English Literature - the Poem of Beowulf and the Film - Essay Example

Beowulf The poem of Beowulf has been required in all studies of English in British universities. Last year, a movie came out which brought the epic story to the general public. However, having read the whole poem, the movie which came out - as is with other stories written and published and then turned into movies – veered away from the original theme. This paper is going to be a critique of the movie vis-à-vis the original story. A first thing to note is the overarching theme of the movie. It centered on the human failings of vanity and lack of resistance to temptation, as was the case of both Hrothgar and Beowulf. However, in the book, the overarching them is God’s providence and His role in determining the fates of the lives of men. This has something to do with the poet’s being a Christian, and thus the element of God ruling the lives of men. This is an important point to note since this has a very strong resonance all throughout the poem. In contrast, as one critic has written online on Christian Movie Reviews, “The most striking thing about the new Beowulf movie, though, was its ugliness.” The movie showed the ugly sides of the protagonists, which were, in fact, not how they were portrayed in the original poem. Before proceeding to an analysis of the characters, I will take note of the special technique used by the moviemakers. They employed the three-dimensional (3D) animation style wherein one has to wear special 3D glasses in movie theaters to be able to have a fully-enhanced experience of the gory battle scenes and killings. For the most part, this has added to the attraction of the movie, since there have been few animated movies produced which employed this special technique. As a critic from MovieFilmReview.com puts it: “Beowulf is a visually captivating movie experience.” However, on the contrary, another critic disagrees by writing in her blog: “…this example of the latest “advance” in animation technology is sterile, synthetic, almost completely unengaging on a human level. It’s animated but inanimate.” (flickfilosopher.com) The blogger simply found the way the movie has been done by Robert Zemeckis as totally devoid of real human expressions and emotions. Now, to an analysis of the characters. We begin with the identity of Grendel. In the book, it was written that he came from “Cain’s clan”, that is, to say, when Cain killed his brother Abel, it was purported that all the evil creatures which roam the earth were descendants of Cain whose sin was so vile that he could bear to be with anybody (Heaney p. 9 line 106). In the movie, Grendel was purported to be Hrothgar’s son, spawned by his mother who was a She-Wolf living in the marshes in a cave. Thus, it seemed that Hrothgar, king of the Swedes, was tortured by the reminder of the living abomination of his past deed, when he, a great king but a human being nonetheless, gave in to the temptation of a woman, despite full awareness of her nature. Grendel was portrayed as being sensitive to the sounds of merry-making and laughing that went on in the great hall of Heorot, which is the reason why he attacked them in the first place. Grendel’s mother, in the book , also came from “Cain’s clan” (Heaney p. 89 line 1260), and her origins are unknown, but the fact remains that she is Grendel’s mother and thus avenged her son’s death. In the movie, however, although her origins are also unknown, she can be associated with evil because of her inhuman form. There is also a hint of misogyny here by the fact that she is portrayed as a temptress, and the sexual element and nudity, whereas absent in the original poem, is exploited here to its fullest advantage, especially as the role is also played by Angelina Jolie, albeit animated. Hrothgar, the Swedish king, was characterized in the movie as “a fat, drunken, impotent, dolt” (Christian Movie Reviews). We saw him as old, weakened, and harboring a shameful secret, which he kept from his wife and from the whole kingdom. However, in the original text, he was described as wise, good-hearted, and unfortunately too old to defend his kingdom, hence, the reason why he had to rely on other warriors from foreign lands to help him keep his men, who were dwindling in number as Grendel attacked them all at once. Wealtheow stayed on as Hrothgar’s wife through old age in the book. They also had children, two sons and a daughter. In the movie, though, even at the onset, Wealtheow was portrayed as young and attracted to Beowulf. She did not have any children by Hrothgar, and was seemingly reviled and repulsed by the king’s attention. The movie here suggests adultery, and the queen did marry young Beowulf when Hrothgar jumped off the cliff, tired of his reign and of battling old evils. However, the character of the queen was not fully developed in the movie, as aptly described by another critic: “Queen Wealthow operates in a mal-defined space, somewhere between wise-woman and object-of-desire, which isn’t realized.” (Beemsville) Indeed, she has suspected all along that Grendel was a spawn of the dead king, just as she has suspected later on in the movie that Beowulf has not totally slain Grendel’s mother, but instead has made a pact with her, just as the proverbial Faust made a pact with the devil. She is also portrayed as tolerant, even friendly towards Beowulf’s young lover, helping her in the end in the scene where Beowulf battles the dragon. The dragon, in the book, was a keeper of a trove of buried treasure from people who were no longer around. He was awakened one day by a servant who was running away from his master, stumbled onto its lair while it was sleeping, and stole a golden goblet. In the movie, the dragon is portrayed as possibly being Beowulf’s and the She-Wolf’s spawn, which is confirmed later on as the hero lay dying. The only convergence between the two accounts was that the dragon, although slain, also mortally wounded Beowulf and thus caused his death. Another dissenting point in the movie was that in the book, Beowulf ruled over the Geats, successor of Hygelac’s son, Heardred (Heaney pp. 149-151, lines 2200-2210). He did not stay on to become the Swedes’ king, as was what happened in the movie, where he was asked by Hrothgar to succeed him and rule over his men. He went back to King Hygelac, and ruled over his men for fifty years. He took care of his people, and continued to maintain peace and harmony within and without, restraining to do battle with neighboring kingdoms. His renown was known far and wide, and nobody dared to challenge him and his people for many years. The movie, by itself, is titillating because of its bloody scenes and animation. However, on the overall, if compared to the original text, it is a transgression of the overarching theme of the poem, which is goodness and submission to God’s will. The movie has achieved its purpose of stunning and entertaining its audience, however, it is a far cry from the values being espoused in the ancient poem. Works Cited: Beem, Scott. “Movie Review: Beowulf”. Beemsville. 24 Nov. 2007. Wordpress. 22 Apr. 2008 cognative. “The Ugliness of the new Beowulf movie.” Christian Movie Reviews. 30 Nov. 2007. Wordpress. 22 Apr. 2008 Fleek, Derek. “Beowulf.” Movie Film Review. 21 Nov. 2007. 22 Apr. 2008 Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000. Johanson, MaryAnn. “Bring Out Yer Dead.” Flick Filosopher. 15 Nov. 2007. 22 Apr. 2008 Read More