I was frustrated by the stereotypically sexist depiction of the female characters in the movie. I don't insist that the women grab swords and fight. But all the women in Zemeckis' Beowulf are either helpless, useless sex objects or omnipotent, demonic sex objects. At the movie's opening, Queen Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn) can't even walk out of the mead hall to intervene in a sexual assault taking place right outside the door, because her skirt gets caught on the furniture. By the end of the movie, Wealthow silently tolerates her husband's mistresses and spends the climactic battle scene cowering on an overpass and ducking. In one scene an offensive raunchy ditty is sung. Deliberately or not, the film's depiction of females is underscored by their appearance. While all the men's faces are roughened and grizzled with impressive attention to fine detail, the women's skin is as flawless and waxy as a clothes mannequin's, and doesn't look lifelike. Grendel's Mother (Angelina Jolie) is naked, but as smooth and sexless as a Barbie doll, and even though she's a water demon, she wears four-inch spike heels.
I am not going to quibble about period detail in an animated fantasy movie, other than to say that the historical authenticity, especially in clothing, leaves much to be desired. But one anachronism seriously detracts from the storyline. Hrothgar's massive castle, which reminded me of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with its towers and overpass and sheer drops for hundreds of feet, makes the wood-hewn mead hall completely superfluous. Why would a barn like the mead hall have had any significance next to a towering stone keep?
There is some animation that left me gasping, such as a long pull-back sequence that begins when an owl snatches a rat off a beam inside the mead hall, and pulls back mile after mile from the mead hall exterior to Grendel's cave, showing us a vast empty winter landscape. The fires are also done extremely well, including when they magically turn blue. One more time: visually, Beowulf is breathtaking and a stunning special effects achievement. It definitely pushes the CGI envelope. If that's all you need in a movie, you'll probably like this one. But if you want a film to have strong characters, complex relationships, good dialogue, and dilemmas that leave you thinking, Beowulf isn't the movie for you.
Article comments
1 - Jennifer Linforth
I had been pondering this movie given the hype about its use of CGI. Sounds like the movie was created more for the awe of special effects. I prefer a classic done the old fashion way--and with good plot structure and character development.
Excellent review. I liked the details you picked out. The depiction of women for example and historical authenticity. Historical details are a must for me. I was planning on passing on seeing this film to begin with. I definitely will do so now.
2 - Kevin Kohout
Good movie. Stereotypical of women being helpless in these types of movies is just describing a part of nature.
3 - Kevin Kohout
I still like this movie.
4 - Vyrdolak
Oh, there were things about the movie that I liked, too, Kevin. I thought the script could have been stronger, so I was disappointed by that. And even the SFX would have been better if they hadn't been so obviously angled to exploit the 3-D gimmick (how will that translate to the DVD, I wonder?). Certainly, the CGI visuals were *amazing.* But I like a movie that makes me think, too.
As far as weak women being "natural"--ask your mother what she thinks of that point of view, Kevin! Given that women raise all the kids--if it was "natural" for them to be *that* helpless, the human species would have been extinct before discovery of fire!
5 - patrick
watched Beowulf recently, i appreciate the fact that it gives me at least a pseudo-education in ancient literature (i was never forced to read Beowulf as a kid)