Even Strange Women Lying In Ponds Have To Wear Stilettos

Aug 26, 2007 09:23

I watched the Beowulf trailer in hires, and noticed a couple things that didn't register before ( Read more... )

stupidity, sexism, plausibility barrier, history vs fanon, beowulf, media

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Comments 51

chaoticgoodnik August 26 2007, 14:24:40 UTC
I just watched the trailer, and ... argh argh argh. Bleh.

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voxwoman August 26 2007, 14:27:40 UTC
This must be the same design crew that did the armour for Excalibur.

You are forgetting that our modern crop of 13-year-old boy's first experience with nudity is their sister's Barbie dolls. You know, those dolls whose feet are perpetually wearing 6" heels whether they are shod or not, and whose genitalia are absent along with any body hair.

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Barbie is clearly an early creation of the Vespans. bellatrys August 26 2007, 14:45:30 UTC
Also, apparently Neil believes that the Saxons went naked under their armor, going from this:

Cast off then his corselet of iron,
helmet from head; to his henchman gave, --
choicest of weapons, -- the well-chased sword,
bidding him guard the gear of battle.
Spake then his Vaunt the valiant man,
Beowulf Geat, ere the bed be sought:--
"Of force in fight no feebler I count me,
in grim war-deeds, than Grendel deems him.
Not with the sword, then, to sleep of death
his life will I give, though it lie in my power.
No skill is his to strike against me,
my shield to hew though he hardy be,
bold in battle; we both, this night,
shall spurn the sword, if he seek me here,
unweaponed, for war.

to this:

His knack for a good scrap is on show in one of the film's pivotal fight scenes when Beowulf battles Grendel in the nude, mano a beast-o. ("Bob asked if he had to be nude, but we said, 'It's in the poem,' " Gaiman explained.) So in a crafty bit of staging to allow a PG-13 rating, Beowulf's naughty bits are obfuscated by random objects in the ( ... )

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tlachtga August 26 2007, 18:37:35 UTC
Whether or not Excalibur worked*, I still can't help but wince at the scene of Uther raping Igraine while in full plate armor. I mean, there's camp, and then there's probably-not-physically-possible.

*Ever hear what Boorman wanted to do to LotR? *Shudder*

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sajia August 26 2007, 14:55:45 UTC
Inalillah, and I had such high hopes of this project. I did a short post on Gaiman's problematic feminism on my own blog, so you might want to check it out.
Totally OT: I dreamt last night I saw your webcomic up, and in the dream I was thinking, this is Very Cool monochromatic linear stuff, but why isn't she hosting it on keenspot.com where she could earn a couple of bucks from advertising? Then I saw other weird things about trying to hurl erasers from the deck of a pirate ship, etc.

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evilstorm August 26 2007, 15:15:01 UTC
WTF HEELS. SRSLY, WTF.

I mean, wtf everything else, too (Neil, why?), but mostly wtf heels.

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chaoticgoodnik August 26 2007, 15:47:11 UTC
lyev, who had been interested in the movie until I showed him the trailer, suggested that they were trying to make it into Excalibur. Given that they're apparently introducing a lot of sex/seduction/rejected children material, Arthurian stuff is probably a decent comparison.

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