I actually watched the movie before reading the poem. Did anyone get the idea that Grendal was King Hrothgar's son? I was surprised when I read the piece, because I had the idea that King Hrothgar had succumb to temptation and slept with Grendal's mother and therefore was the father of Grendal. This is why Hrothgar could not kill Grendal, he could not bring himself to kill his own son. There was a scene when Hrothgar had the opportunity to kill him but did not.
Also Hrothgar's wife would not sleep with him, because he had touched "her". I took this to mean Grendal's mother. When Beowolf killed Grendal, Hrothgar seemed to be relieved on many levels. It was as if someone had cleaned up his mess and his contious had been cleared.
Later it was implied that Beowolf slept with Grendal's mother to give her a child to replace the one that he had killed. I got the impression that Beowolf succame to temptation in the same way that Hrothgar had, therefore coming full circle. Now there was a Dragon, hence Beowolf's son.
I have never seen a movie ADD themes that did not appear in the story. I actually thought the themes in the movie were better. I will have to go back and reread Beowolf and compare the two.
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a weblog where the students of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville contemplate all things "Lord of the Rings," both modern and medieval
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Most Recent Comments
5 comments:
I also saw this movie shortly after reading and discussing the poem in class and I did not like it at all. The movie graphics were cheesy and lacked realism. Furthermore, the additions to plot ruined a good story and made Grendel’s mother into a demon whore and not a monster out for revenge. Finally the end had me guessing did Wiglaf sleep with her too or was he the one man up and kill her.
I was not interested in watching the movie because I did hear that it changes the whole aspect of the poem. It's more 'unreal' compared to the poem. The character's were presented as different people compared to the poem we have read. I don't want to waste my time watching something when its just so different.
I know this was discussed in an earlier blog about the movie. I wathced it after reading the poem for class and my husband read the poem a long time ago. He liked the movie better than I did and I think it was mainly because the story was fresher on my mind than his. I had a hard time sitting through it with so much not being in the actual poem. The definatley "hollywood-ed" the movie. (I think my husband did like Angelina too.)
Yeah Hrothgar was Grendel's dad, it was a twisted way to interpret the poem, but it was a fun movie. They had to tweak it a little in order to get a movie out of it. I liked both the movie and the poem a lot. I just cannot stand Jolie though, I feel she cannot act her self out of any role she is in. She just does slutty stuff and takes the cash. If Grendel's mom would have been anyone else, it would have been a great movie.
It was really weird because I did the same thing. Basically right after we discussed it in class I watched it. I swore to myself that I wouldn't watch it but was forced. At first I hated the animation and the changing of the story line, but I half way enjoyed it. I think near the end they were trying to show that Wiglaf was going to get with Grendel's mother. They were just trying to leave it open for a second, called "Wiglaf and sea witch" ha ha
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