Beowulf Movie Critic Essay

Both of the pieces of literature, Grendel and Beowulf, contain the same story; it is just told from different viewpoints. Beowulf is an epic oratorical poem depicting the heroic Beowulf defeating the hideous creature that haunts the halls of Herot. Grendel, however, allows the reader to be able to experience the story from Grendel’s point of view. Though the books depict the same creature who possesses the same qualities, within Grendel, he is given more human characteristics and this makes the reader feel as though they are reading about a different being.

One aspect of Grendel that is alike in both stories is the way he acts. In Grendel the monster kills many people. He does it very brutally too. "Enough of that! A night for tearing heads off, bathing in blood. Except, alas, h has killed his quota for the season. Care, take care of the gold-egg-laying goose! There is no limit to desire but desire's needs." This was Grendel's law. He does not take pity on any human. From his point of view, the humans deserved this and they were going to get it. These actions are the same in Beowulf

Movies and books are never the exact same, sometimes even the whole plot is changed around. In the book Beowulf the plot, characters, and setting are a lot different than they are when the movie was created. If a person watched the movie before they read the book, it may be totally confusing to read. In the book, Beowulf shows up and plans to fight with his men, then leaves to go back to his own kingdom. In the movie Beowulf, Beowulf ends up staying and becoming king of Dane Land.

The epic poem of Beowulf has been around since the 700 ce. It has been passed down by story telling. The poem is a northern european myth. Majority of the action takes place in Denmark, Geatland however, this location is now Southern Sweden. Beowolf is a heroic myth. It is about a hero's journey. The film The 13th Warrior did not do the poem much justice. It had things which were similar and things that were different. The poem is written in third person and the movie in first person. Both have similar names, in the poem the character's name is Beowulf and in the movie it is Buliwyf. In the book there is much symbolism this is made especially with weapons. In the poem it is written they would even sleep with there weapons that is how important

In the beginning of the story the plot stays the same for the most part... other than Beowulf being motivated by other things than glory or pride. When Grendel is killed in the movie they introduce his mother, they don't show her face but they hint to her being very seductive by the way she talks. Grendel’s mom doesn't really seek revenge in the movie but Hrothgar asks Beowulf to kill her because of a prior incident (Grendel is actually Hrothgar's son) with Grendel’s mom. Beowulf obliges and goes to kill G’s mom but when he enter her den he is almost instantly taken away by her beauty, this causes Beowulf to have a lapse in judgement and impregnate G’s mom. This is very different from the book because in the book he kills G’s mom in a battle to the death then cuts the head off of Grendel’s dead body as illustrated “Armless, exactly as that fierce fighter had sent him out from Herot, then struck off His head with a single swift blow”(542). Also after Beowulf was seduced he goes back to Hrothgar and lies to him and the Danes saying that he has killed Grendel’s mother. This is the major plot difference in the movie and the book.

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic, chronicling the distinguished deeds of the great Geatish warrior, Beowulf, who travels across the seas to rid the Danes of the evil monster Grendel, who has been inflicting destruction and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land fiendish monsters and stopping the scourge of evil, while the monster, Grendel, is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves death for its evil actions. However, many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel, sets out to change the reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms Grendel, once perceived as an evil fiend in Beowulf, into a lonely but intelligent outcast who is actually quite similar to humans, due to his intelligence capacity for rational thought and his real, and at times irrational emotions. Gardner portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression, ostracized from civilization. Although the two works revolve around the same basic plot,, the themes and characters in Beowulf and Grendel are often different and sometimes contradictory.

The poem Beowulf, written by an unknown Anglo-Saxon poet and the movie script, written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. The story is about a Man named Beowulf, who becomes a hero to his town Heorot, by defeating a monster named Grendel. He is later named King of Geats, because of his braveness and loyalty to his people. After about fifty years of ruling, a dragon threatens the town’s people. Beowulf and his servant, Wiglaf, set off to defeat this dragon. While he did succeed to kill it, sadly Beowulf dies in the process. In the poem versus the movie, Beowulf shows different character traits throughout the story. Heroism, loyalty, and bravery all differ from the poem to the movie. The audience will perceive Beowulf as a completely different person if only looking at one of the two pieces.

There are many similarities and differences between the movie "Beowulf and Grendel", to the poem. Major differences between the movie and the poem would be Grendel himself. In the poem, he is described as an evil monster born from two demons. In the movie, Grendel is actually human, but known as a troll to the warriors and Danes. The poem doesn’t give the background of Grendel or show how the Danes killed his father and the possible reason of his revenge, like in the movie. If the witch, Selma, was not included in the storyline of the movie, the audience would not have known key information that she was used to show from more flashbacks. The witch gives more of an idea about Grendel’s past life that could have been the possibility to

If we’re going to compare the book to the movie we have to make sure we’ve carefully read the book and watched the movie occasionally stopping your mind to evaluate the movie wondering what is different. I did just that, Beowulf the book compared to the movie has a variety of differences and some similarities. In my opinion the movie was better, let me tell you why.

Beowulf and Grendel are two different stories, and characters, who look at the same situation in polarized ways. Each character has their own story that is written from different time periods: the Anglo-Saxon time period and America in the 1970’s. Both of these time periods have different attributes that make them special; the Anglo-Saxon time period consists of the literary movement of the epic poem and America in the 1970’s consists of the literary movement known as postmodernism. Beowulf is shaped by the Anglo-Saxon time period through its use of the heroic code and religious influences and Grendel is shaped by the American 1970’s time period through its use of metafiction and an unreliable narrator.

It was done to represent our modern day society now and to show what are values and morals are. In both Beowulf the poem and movie there are many similarities and differences in religion, characterization, and morals, it highlights the value and beliefs of each society. The view of religion has changed throughout the years, many people have stopped believing in gods or a religions and have become Atheist. Last of all, the moral and values of people now have changed to sustain a certain image to society. We can see how influential the Beowulf poem has been over the years and how it still ties back to our modern

In the 2007 film version of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, Grendel and the dragon represent shame and consequences to bad choices made by King Hrothgar and Beowulf. They do appear a bit monstrous but they are mostly there just for what they represent. You can tell Grendel represents King Hrothgar’s shame when he tells Beowulf, “Grendel is dead. That’s all that matters to me. He can bother me no more.” This shows that King Hrothgar and Grendel did not have a normal father-son relationship, since he wanted him dead. Also King Hrothgar was ashamed of Grendel and didn’t want people to know that he was his son. Since Beowulf fell into the same evil cycle as King Hrothgar did, he had the same feelings toward his son, the dragon. He referred to his

Both the epic poem Beowulf and the novel Grendel depict the same storyline, but from different point of views. Grendel’s personality tends to be much more evil than he himself depicts in the novel. Since Grendel is the narrator of the novel, the audience only gets to know what the story is like from his point of view, which he stretches the truth on numerous occasions. But, in Beowulf, the poem has a narrator and is in the third person omniscient, this means the audience knows how all the characters and feeling, thinking, or saying. Also, the theme nature vs. nurture appears a lot in Grendel which means his viewpoints on certain things are either

There is a hero and a villain in every story, we have: Batman and The Joker, Spider-Man and The Green Goblin, Thor and Loki, and of course Beowulf and Grendel. In the epic “Beowulf” our two main characters are Beowulf the hero of the story, and Grendel the evil demon who terrorized the world. In the epic, Beowulf and Grendel are noticeably different, but at the same time alike in many ways. The people in the story may not have notice the similarities, but they could not be hidden from the peering eye of the reader. In the story Beowulf was was brave, while Grendel was cowardly, Beowulf was helpful, while Grendel only wanted to hurt people; in comparison, they were both unnaturally strong and very arrogant.

The epic poem Beowulf, is an Angelo Saxon tale that represents heroism and strength. This poem was written be an unknown poet between around 1000 A.D and showcases the heroic character named Beowulf who comes to save the land of Danes from the beast Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel and then faces his mother the evil monster who is killed as well and is viewed by all the people of Dane as a hero who can never be beaten. An evil Dragon comes and Beowulf is able to kill the Dragon but sacrifices his own life as he is killed by the Dragon’s poison. Beowulf is about more than heroism this epic poem shows true English narration, represents Angelo-Saxon religion, and depicts women’s roles in Anglo-Saxon society