--Grendel's mother, Beowulf
"I've come to kill your monster."
--Beowulf, Beowulf
Beowulf is a unique film that emphasizes the epic, brutal nature of the poem that it is derived from. No, it does not perfectly mirror the story of the poem, but the changes work in the cinematic format. Successful experimentation can be far more important than flawless accuracy in translating the source material to a new medium. The results are spectacular, even with the over-the-top action sequences and narrative changes. Beowulf is set during a time when Christian influence is starting to appear alongside the presence of Norse mythology, when Jesus is initially referenced alongside Odin. The quasi-historical foundation blends together with the fantasy elements in a beautiful fashion. It is one of the darkest--and most brilliantly-crafted--animated films I have seen.
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Production Values
The style of Beowulf is similar to that of the God of War video games in terms of both the visual spectacle and soundtrack, and it is a great fit for the film: the deaths are brutal and the score wonderfully accentuates the story. The fact that the movie is entirely animated helps make some of the more unrealistic and exaggerated moments seem right at home. For instance, Beowulf recounts how he swam in a race against someone named Brecca for five days straight before fighting off sea monsters, thereby losing the race. If Beowulf had been created as a live action movie with accompanying CGI, such a scene could have seemed highly laughable. Very notably, the animation still looks fine in 2018!
The cast does a phenomenal job with each role. Whether it's the voice performance of Ray Winstone as Beowulf, Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar, or Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother, the acting is a wonderful fit within the grim universe realized by the animators. There is no weak link with the voice acting; everyone contributes and succeeds. The characters' appearances are often modeled after the actors and actresses themselves, the visuals accentuating the voice acting by reminding people who is playing whom. It's also ironic, might I add, that Hopkins' character praises Odin so frequently, considering that he later played Odin in the MCU.
Story
Spoilers!
As King Hrothgar celebrates with his people in a mead hall, a demon offspring named Grendel forces his way inside and terrorizes the group, easily killing many before he teleports away in a blue flame. The sounds from the hall annoyed and enraged Grendel, who has sensitive hearing. Hrothgar announces that he needs a hero to deliver his kingdom. The Geat Beowulf, leading other Geats, lands at the shore to meet with Hrothgar and defeat Grendel. He succeeds by overstimulating Grendel's sense of hearing, which led to him breaking off one of Grendel's arms.
Grendel survives long enough to return home before he dies, his mother promising vengeance. Beowulf soon awakens one morning to find a great number of corpses hanging from the ceiling beams--Hrothgar quickly identifies the new monster as Grendel's mother. Beowulf travels to the lair of the water demon, where Grendel's mother appears as a woman and asks him to give her a son to replace Grendel. Seduced, Beowulf obliges, and the two produce a son.
Hrothgar promises Beowulf the throne, committing suicide to enable a quick succession. Before his suicide, Hrothgar had shown Beowulf the Royal Dragon Horn, which he had obtained after defeating the dragon Fafnir, and he had told Beowulf that the throat is a dragon's weak spot and that exploiting that weakness is the only way to kill a dragon. Many years later, as an established king, Beowulf quells a Frisian revolt shortly before a dragon--his son--threatens to destroy the kingdom. Beowulf kills the dragon (using the information Hrothgar imparted) in a final act of heroism before he dies from his wounds, his altruistic deeds remembered despite the fact that he literally helped create the problem.
Intellectual Content
Beowulf says that the "Christ God" has ended the age of heroes, "leaving humankind with nothing but weeping martyrs, fear and shame." In saying this, Beowulf betrays an extraordinarily ignorant understanding of Christianity. First of all, Christianity is not about pacifism, which is implied in Beowulf's comment. Thus, Christianity does not exclude heroic military or monarchical acts. Jesus never condemns all violence, as he affirms the executions prescribed in the Torah by Yahweh (Matthew 5:17-19, 15:3-9). There are numerous examples of warfare and killings authorized--demanded, even--by the Christian god, though there are clear, universal boundaries that Mosaic Law places on such things. Second, Beowulf implicitly assumes that the values of his culture correspond to existing value obligations, when conscience and consensus are absolutely useless when pursuing moral knowledge. He has no reason whatsoever to even suspect that the moral values held by his kingdom's inhabitants exist to begin with; he never once entertains the possibility that they are mistaken or incomplete. His criticism of Christianity falls apart even if Christianity isn't true.
Conclusion
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Beowulf might not be for lovers of the written work, but it is a great film. The excellence of the production values bleeds over into every crevice of the story, characterization, and action. Is it controversial? Of course! But it remains extremely well-realized and highly unique--what other epic poem has had an animated movie of this scope and quality fashioned from it? It is a project that stands on a stage by itself, and I applaud the filmmakers for investing in such a bold and distinctive movie.
Content:
1. Violence: Grendel tosses around humans effortlessly, impaling them on objects, breaking their bones, and dismembering them. Beowulf kills sea serpents in very violent ways, even emerging from inside of one by cutting a way out through its eye, and he overpowers Grendel by using graphic measures. That Beowulf is animated and PG-13 does not mean that the violence is mild.
2. Profanity: In a few scenes, miscellaneous characters use profanity (variations of "damn").
3. Nudity: Beowulf removes all of his clothing to fight Grendel, and his nude body is seen from the back. Grendel's mother appears to Beowulf as a naked woman, visible from the front, with a golden liquid moving across her skin.
4. Sexuality: Sexual comments from both men and women are fairly common. Nonconsensual sexual advances made towards women are also common for the first half of the movie, unfortunately. Hrothgar's soldiers, as well as the Geats (though not Beowulf), tend to view sexual expression with a partner as something that a man imposes on a woman instead of something mutual that is free of stereotypes of gender roles.
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