And then like an airhead, I thought, oh duh, Anglo-Saxon languages, cultures, and naming conventions are what informed so much of Tolkien's Middle Earth languages, cultures, and naming conventions. It is therefore time to bust out my Seamus Heaney translation. I am thinking on Tolkien's complaint or lament that the British Isles were without their own mythologies; wouldn't these old Anglo-Saxon stories count? Or perhaps I not remembering correctly what Tolkien had said. Or perhaps Tolkien's complaint was that these stories came from elsewhere, and that they were not "indigenous" to the British Isles.
Anyway, as I've said, it's time to bust out my Seamus Heaney.
But back to IMAX 3D Beowulf. Those theatre 3D glasses do not fit well on Filipino noses, especially if said Filipino is also wearing eyeglasses. Also, I think this movie was made simply because it could be made, technologically speaking. Also, I think there's no reason to see this movie in anything but IMAX 3D. You miss the gratuitousness entirely otherwise.
Still, I will try to say something thoughtful about story and storytelling, not about the epic Beowulf really, but what it is that Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary have conveyed to me about story, for I think this might be the only thing of value I have gathered from this film.
Clearly, story is highly valued by the characters in the film, for being a culture of oral tradition. The telling of story is occasion for gathering, for performing community memory. Story is what buffers Beowulf's hero status and reputation. I think this is why he seems invincible, not simply because he's made some kind of deal with Grendel's mother (Does she not have a name? And why does she wear stiletto high heels?), and not simply because no one has succeeded in killing him, but because even if someone did kill him, the hero stories would live on. It seems that being left out of the stories the people will tell, and the songs they will sing, is a worse fate than dying. Ah, and see, this reminds me of the Klingons.
And so it was those moments in the film that were the most interesting to me; Beowulf retelling the story of the sea monsters he encountered during a swim race that he lost, actors performing Beowulf's killing of Grendel while a narrator tells the story, even the songs of the queen as she played her harp, or the bawdy songs of Beowulf's men. Now somehow, the introduction and spread of Christianity does away with these traditions. Perhaps this is because Christianity does away with the people's healthy fear of the sea and the mysterious, monstrous, or supernatural elements it is said to contain. Figures like Grendel's mother are stripped of her significance as this entity or even deity with whom the king must contend. It seems his encountering her is part of his kingship. It's as if what he decides to do with that encounter is what determines or reveals what kind of a king he is or becomes.
So there's that. Really, the rest of the movie is high tech sexy eye candy. Beowulf fighting Grendel naked.,while Beowulf's crotch always conveniently blocked from our view. King Hrothgar's drunken bare ass. Even CGI'ed, Anthony Hopkins' bare ass isn't on the top of my list of viewing priorities. I really don't need to say much more about Grendel's mother, except that when all we know of her is her voice, when all we see of her is a tentacled tendril, before her golden Barbie Doll stilettoed body ever emerges onto the screen, is when I think she's most effective, banshee wailing as she lays her dead son's grotesque body to rest.
