Beowulf: Epic Tale of Heroes, Monsters, and Moral Ambiguity

Beowulf is a movie that gets from the English poem which wrote in vernacular around the 10th century. It is derived from ancient oral stories. Typically, the content of the movie is how the hero fight against the monsters. Firstly, I will describe the characters, secondly, I will give a plot summary, thirdly how I like and dislike the movie, and lastly, I will provide the conclusion.

There are two main characters in the movie such as Grendel, Beowulf, and 3 supporting characters: Grendel’s mother, WealhthBeow and Hrothgar.

First, Grendel is recognized as a monstrous creature who is very aggressive and he kills people to drink their blood. He attacks people when he hears the loud sound because he is having hyper-sensitive hearing from an eardrum. His appearance is shaped similar to a human, but he has indestructible skin and thick claws. Grendel has messy genetic conformation which leads him to chaos and bloodthirsty, however, Grendel loves his mother so much and he tolerated his father as well.

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In the movie Grendel speak in Olde English when he speaks to his mother. Second, Beowulf is the other main character who represents the super-powerful hero. He is a prideful, boastful, and deeds of a legendary hero. Typically, Beowulf is honest, loyal, hard-working, and good looking as well. Beowulf comes to Danmark to kill a horrible monster named Grendel for King Hrothgar. Beowulf is born with no fear, and be proud to die in every battle against the monsters. Third, Grendel’s mother is not a human, and she is extremely durables her son.

After Grendel dead, Grendel’s mother attacks the place which seeking revenge for her son. She lives in a lake that represents some sort of water creature. Forth, Wealhtheow is a queen of the Danes, and she is married to Hroogar who is the Danish king. Lastly, Hrothgar is the king of the Danes who asking Beowulf for help when he is no longer able to defend his people against the monster named Grendel.

Hrothgar is the king of Denmark who is pleasure in a prosperous and successful region. During his kingdom, he builds a place in a mead-hall for his warriors can gather to drink called Heorot. Sadly, one night the noise from the party angers Grendel. Grendel comes out of his cave terrorizes the Danes, killing people and drinking their blood. The Hrothgar people face fear, danger, and death at the hands of Grendel. Fortunately, the greatest warrior names Beowulf hears about the news of the monster in Danes, he sails to Denmark with his man to defeat Grendel. King Hrothgar agree with Beowulf to fight against Grendel. During the same night, Grendel hears the sound of cheering in Danes, he comes out a second time to kill the people. Beowulf does not wait any longer, he fights with Grendel unarmed which gives him stronger power than the monster. After a while, Grendel is unable to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off. Grendel runs back to his places and dies there. The arm of Grendel is hung high in the mead-hall to display Beowulf’s victory. King Hrothgar gives Beowulf a gift and songs are sung in praise of Beowulf. However, things are not yet ending because Grendel’s mother is extremely upset about the death of her son, and she returns to Heorot seeking revenge. She did kill one of the most Hrothgar trusted advisers. Again, Beowulf fights Grendel’s mother underwater, and he kills her with a sword forged. The Danes are truly overjoyed with Beowulf's achievement against the monster because they are now able to live peacefully. Later, Beowulf leaves Danmark and king Hrothgar who has treated him like a son. Beowulf comebacks to Geatland. When Beowulf becomes an old man, there is a dragon begins to destruct the Geatland people. No matter how old he is, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon. He succeeds in killing the dragon, however, Beowulf is also in danger because the dragon bites his neck. Sadly, Beowulf dies after his victory. The greats burn him with a huge treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea.

Beowulf is a pretty interesting movie because it truly related to the real story written over a thousand years ago. This great masterpiece from English Epic is more of wonderful literature that brings culture alive. This movie is pretty good for the student who does not want to read, and it is also easy to understand the Epic poem as well. However, there are several factors that the movie upset the viewer. First, Beowulf is not a great hero at all because while Grendel comes to attack the city the second time, Beowulf watches the monster kill his man first before he is getting into the fight. Second, at the swimming competition, he looks pretty amazing while he fights with the sea monster, but later he lost the competition because he sees the beautiful mermaid and he decided to get busy with her without caring about his competition. Funny enough, he explains his failure to the Danes people, he is using the sea monsters to make up the story. Third, when Beowulf goes to fight again Grendel’s mother, he does not kill her directly, but he has sex with her. Then later Beowulf becomes the dad of the dragon who attacked him fifty years later. The things are Beowulf repeating the same history as king Hrothgar.

In conclusion, Beowulf is an amazing movie with skillful actors. The first part of the movie was spectacular because the appearance of Grendal is very creepy and horrible, and when Beowulf arrives in the land of Denmark, he looks very confident and brave. However, the second part of the story is not worthful to watch, and some parts of the movie do not make sense. Plus, without subtitles, the language that they speak is pretty hard to understand.