Beowulf the Humble

First of all, I didn't think that the movie was half bad. There were some changes that I thought could have been excluded, but I'll explain that later in this post... Anyways, there were definitely some changes in Beowulf and Grendel that hadn't appeared in the text. For example, the movie makers had really played to religion, and showed the religious conflicts between the Celts and Christianity. I thought it was clever how they had played the parts, and how the two seemed to conflict each other. Also, I thought it was interesting that each person had gotten to choose their own path to choose, and that Beowulf had gone against what everyone else was doing, and had gone to the Celtic witch more than he had talked with the Christian monk. Another change that I thought was interesting, that I hadn't thought matched the Beowulf we had learned about first, was that they had given Beowulf more of a conscience. He had been more susceptible to his own feelings and actually acted on them instead of doing what he wanted to gain pride and fame. He wasn't as invincible and all-powerful as the text had made him seem, and he actually had tired out after a while instead of being able to go for days without stopping. I thought that it really appealed to audiences today, as it showed that he had a weakness and that he actually cared about others, like the Celtic witch. Beowulf had also felt sorry for Grendel, as he had built a grave as a remembrance. In the text, he had never done anything of the sort, and he had felt no remorse for killing Grendel. I think that these changes were effective for audiences now, but for similarity and originality with the text, I don't think the movie had done as well. I think that I actually preferred the text over the movie, but that the changes were good things for today's society, and the audience that the movie makers were trying to appeal to.