Traditional Boxing Day movie-going done... we saw Beowulf! Yep, in 3D at Imax... Looking at the people coming out, I might have one of the very few who had ever read the original - and definitely one of the very, very, few who had read it in the original (not that 'reading' is actually the word for it! Slaved over... translated word for word... sweated over...)
Anyhoo - the people were reasonably believable in their CGI way - it was the horses that were most unrealistic, weirdly enough.
Story pretty close to the original. As the writers say, in this interview on youtube, they were telling the story between the lines. How many times did I have to say to my mother afterwards, there was no fooling around with demons in the original... Little thing I picked up... Grendel is described as one of Cain's kin (in the original) and Unferth's slave is named Cain...
If you want to find out a little more, this site has hypertext versions of both the original and a modern translation.
A recent survey of Beowulf viewers reviewed the following reasons for watching the movie: 99% seeing Angelina Jolie in some form approaching nudity (given half-closed eyelids and a modicum of wishful thinking); 1% tracking the anhistoric revisions instigated by the scriptwriters/producers/actors' egos.
ReplyDeleteMe I'm on the fence, but I didn't see it so I guess I'm really Switzerland.