Beowulf

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First I have to warn you that this is not a strict recital of the epic poem or even very close. We have both King Hrothgar, Voiced by Anthony Hopkins, and Beowulf voiced by Ray Winstone both intermingling genes with Grendel's Mother to produce to monsters.. Some translations see her as a Monster other scholars see her defined as a female warrior. Truly I think the theme is truly complicated in the poem as it introduces the Pair, Both Grendel and the mother as biblical "kin killers" as Cain in the bible. It also leads to Beowulf main rival, Unferth, with a duality also, a Norse warrior and that of a budding and immature Christian, at least in the beginning of the movie.

No matter how you define her she is also a siren with seductive and convincing powers able to melt and liquefy steel played and voiced by Anglie Jolie. Robert Zemeckis of "The Polar Express" used a similar action sequencing to capture movement and then animated the characters. In Anglie's case he used her body, that only young men with nothing but short term lust in there heart will appreciate, or for us older fans it she might bring up a fond memory. Beowulf has his moments also , striping down to fight Grendel , bare knuckles and butt naked. During the fight and moving sequences we always have a sword, arm , or some other "object" covering his private parts.

Interestingly the movie commands our attention, is numbingly entertaining, very graphically violent ( Why the PG rating ?) ripping off limbs, nakedness, even though it is an animation. A gold colored skinned Anglie is still naked, sorry. In all this there is some humor, parity, and for the scholar, a little into the mindset of the author of this epic poem, as it deals with good and evil, hero's, and asks questions about loyalty, God and man's place in all this. I like one review I read, where the author compares the violence to " The Gladiator" and that asks the question " are you entertained", but then this goes one step beyond and asks ,"why" ?

I liked the adaptation even though only modestly resembling the poem that I studied a lot as a young man. I am also intrigued with this time period. After the fall of Rome, with a power vacuum, and new nation building just starting, and Christianity emerging as the dominant thought of the period clashing with older mythologies but the people are not quite sure where it fit in.

See it or don't I liked it.

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Beowulf

LinZ — Fri, 11/23/2007 - 01:30

Did you read Beowulf in high school? Wow I am impressed.

Lin Z

Beowulf

asw — Sat, 11/24/2007 - 01:38

In old English! I think that to is a translation . Milton, Chaucer ( Canterbury Tales), Spenser ( The Faerie Queen), Shakespeare, Bacon. Bacon especially was good he was well rounded and dabbled in Philosophy as well. I started studying a lot of English Lit at Washington and Lee High School in Arlington, VA at the start of our senior year. Later, when I returned to Alameda, I had read a lot of new material, having already read a lot of Shakespeare. The most challenging was " Sir Gawain and the Green Knight " it was written about the same time as Canterbury Tales, but the author...unknown.. was from Northern England or Scotland and the English is more a mix of old English and some Celtic or Gaelic language...it has been too long. What I remember most was how different the English was at that time from the North and South of the Continent. The Language was under going a radical change and rapid shift in words and usage.

I was writing Poetry and was especially influenced by T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, and at the time Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I would almost kill to have all my old work back. I had reams of it. A troubled spirit looking for therapy I would think today.

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