Rented Beowulf on DVD...
And by "Beowulf", I mean the motion-capture/animated film that was released in 3-D in November. Not the horrible sci-fi version with Christopher Lambert or "Beowulf and Grendel" with Gerard Butler (which I have not yet seen) or "The 13th Warrior" with Antonio Banderas.
This is a really great film.
Technically, it is NOT Beowulf the epic poem--many changes are made to adapt it to film. A great direct adaptation was a half hour animated version read by Joseph Fiennes that was shown on HBO as part of their Animated Tales of the World series. It was simplified, but maintained the beauty of the poem, the directness of its narrative and the unique, broken nature of it's Anglo-Saxon structure.
My mother first introduced me to Beowulf when I was very young, with an adaptation of the fight between Grendel and Beowulf in an old Childcraft children's encyclopedia Annual from 1975, THE MAGIC OF WORDS. It was illustrated by a young Brian Froud, most famous for his Pressed Fairies books and designing Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. I got hooked early and over the years read a lot of Beowulf.
Over the years, many takes on the legend have been made, most notably John Gardner's fantastic novel Grendel from the mid seventies (which was itself adapted into an Australian animated film Grendel Grendel Grendel starring the voice of Peter Ustinov as Grendel). Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead, also from the mid seventies adapted the story as told from the point of view of an Arabian emissary traveling with a group of Vikings to face a marauding group of surviving Neanderthals (the Wendol). In that story, later adapted on film as The 13th Warrior, Crichton tells a possible tale behind the legend, inverting the order of events, compressing it into one narrative (there is precedence in this as many memory studies show that stories often invert and change the order of events as they are retold in the oral tradition).
The less said about the Christopher Lambert version, the better - but there was a plot point in the film that is echoed in the new Beowulf, and has been suggested before by some interpretations of the classic story.
But this film version is actually great, and my only complaint is that they should have made it like last year's 300, with live actors in virtual worlds. The background characters are all flat, lifeless puppets as are many of the secondary characters--like something out of Shrek. Motion-Capture does a lot of work, but key-frame animation should still be used to smooth out the rough spots and breath life into the dull areas. When the film was projected in 3-d, the reason for the digital people becomes clear--it was perfect, since the computers can create the exact images needed for both eyes--and I was concerned that the film would be lacking now that it is flattened into 2-D.
No worry there, the compositions of the frames are gorgeous, suggesting the fantasy art that inspired them. What the DVD does do, is make you focus on the story--and here is where the film (in my opinion) truly excels. Roger Avery and Neil Gaiman have crafted a revisionist Beowulf that satirizes and deepens the tale. It is not a story of a perfect, noble hero who goes from one epic adventure to the next, but the story of a man in love with his own legend in a time when the greatest thing a man can have is a story. It, like Eaters of the Dead is about the story behind the story. By having Beowulf be an unreliable narrator who only learns humility after long years of living with the fame he desired, the writers create a film about a man who we can all understand. It is the Liberty Valance effect, as Robert Whul calls it "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
The changes in the story are a bold and interesting choice. If Grendel is the spawn of his mother and King Hrothgar, it explains why he never attacks the Danish king. If Grendel's mother could make herself look like Angelina Jolie, a large percentage of the population both male and female would yield to her Siren's call. And if Beowulf made a pact with a demon, securing his Kingship, it explains where the Dragon at the end comes from. This, like Dragonslayer is the story of the failing of the mythic age in the advent of Christianity. It is the story of the last of the epic heroes and the last of the epic demons. AND it also manages to tell the story of the poem in it's roundabout way...maybe even the way it existed before being censored and rewritten by monks a thousand years ago.
And the action is fantastic, The images are pretty, Digital Angelina Jolie is smoking hot and the music is great.
So, Yeah. I am a fan and will be buying this soon.