Hollywood And Beowulf Comparison

One of the earliest and greatest works to ever be written in Old English literature is the great tale of Beowulf. This poem has been re written and re told is several different ways thought out the ages and has been portrayed in many different forms. The newest adaptation of the telling has been done by Hollywood in movie form titled Beowulf (2007 film) and even though they have their small similarities they are very different from one another. This goes to show how Hollywood takes a great piece of work and changes it to fit their view of how it should be told so that way they can make a quick buck, even if it changes the story from what it was meant to be. To start off with, both the original work and the film have many similarities that make the stories reach out to the audience and pulls them in a tale of epic bravery and battles that are fought between man and monsters. Both

The poem goes on to tell the tale of Beowulf fully armored doing battle with her in the cave where Grendel died. The battle goes on with Beowulf killing the mother with an enchanted giant sword and then taking Grendel’s head back for proof of his deeds and he goes home to Geatland to become king. The movie on the other hand shows Beowulf entering the cave without armor on and him confronting a beautiful creature that is Grendel’s mother. Then without fighting her he makes a deal to give her a son to replace the one she lost and she would let him have the kingdom he is protecting. (Zemeckis, 2007) He then takes Grendel’s head back to the kingdom and tells them all he slayed the mother in the cave. The story jumps on for Beowulf 50 years later to where he is an old king and faces off against a dragon that kills him. The movie also has this but like stated before Hollywood adds their flare to it. The dragon in the movie is Beowulf’s son from when he laid with Grendel’s mother 50 years