Yet Another Beowulf Adaptation... Sooner or later I am going to read the poem, although I am fairly certain I won't like it, being a poem and all. But as movies go I've seen a lot. Beowulf with Cristophe Lambert, the movie that made shiny leather a thing of the past (by introducing todays fashion in history, that is); The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas, which I also enjoyed for entirely different reasons; Beowulf and Grendel and then there is a Zemeckis film scheduled for November, called Beowulf also, with Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich. Donno why, but I think it will suck.
Anyway, this movie is a cross between The 13th Warrior and French science films about Neanderthals. The actors play very well, starting with Grendel himself, played by a father and son duo, and ending with foxy Sarah Foley in the role of the witch. The interesting twist in this film is the idea that the hero doesn't want to kill needlessly and that Grendel himself had a lot of reasons to pick on Hrothgar and his men. A movie about a rampaging monster and the hero who comes to kill it is actually a peace promoting film. Interesting and well worth watching.
One warning, though, the language is a kind of northerny slang English, mixed with a little Icelandic and Latin for aroma. So you should really have subtitles. Better still, English subtitles, since most of the other language subtitles that I've seen are awful.
Bottom line: worth watching to men and boys and open minded females (no, Grendel does not marry in this one, though he comes pretty close)
Anyway, this movie is a cross between The 13th Warrior and French science films about Neanderthals. The actors play very well, starting with Grendel himself, played by a father and son duo, and ending with foxy Sarah Foley in the role of the witch. The interesting twist in this film is the idea that the hero doesn't want to kill needlessly and that Grendel himself had a lot of reasons to pick on Hrothgar and his men. A movie about a rampaging monster and the hero who comes to kill it is actually a peace promoting film. Interesting and well worth watching.
One warning, though, the language is a kind of northerny slang English, mixed with a little Icelandic and Latin for aroma. So you should really have subtitles. Better still, English subtitles, since most of the other language subtitles that I've seen are awful.
Bottom line: worth watching to men and boys and open minded females (no, Grendel does not marry in this one, though he comes pretty close)