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 etelling
old tales filtered through modern sensibility
seems to be the thing to do these days. The recent
films "Troy"
and "King
Arthur" are examples of this, where the
mystical/supernatural elements that made the
original stories so compelling are stripped away
in favor of 20th Century sociopolitical
incongruities like emancipated women and warriors
in touch with their feminine side. The results
have been disappointingly pedestrian films.
(Compare the woad-encrusted "King
Arthur" with John Boorman's dazzlingly brutal
"Excalibur" if you don't see what I'm
getting at.) And so it is with "Beowulf &
Grendel," Icelandic director Sturla
Gunnarsson's revisionist take on the epic poem
'Beowulf.'
Those who remember their high
school English Literature curriculum will recall
that 'Beowulf' is one of the most famous heroic
adventure tales in recorded history. An
Anglo-Saxon legend originally written in lilting
'Old English' (I'm sure many can also recall
having to translate that gobbledygook as I did),
'Beowulf' told the story of the great titular
Norse warrior who comes to the aid of the
embattled King Hrothgar as his warriors are being
decimated nightly by a vicious monster called
Grendel. Much ruthless violence and slaughter
ensues, resulting in a satisfying read.
Gunnarsson's film takes the
legend as a base, but veers way off to the left in
its interpretation of the action. We still have
the same main characters -- the embattled (and
often drunk) King Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård,
"Ronin"),
the great hero Beowulf (Gerard Butler, "Reign
of Fire") and, of course, the monster
Grendel (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, "K-19:
The Widowmaker"). Only this time Grendel is
not some reptilian beast, but rather a troll
(movie speak for a really big guy with poor
diction and even poorer hygiene) with serious
vengeance issues. According to Gunnarsson's take
on the legend, Grendel wasn't a blood-thirsty
monster, but rather a misunderstood brute with
very legitimate reasons for his campaign of
violence. More Frankenstein's Monster than
Cathoga, if you will.
And that's the biggest
problem with "Beowulf and Grendel". By
making Grendel a focal character, Gunnarsson has
obligated himself to developing him as a fully
fleshed entity. Since the original legend said
little of Grendel, it leaves Gunnarsson with
plenty of leeway, but requires plenty of work.
Unfortunately, we get little in this regard beyond
Grendel's base instincts of loyalty and revenge.
Gunnarsson gives it the old college try, but comes
up pretty short.
The director is more
successful with the static period detail. The
warriors' ships and armor look authentic and
Iceland
's stunning and terrifyingly beautiful scenery
give the film a medieval look and feel.
Unfortunately, the period detail doesn't extend to
the dialogue. We're supposed to be watching a
story written in the 10th Century about Danes and
Geats (ostensibly the Dutch) that lived in the 6th
Century, but are greeted with a thoroughly modern
level of profanity delivered with an assortment of
English, Scottish and Irish accents. It's rather
amusing and takes the film out of time and place,
but hell, if Sean Connery can play a Spaniard…
The other glaring error in
the film is the total miscasting of Sarah Polley
("Dawn
of the Dead"). In one of the most
anachronistic performances since Keanu Reeves
'whoa!'-ed and 'dude!'-ed his way through
"Much Ado About Nothing," Polley plays a
wild haired witch who knows more about Grendel
than any person should. Her approach to the
character, more akin to an NYU Women's Studies
graduate student than a medieval wench, is so
jarring that even Butler's phlegmy Scottish brogue
seems normal by comparison.
"Beowulf &
Grendel" is a strange film indeed. You can
see quite obviously what the filmmakers were
trying to accomplish, but the finished product is
a muddled mess of mixed signals and motivations.
Not quite a swords and sorcery hack and slash and
not quite a poignant social satire, "Beowulf
& Grendel" is stuck in a dubious middle
ground as sticky as the mud Beowulf slogs through
in his first appearance on screen and not even the
glorious scenery can extricate it.
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