Plot Summary for Beowulf (2007)

Set against the coming of Christianity, this is the story of the last hero: in 507, a
monstrous troll wrecks havoc in the mead hall of the Danish king, Hrothgar. He offers
rewards for the death of Grendel, so Beowulf, a great and boastful Geat warrior, arrives
with his thanes. Beowulf sets aside his armor and awaits the monster; a fierce battle
ensues that leads to Beowolf's entering the watery lair of Grendel's mother, where a
devil's bargain awaits. Beowulf returns to Herot, the castle, and becomes king. Jump
ahead many years, and the sins of the father are visited upon Beowulf and his kingdom.
The hero must face his weakness and be heroic once again. Is the age of demons over?
Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
In Denmark, A.D. 507, the realm of King Hrothgar is threatened by the tormented demon
Grendel that attacks the locals in their celebrations. The Danish king offers a reward for
the death of the creature, attracting to Herot the brave Geat warrior Beowulf that seeks
for glory. After a fierce battle, Beowulf defeats the demon and after receiving an old relic
as reward, he finds his men slaughtered in the party saloon of the castle. King Hrothgar
advises that the Grendel's mother was the responsible for the bloodshed and Beowulf
chases her in the lake where she lives. The creature takes the form of a seductive woman
and seduces Beowulf with a promise of becoming an invincible and wealthy king if he
makes love to her and gives his golden relic to her. Years later, King Beowulf feels the
aftermath of his sin. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Synopsis for Beowulf

In Denmark in the year 507 a.D., elderly King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) dedicates his
new mead hall in a drunken revelry. He and his people have conquered other lands and
collected much booty. Although his queen, Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn) clearly
disapproves, the assembled warriors and maidens clearly enjoy themselves. However, in
a cavern not far from the mead hall, the singing and dancing is a painful nuisance to the
misshapen half-human, half-demon Grendel (Crispin Glover). Enraged, Grendel attacks
the mead hall and kills or maims many of the warriors. He spares Hrothgar's life,
however. After he returns to the cavern, his mother, a water demon (Angelina Jolie)
soothes him. The next day, Hrothgar orders the mead hall sealed and sends out a call for a
hero to come and rid the kingdom of Grendel.

Several months later, Beowulf (Ray Winstone) answers the call. His troops are led by his
second-in-command, Wiglaf (Brendan Gleeson). Beowulf and his band are not Danes but
rather Geats, which rankles Hrothgar's proud battle commander, Unferth (John
Malkovich). He mocks Beowulf's legendary feats. Beowulf orders the mead hall
reopened; that is where he will fight Grendel. That night, another party (though more
subdued) is held. Wealthow plays her lute and sings. She and Beowulf are clearly
attracted to one another. Hrothgar promises to give Beowulf his Dragon Horn, a beautiful
gold mead cup with a dragon carved into the side of it, should he kill Grendel. That night,
after the Danes have gone to bed, Beowulf's men sing bawdy songs to lure Grendel.
When Grendel arrives, he slays many of Beowulf's men. Beowulf strips nude to fight
Grendel hand to hand. He bursts Grendel's ear drums then severs his arm. As Grendel
slinks into the night, Beowulf taunts him with boasts about his own strength and power.
Grendel returns to the cavern where, with his dying breath, he tells his mother the name
of the man who killed him.

The kingdom rejoices at Grendel's death. After a day of celebration, Beowulf and his men
are to leave the next morning. That night, however, Grendel's mother comes to Beowulf
in a dream, disguised as Wealthow. She asks him to give her another son. When he
awakes, he discovers all of his men slaughtered. Only Wiglaf survives because he was
tending to their ship, miles from the mead hall. Hrothgar reveals to Beowulf who killed
his men -- Grendel's mother. He also reveals that Grendel was his own son, which is why
Grendel spared him in the initial attack, and why Wealthow refuses to give him a human
heir. Beowulf announces his intent to kill Grendel's mother. To show his new faith in
Beowulf and his strength, Unferth gives him his own familial sword. Beowulf goes to the
cavern to kill Grendel's mother. He uses the Dragon Horn to light his way. But, taking the
form of a naked, beautiful woman, she seduces him with promises of power. When he
returns to the mead hall, Beowulf delights the assembled with tales of how he killed
Grendel's mother. He apologizes for losing both Unferth's sword -- Grendel's mother
melted it with her magic -- and the Dragon Horn -- she kept it as a symbol of their truce.
Hrothgar, no stranger to her charms, recognizes that she has seduced Beowulf. He tells
his subjects that, upon his death, Beowulf will be their new king. He then leaps from the
castle tower to his death on the rocky shore below. The crown is immediately placed on
Beowulf's head.

Years pass. Beowulf is a good leader to the Danes and his power and fame spread. He
does not enjoy being king though, and guilt over his betrayal of Hrothgar nag him. He,
too, is unable to sire an heir, either on Wealthow or his willing concubine, Ursula (Alison
Lohman). One day, Unferth, who is now a Christian priest, brings to him the Dragon
Horn, which had been found in a barren moor. Beowulf realizes that it means that the
truce between Grendel's mother and Beowulf is now over, though he cannot reveal that to
anyone else. That night, a giant fire-breathing dragon attacks the village. It briefly takes a
human form and tells Unferth to deliver a message to Beowulf. It then resumes burning
people to death. Badly burned himself, Unferth tells Beowulf the dragon's message: the
sins of the father are visited upon the sons.

Beowulf knows he must fight and kill both the dragon and its mother. He and Wiglaf
return to the cavern but as soon as Beowulf enters, Grendel's mother sends the dragon
after him. He and Wiglaf barely escape its fiery breath then chase it as it flies towards
Beowulf's castle. As Danish soldiers battle the dragon with arrows and spears, Beowulf
climbs onto the dragon and searches for a way to kill it. The dragon makes his way to the
castle and traps Wealthow and Ursula on a breezeway. Beowulf finally finds the dragon's
weak point and, cutting it open, plunges his hand into the dragon's breast and rips its
heart out. He and the dragon fall to the rocky shore. Mortally wounded, Beowulf watches
as the dragon transforms into a human who looks like his father. Beowulf then dies.

Wiglaf is now king. He tearfully watches as Beowulf's burial ship is set ablaze then sinks
into the sea. Just as the ship begins to slip beneath the waves, Grendel's mother appears
and kisses Beowulf's body. The Dragon Horn washes ashore at Wiglaf's feet. He picks it
up then sees Grendel's mother rise from the waves, tempting him anew.

REVIEWS

this film seems to be totally different to the original anglo-saxon poem.

1. Where is the haunted lake of serpent's?

2. Why didn't Beowulf decapitate Grendel's Mother?
3. Where did all this about grendel's Ear come from?
4. Beowulf did not copulate with Grendels mother!
5. Dragon was in a totally differnt place (Present day Norway Not Denmark!)
6. etc etc etc

...........................

And this surprises you? Since when has Hollywood EVER stayed true to an original myth
or epic tale?
..............................

I have no problem with a little creative license, but when the story and characters are
completely changed that's a bit much. This movie had more differences than similarities
with the poem. I turned it off 45 minutes into it.
....................

Hollywood alters things based on how they perceive people's reactions to them, they alter
elements over and over until the story is muddy and illogical. Hollywood should distance
itself from our treasured myths.

.......................

Beowulf es el poema épico más antiguo del idioma inglés que ha llegado a nuestros días.
Aunque la adaptación de la película de Robert Zemeckis contiene muchos de los
personajes y temas del poema – grandes monstruos y héroes, el eterno conflicto entre el
bien y el mal, y una exploración concienzuda de la naturaleza del valor y la gloria – no es
desde luego el Beowulf del profesor del Instituto donde usted estudió.

"Francamente, no me atraía nada de lo referente al poema original. Recuerdo que me

mandaron leer este poema al comenzar la enseñanza secundaria y no pude
comprenderlo porque estaba escrito en inglés antiguo", reconoce Zemeckis. "Fue uno de
esos horribles deberes. Después de esto, yo nunca pensé realmente en este poema, nunca
consideré que podría ser una historia interesante. Pero cuando leí el guión que hicieron
Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, me sentí cautivado inmediatamente. Les pregunté: ‘¿Qué
es lo que hace que esta historia sea tan fascinante cuando el poema me pareció tan
aburrido?’ Y la respuesta fue: ‘Bueno, veamos, el poema fue escrito en algún momento
entre los siglos VII y XII. Pero la historia se contaba desde algunos siglos antes. Las
únicas personas que sabían escribir en el siglo VII eran los monjes. Por lo tanto,
podemos suponer que hicieron muchos recortes o revisiones’. Neil y Roger exploraron el
texto minuciosamente, leyendo entre líneas, cuestionando las lagunas del material
original y volviendo a añadir lo que creían que podían haber suprimido (o añadido) los
monjes y por qué. Han conseguido conservar la esencia del poema pero lo han hecho de
una forma mucho más accesible al público moderno y de paso han realizado algunos
descubrimientos revolucionarios. Esto debería provocar algún debate académico".

Mientras que trabajaba con los escritores del guión para desarrollar más la historia,
Zemeckis se convirtió en un estudioso del tema hasta tal extremo que si su profesor de
Instituto lo hubiera visto hubiera estado orgulloso de él. "Una vez que me cautivó el
guión, volví a leer el poema, hablé con los eruditos sobre el tema de Beowulf y me metí
de lleno en la leyenda. Muchos de los temas tratados en Beowulf fueron sacados de la
Biblia – el heroico viaje de un hombre, la lucha entre el bien y el mal y el precio de la
gloria. Y como verán, Beowulf es la base de todos nuestros héroes modernos, desde
Conan hasta Superman y el Increíble Hulk".

"Lo que hace que sea tan atractiva la leyenda de Beowulf es que está inmersa en ese
gran mundo épico, mitológico, de acción y aventuras con monstruos y seductoras,
criaturas que ciertamente han existido, al menos en nuestro subconsciente, desde
tiempos remotos," añade el productor Jack Rapke.

Retrospectivamente, Gaiman y Avary parece que tienen los talentos perfectos para este
proyecto. Gaiman, como se detalla en su biografía, "… aparece en el Dictionary of
Literacy Biography como uno de los diez escritores post-modernos vivos más
importantes y es un prolífico creador de prosa, poesía, películas, periodismo, historietas
cómicas, letras de canciones y obras de teatro". En particular, Gaiman es adorado por los
fans de sus libros de historietas cómicas por su serie cómica DC Sandman, por la que
obtuvo nueve premios de la Industria de Historietas Cómicas Will Eisner y tres premios
Harvey; Sandman #19 obtuvo el Galardón World Fantasy en 1991 por el mejor relato
corto, siendo la primera historieta cómica que ha obtenido un premio literario.

Avary es igualmente famoso por sus sombríos, tensos e innovadores guiones y películas,
incluyendo su guión ganador de un Oscar® para la película "Pulp Fiction," (compartido
con Quentin Tarantino), sus influyentes películas de culto como director, "Killing Zoe",
ganadora del premio de Cannes très spécial, y la adaptación de la novela de Bret Easton
Ellis The Rules of Attraction.

Gaiman y Avary empezaron a colaborar en un principio cuando decidieron trabajar juntos

en una versión para la pantalla de Sandman, de Gaiman. Aunque ese proyecto nunca
llegó a buen término, ambos reconocieron que eran almas gemelas. Sin embargo, la
adaptación del poema Beowulf para la pantalla resultó ser un viaje largo, extraño y al
final gratificante para Gaiman and Avary.

"Roger y yo congeniamos durante el proyecto de Sandman. Me gustó mucho Roger y la

forma en la que trabajaba su mente," dice Gaiman. "En un determinado momento, Roger
me dijo que él siempre había querido convertir Beowulf en una película, pero que nunca
había podido encontrar una forma de enlazar los dos primeros actos con el tercero
porque su estructura empieza con la lucha de Beowulf, sigue con la lucha de la madre de
Grendel y luego avanza 50 años cuando Beowulf lucha con el dragón. Esta no es la
estructura normal de tres actos de los guiones de cine. Yo sugerí varias formas que
podrían funcionar. Hubo una pausa y Roger dijo: ‘¿Cuándo estás libre?’"

Básicamente, Neil vino con la clave fundamental de una teoría de campo unificada de
Beowulf, en la que yo había estado trabajando durante una década." dice Avary. "El
poema me ha parecido siempre inconexo, deshilvanado y, en particular, Beowulf nunca
me pareció que era el más fidedigno de los narradores. Por ejemplo, Grendel nunca
ataca a Hrothgar; solamente le atormenta. ¿Por qué? Esto hizo que me plantease la
siguiente sencilla pregunta que por algún motivo nadie se había planteado antes: ¿quién
es el padre de Grendel? Esto realmente me intrigaba. Todo el comportamiento de
Grendel empezó a tener sentido al examinarlo bajo esta perspectiva. Posteriormente,
Beowulf arranca el brazo de Grendel y Grendel sale de su cueva para morir. Después de
la represalia de la madre de Grendel, Beowulf entra en la cueva, aparentemente para
matar a la madre de Grendel. Y sin embargo sale de la cueva con la cabeza de Grendel,
no con la cabeza de la madre, lo cual es realmente desconcertante. Beowulf dice que ha
matado a la madre de Grendel, pero es sólo lo que dice. ¿Dónde está la prueba de que
ha matado a la madre? Me pareció obvio el hecho de que Beowulf había caído en las
mismas tentaciones en las que yo supuse que había caído Hrothgar – las tentaciones de
una sirena. Había hecho un pacto con un demonio".

"Luego, en la segunda mitad del poema," continúa Avary, "después de que Beowulf se
haya convertido en rey, un dragón le ataca a él y a su reino. No me explico cómo puede
encajar esto en el relato. Le expuse a Neil mis teorías, cuando a él se le ocurrió la
sorprendente idea de que el dragón podría ser el hijo de Beowulf – su pecado se le
vuelve contra él y le atormenta. Repentinamente, las dos mitades de la historia épica de
Beowulf, que siempre habían parecido inconexas, encajan y cobran perfectamente
sentido. Si hubiera sido una serpiente me hubiera mordido. Es muy posible que estos
elementos de la estructura se hayan perdido a través de cientos de años de transmisión
verbal, y que además hayan sido diluidos por los monjes cristianos, quienes añadieron
elementos del cristianismo cuando lo transcribieron al pergamino que conocemos ahora
con el nombre de MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv.".

Gaiman y Avary no son los primeros en darse cuenta de la deshilvanada que es la

estructura del poema original. David Wright menciona en la edición de Penguin Classics
de Beowulf que "… los primeros críticos y comentaristas de Beowulf y muchos otros
críticos posteriores han sido sarcásticos sobre lo deshilvanado que es su argumento.
Porque el poema es también una especie de batiburrillo, lleno de fragmentos de la
historia de tribus escandinavas y rebosante de referencias desordenadas a
acontecimientos y leyendas aparentemente irrelevantes." Wright observa también que
J.R.R. Tolkien, creador de El Señor de los Anillos, apreció la fuerza del poema. En su
famoso ensayo, Beowulf: The Monsters and Critics, Tolkien observó, entre otras cosas,
que, aún cuando Beowulf es un superhéroe en toda regla, es, al fin y al cabo humano, y
sus características también humanas contribuyen a su caída. "Es un hombre y esto para él
y para muchos es ya una tragedia." Zemeckis vio al héroe de forma similar. "Nuestro
Beowulf es un poco más imperfecto, más un héroe humano que un dios. No es un
personaje de Thor. Es realmente una persona que tiene muchos defectos, siendo el
orgullo desmedido el principal de ellos."

..................................

Beowulf (2007 film)

Beowulf is a 2007 American performance capture fantasy film that is based on the
Anglo-Saxon English epic poem of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the
film was created through a motion capture process similar to the technique used in The
Polar Express and Monster House. The cast includes Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins,
Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman
and Angelina Jolie. It was released in the United Kingdom and United States on
November 16, 2007 and was available to view in IMAX 3D, RealD, Dolby 3D and
standard 2D format.

Plot
Set in Denmark in the 6th century, the film opens with King Hrothgar celebrating the
construction of his mead hall, Heorot. However, the noise disturbs and enrages the
monstrous creature Grendel, who attacks the mead hall and slaughters nearly all of the
people there. He retreats to his mother's cave when Hrothgar challenges him to fight. His
mother, a water-demon, takes interest in Hrothgar's presence. Hrothgar has the mead hall
sealed and offers half of the gold in his kingdom for a hero to kill Grendel. Beowulf and
his group of Geats arrive by ship, and Beowulf agrees to slay Grendel. The Geats bed
down in the mead hall when challenged by Unferth, Hrothgar's skeptical advisor. Their
singing attracts Grendel, and Beowulf mortally wounds him in unarmed combat by
breaking his left arm off. Grendel crawls back to his cave and later dies under his
mother's caresses.
Grendel's vengeful mother kills all the rest of the Geats except Beowulf and his friend
Wiglaf. Hrothgar reveals that Grendel's mother killed the men, and Beowulf decides to
kill her too when Hrothgar says that she is the last of demonkind. Hrothgar does not
reveal where Grendel's father is but offers the curious opinion that he poses no threat to
them.
Beowulf and Wiglaf go to the cave where Grendel's mother lives, but only Beowulf
ventures in, armed with the sword Hrunting and a golden horn shaped like a dragon.
Grendel's mother appears as a golden naked woman and seduces Beowulf into giving her
a son who will become legendary in later years. Beowulf returns to Heorot with Grendel's
severed head which is unceremoniously tossed into the ocean. He then dissembles about
killing Grendel's mother and losing Hrunting and the horn to her. When Hrothgar
privately confronts Beowulf he lets slip with the truth. Hrothgar then reveals that he was
Grendel's father. Thus freed from the curse of Grendel's mother Hrothgar implies that the
burden is now Beowulf's to bear. He informs his people that Beowulf will become king
upon his retirement and promptly plunges to his death.
Years later an aging Beowulf shares his bed with a young mistress named Ursula while
queen Wealtheow suffers quietly. A dragon suddenly appears and burns down a nearby
village, leaving Unferth as the only survivor and carrying the message of "the sins of the
fathers". The horn Beowulf gave to Grendel's mother is also found by Unferth's servant
Cain. Beowulf realizes that the dragon is in fact his own son and ventures forth to kill
both him and his demon mother. The dragon attacks Heorot and attempts to kill
Wealtheow and Ursula. Beowulf stabs the dragon in the chest, draining its ability to
breathe fire, and then he literally rips its heart out. Beowulf and the dragon fall from a
great height onto the beach far below. The dragon's form dissolves away into a hairless,
golden, physically perfect man resembling Beowulf before his body washes away.
Beowulf tells Wiglaf the truth before dying.
Beowulf is given a Norse funeral but Wiglaf, now king, finds the horn and sees Grendel's
mother embrace Beowulf's body and disappear beneath the ocean before rising up again
with an expectant smile on her face and Wiglaf standing in the water looking at her.

Differences from the poem

"It occurred to me that Grendel has always been described as the son of Cain, meaning half-
man, half-demon, but his mother was always said to be full demon. So who's the father? It must
be Hrothgar, and if Grendel is dragging men back to the cave then it must be for the mother, so
that she can attempt to sire another of demonkind."
— Roger Avary
One objective of Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary was to offer their own interpretation for
motivations behind Grendel's behavior as well as for what happened when Beowulf was
in the cave of Grendel's mother. They justified these choices by arguing that Beowulf acts
as an unreliable narrator in the portion of the poem in which he describes his battle with
Grendel's mother. These choices also helped them to better connect the third act to the
second of their screenplay, which is divided in the poem by a 50-year gap.
Some of the changes made by the film as noted by scholars include:

• the portrayal of Beowulf as a flawed man

• the portrayal of Hrothgar as a womanizing alcoholic

• the portrayal of Unferth as a Christian

• Beowulf's funeral

• the portrayal of Grendel's mother as a beautiful seductress who brought Grendel

as Hrothgar's child and the dragon as Beowulf's child

• the fact that Beowulf becomes ruler of Denmark instead of his native Geatland
Scholars and authors have also commented on these changes. Southern Methodist
University's Director of Medieval Studies Bonnie Wheeler is "convinced that the new
Robert Zemeckis movie treatment sacrifices the power of the original for a plot line that
propels Beowulf into seduction by Angelina Jolie—the mother of the monster he has just
slain. What man doesn’t get involved with Angelina Jolie?' Wheeler asks. 'It’s a great
cop-out on a great poem.' ... 'For me, the sad thing is the movie returns to…a view of the
horror of woman, the monstrous female who will kill off the male,' Wheeler says. 'It
seems to me you could do so much better now. And the story of Beowulf is so much more
powerful.'" Other commentators pointed to the theories elucidated in John Grigsby's work
Beowulf and Grendel, where Grendel's mother was linked with the ancient Germanic
fertility goddess Nerthus.
In addition, philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma argues that "Zemeckis's more tender-
minded film version suggests that the people who cast out Grendel are the real monsters.
The monster, according to this charity paradigm, is just misunderstood rather than evil
(similar to the version presented in John Gardner's novel Grendel). The blame for
Grendel's violence is shifted to the humans, who sinned against him earlier and brought
the vengeance upon themselves. The only real monsters, in this tradition, are pride and
prejudice. In the film, Grendel is even visually altered after his injury to look like an
innocent, albeit scaly, little child. In the original Beowulf, the monsters are outcasts
because they're bad (just as Cain, their progenitor, was outcast because he killed his
brother), but in the film Beowulf the monsters are bad because they're outcasts [...]
Contrary to the original Beowulf, the new film wants us to understand and humanize our
monsters."