Beowulf meets celluloid
The international blockbuster movie "Beowulf and Grendel" will be coming to the U.S. soon. Different sources give different dates but it should arrive in the next month starting as a limited release (meaning you have to drive to L.A. or San Francisco). It was hugely popular in Canada, Iceland, and Europe and garnered much critical acclaim. The DVD will be release in July in Canada and pre-orders have already rocketed it to the 3rd best selling item on Amazon.ca. As for why it has taken so long to come here... I don't know. Maybe the distributors thought Americans aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate a movie based on a 1200+ y.o. epic poem. I, for one, am very excited.
posted by Aaron at 6/14/2006 02:57:00 PM
2 Comments:
Oh no, not another movie about treacherous monsters plaguing the Danish countryside. How many times do I have to watch a swamp-hag avenge her son's death? Actually, I am very curious to see how they pulled this movie off.
7:13 AM
In an interesting twist they made the monster human. It is based not only on the original poem but also on a book that told the story from Grendel's perspective. On first inspection this seems to put them on shaky ground. However, considering the story was passed down through oral tradition for hundreds of years before being put to paper, it is not unreasonable to believe that this is how the legend started. There are some who contend Beowulf was based on actual events that took place around 500ace and Grendel was demonized as the story was passed from generation to generation.
9:03 AM
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