Hollywood and Literature: Beowulf

For homework, visit the following links:


NY Times Film Review (2007) by Manohla Dargis

NY Times Mulitmedia - Check out the Video and Commentary

Roger Ebert's Review

USA Today's Review by Claudia Puig


Suggested Reading:

Transcript of the film

Article: "Beowulf: Tenuous Relationship between Movie and Poem"








Watch these clips:

If we are going to watch the film...we will be astute, articulate critics!

For Friday, you will submit your own 3-4 page film review. 

You must make mention of at least 2 other reviews: in essence, compare and contrast the film reviews to inform your own point of view on the film.

Feel free to research other reviews. Helpful article from Duke on writing about film.

A works cited of reviews will be required (More info regarding this requirement - talk more soon).

Here are some hints to the quiz Wednesday:

1. Manohla Dargis references Steve Reeves in his NY Times article:

Who said the following:

2. "We are not looking at flesh-and-blood actors but special effects that look uncannily convincing, even though I am reasonably certain that Angelina Jolie does not have spike-heeled feet. That's right: feet, not shoes."

3. "Perhaps this breathtaking spectacle will inspire kids to read the original epic poem (or the 2000 version translated by Seamus Heaney). Maybe it will just pack them into theaters. Either way, having Beowulf become a household name can certainly do no harm."

4. "Ms. Jolie plays the bad girl in “Beowulf,” a wicked demon, the mother of all monsters — here, Grendel, played by Crispin Glover — who can switch from hag to fab in the wink of a serpentine eye. If you don’t remember this evil babe from the poem, it’s because she’s almost entirely the invention of the screenwriters Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman and the director Robert Zemeckis, "