Beowulf Movie Review(Kind of) by Noelle Hanek

    Everyone has heard of the legend by now: of the super brave, and ultra-strong Beowulf. You've heard the story over and over again, the story of the hero slaying the most hated creature on Earth, Grendel, and saving the townspeople from the evil monster. And wait, we must not forget when Grendel's mother came to seek revenge for her son but met the wrath of Beowulf's sword instead, thus Beowulf saving the day once again. His final victorious act was when he used all of his strength and might to defeat an evil dragon, where he died the ultimate hero he always was, and always will be remembered as. 

The End. 

    But that is not everything. During our hero unit in class, we read this book and compared and contrasted heroic traits of modern day people to Beowulf, to help us determine what a true hero consisted of. However, that's not the only comparing we did. The story of Beowulf itself has been molded and transformed into many different forms over the years due to cultural changes. 

    First off, the story of Beowulf that everyone knows and loves was not the original. It was a product of modification of the original through retelling, rewriting, and conversions to different languages. This was evident in the book because it contained religious references that were not yet established when the book was written, and were most likely added in overtime as the book was getting retold, further developing the story generation after generation. In addition, the book had blanks where the words could not be fully translated from the old English form. This revealed to us that the story was older than we might have imagined, and how it came a long way to become the book we were holding in our hands. 

    We also reviewed a book called Grendel, which was written from the point of view of, you guessed it, the big scary hideous monster Grendel himself. This book depicted him as much friendlier and misunderstood. We got to see through the eyes of Grendel, which gave him a voice and his side of the story, which was never brought up anywhere before. We find that he was treated as an outcast from day one by the humans, and never had bad intentions until he reached his breaking point. This gave a whole new perspective to the story of Beowulf. Looking back, we can now see that Grendel has a softer side to him, and may not have been such an evil creature after all. 

    Now, lets get to the movie. I bet there are a ton of different versions, but the one I am referring to is the most recent one made in 2007. Honestly, I thought the movie looked pretty cool from the trailer alone, but in comparison to the book, it was quite disappointing. The movie made drastic changes from the book. In the movie, it starts out similar to the book: Beowulf defeats Grendel after a long and vicious battle, and is praised by the townspeople. Afterward, Grendel's mother comes to avenge her son, but instead of killing, she wants to have a new son and chooses Beowulf to be the father. Grendel's mother is played by Angelina Jolie, and she definitely does not look how she was described in the book. And so, Beowulf is easily seduced into this and they have a son, who ends up being the dragon Beowulf has to kill at the end, adding to the drama. I admit, this kind of twist to a story would likely make the movie more interesting, and pull in a much greater audience, which is why the movie became this in the first place. However, at this point, the changes made might as well make an entirely new story. It defeats the concept that Beowulf is the superior hero that does not loose to anyone, and certainly does not get seduced and have any sort of love interest. 

    I did not intend for my blogpost to be this long, however this shows how the story of Beowulf has come a long way from it's old English ancestor. The versions we have today reveal how different the original must have been, yet the stories all share it's basic roots to some extent. This is not just limited to Beowulf; it applies to other stories as well. Whenever a new version of something comes out based on the original plot line, we know there are going to be some alterations, yet it keeps the story going and keeps the story interesting. Well, at least it tries to. 

Movie poster for Beowulf. 

Movie Poster for Beowulf- featuring Beowulf and Grendel's Mother