| seen Nov 2-13 : Once [6/10]; Beowulf [7/10] |
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| Saturday, 03 November 2007 | |
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Of all the fanciful historical/mythical epics greenlit in the aftermath of Lord of the Rings's semi-unexpected success, Beowulf proves, despite initial unpromising indications, by some way the most satisfying. And in a way this is entirely appropriate, considering it's Tolkien himself we have to thank for the legend of Beowulf being of more than an object of merely linguistic interest. This was the fate of the tale's (very much the "daddy" of all English-language myths, and not just because of the fixation upon father-to-son inheritance) until 1936, when a seminal lecture by Tolkien ("The Myth and the Monster") caused scholars to appreciate and analyse the events of the story itself, and not just the language(s) in which they were related. On the other hand, Tolkien might not be best pleased with how this version has been 'Hollywooded up' by scriptwriters Neil Gaiman (whose Stardust is still in our multiplexes) and Roger Avary, who've exercised a fair degree of creative license along the way, especially in the second, post-Grendel half. He'd also likely have something to say about how director Zemeckis deploys computer-generated 'motion capture' technology throughout - the not-quite-human avatars on screen bearing more than a passing resemblance to bit-part 'players' from the Shrek series (this in stark contrast to the mud-and-merds approach to the material taken by Sturla Gunnarsson in 2004's underexposed Beowulf and Grendel.) But once we've gotten used to this technique (presumably deployed in order to make Grendel 20 feet tall at certain points, and to age the 'actors' by several decades) - and also to the way Zemeckis, mindful that the film will be projected in 3-D in certain venues, keeps hurling stuff right in our faces, it actually works quite well. This is especially the case in the figure of Beowulf himself, a blue-eyed Aryan-superman-type whose Riefenstahlish appearance is rather drolly undercut as by Winstone's Cockney tones (facially the avatar looks more like a young Sean Bean, whose absence from the movie, given his recent filmography, counts as a surprise.) And the film-makers' motivations are, on balance, admirable: they elaborate on the basic Beowulf text in a manner that's dramatically plausible and psychologically rather ambitious, and deserve credit for incorporating (in rather ingenious fashion) several passages in the original's language - a form of Old English - a grace-note of which Tolkien would most definitely approved. This is, nevertheless, very much a Beowulf for the 21st century - a post-modern deconstruction of its own mythology (like 300 and, to a lesser extent, Troy, it's a self-consciously mythical tale about the strength and limitations of mythical tales.) Having rather debunked Beowulf's heroism, however, Gaiman and Avary then proceed to 'rebunk' it in a suitably rousing climax - although the presence of an enormous, firebreathing golden dragon does once again stir unwelcome echoes of Shrek at what should be a breathlessly serious juncture. Then again, that might actually be intentional: as Beowulf and dragon soar through the skies (in a credulity-stretching manner), the score takes on knowingly James Bondish aspect; earlier, the mortal stakes of Beowulf's naked, mano-a-mano encounter with Grendel is undercut by the fact that the camera never quite gets a look at the hero's mighty genitals (various props conveniently obscuring them from view a la Austin Powers); and the spectacular first "appearance" of Angelina Jolie as Grendel's seductively-evil, fluidly-shapeshifting water-demon mother is given an anachronistic tweak by the way her feet taper off into what look distinctly like a pair of ultra-stylish stiletto heels. Turns out the devil really does wear Prada, after all... 13.11.07 Neil Young  NB 1. all films seen in the UK, and all timings approximate, unless stated otherwise 2. timings taken from the BBFC website are rounded to the nearest minute (i.e. 100min 29sec = 100min, but 100min 30sec = 101min) 3. an asterisk [*] in the rating indicates that film is not a feature (i.e. 0-39m = short; 40m-63m = medium-length; 64m+ = feature)
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