fact that this was an animated movie
had something to do with it. Are we as a society simply not ready for cartoon
genitalia? Had this been live-action, would there have been the same fuss? A
thing to contemplateÉ
- There is a sheep joke
in this movie. One of BeowulfÕs thanes jokingly accuses another of animalism. I
have also seen an adaption of Beowulf which starred Gerard
Butler and also had a sheep joke. Am I missing something? Is there some
Scandinavian running gag thatÕs going over my head? Were Vikings just
particular about sheep? I didnÕt even know they had sheep in SwedenÉ
Written words (c) 2007-2010 Tim o'Brien. Not to be used without
permission. Other content, including images, is intended as a Fair Use pursuant
to 17 U.S.C. sec. 107.
Date Posted: November 21st, 2007
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