Product: Beowulf (1999)
Rating: 1.0
The profanation of Beowulf
After reading Beowulf I was curious how this great epic could be translated into other genres. Part of what makes the poem great is its language. It's chant-like use of alliteration, caesura and compound wording makes it beautifully nuanced reading. Moreover, the story itself has all the essential parts and themes to keep the reader intrigued. The film adaptation, however, had none of this.I was very disappointed to find that besides ignoring all of the above, the movie created such ludicrous plot twists as a weakly contrived love interest and far fetched psychological melodrama. To treat this fundamentally christian-pagan poem this way is near sacrilige.