Beowulf & Grendel Blu-ray features mediocre video and great audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
"Beowulf & Grendel" is the harrowing fantasy adventure tale of a Norse warrior hero pitted
against the monstrous murderous troll, Grendel. The story of soldier prince Beowulf stars
Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, Sarah Polley and Tony Curran. The film is directed by Sturla
Gunnarsson.
I cannot remember the last time I was this surprised by a film. When I learned I would be
reviewing this, I was excited as it was something I had never seen before, and I went into it with no
expectations whatsoever. This is a film that has flown completely under the radar and I knew next
to nothing about it, except that it was headed to Blu-ray at some point this month. I started
playing the disc and an hour and forty-four minutes later, I sat on my couch in wonderment of
what I had just witnessed. I knew I had just witnessed a very, very good film once the credits
began to roll, but the more I let the film sink in, the more I thought about it, and the more it delved
into my consciousness, my fondness for the film grew and grew. As I write this review, the film
still fresh in my mind, I am still awestruck at just how good it was.
Beowulf hunts Grendel
Based on the epic poem Beowulf, Beowulf and Grendel is a re-telling of part of
the
tale. As the film opens, the child Grendel (Hringur Ingvarsson in a brief but touching role) and his
father, both trolls, are hunted down by the king of the
Danes, Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård), and he murders Grendel's father in cold blood. He leaves
Grendel be, planting a seed of hatred deep inside the young troll who will grow into a powerful
beast (played by Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) and will exact revenge by entering the king's house and
slaughtering all in it. Hrothgar is not a
victim, and as word spreads of the king's plight, the great hero of Geatland Beowulf (Gerard
Butler) arrives to
slay the troll and put an end to its attacks on the king's home.
Simply put, this is an amazing movie. Once the characters are fleshed out, the fine line between
good and evil is not only blurred but it is wiped away. Who is the hero in this film? Who is the
villain? As the movie progressed, I changed my mind more than once. Beowulf is the obvious
choice for hero and Grendel the obvious choice for villain, but only when we truly understand
these characters rather than simply judging them based on their actions do we come to realize
that our preconceived notions about them were wrong. Grendel may be a horrific looking troll
who
slaughters dozens in grotesque ways and even plays an early form of bowling with the heads of
his victims, but after the death of his father, he had no male role model to look up to. Likely the
only memory of his childhood, the death of his father represents the single driving force in his life.
He has no one to teach him right or wrong. We learn
of his mother later in the film, a character equally deprived of humanity and exiled based solely
on external criteria. We come to realize that Grendel's heart is pure and his motives true. He
certainly has a moral compass, as odd as that may seem; he harms only those whom he
perceives have harmed him. He struggles with following that compass throughout the film,
seemingly knowing that there is a better life out there, but he has no idea what to do to escape
the
harsh reality and sadness that is his life. Hrothgar, on the other hand, murdered Grendel's father
almost as sport;
Hrothgar claims he stole a fish from him. So, I ask again, who is the real villain here?
Almost everything about this film is phenomenal. The score is mesmerizing. The direction is
solid, and the cinematography is simply beautiful. The acting is superb, especially that of Ingvar
E. Sigurdsson. His portrayal of Grendel is one of the great performances I have ever witnessed.
He conveys the dichotomy that tears Grendel apart inside perfectly. Grendel is both a vicious
killer obsessed with avenging his father's murder and a sad and lonely outcast who hungers for
acceptance and understanding. Though he rarely speaks in an intelligible dialect, Sigurdsson
manages to convey the raw emotions constantly at odds inside the troll perfectly. I couldn't help
but like and feel for the character by the end of the movie despite him being a murderer. The
last
character I remember feeling
this
strongly about in a movie was Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of Karl Childers in Sling
Blade. Both Childers and Grendel have quite a bit in common and the connection comes as
no surprise. Butler and Skarsgård are both wonderful
in their roles as well. The only weak point in the movie for me was the acting of Sarah Polley
who plays Selma, a local fortune teller with a dark secret. She brought no attempt at an accent
(even though she is supposedly an outsider) to cover her obvious North American accent. It's a
minor quibble, but it bothered me just enough to mention. Otherwise this is a brilliant work of
art. It is also worth mentioning that director Sturla Gunnarsson and screenwriter Andrew Rai
Berzins
took a few liberties with the original story, adding much more depth to the Grendel character. In
the poem, Grendel is evil incarnate, slaughtering for no reason and immune to forged weapons.
Here, he is given a personality and a back story that flesh out the character, and the result is a
sympathetic character that connects with the audience by the end of the movie. The film
grossed
under $70,000 domestically at the box office as a limited release. I
sincerely hope this film finds an audience on Blu-ray. I found it to be a masterpiece of modern
cinema as a tale of love, revenge, redemption, and understanding.
This was a highly puzzling and annoying transfer, unfortunately. Presented in 1080p and in its
original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, Beowulf and Grendel is a mess visually. It looks
great at times--colors, especially reds, are very vibrant. Sadly, the disc is plagued with nagging
problems. The image is very soft from the get-go, especially on longer distance shots. Rolling hills
look
more like green globs than anything else. At one point, there is an odd jump in the tint of the
entire image of the film. Perhaps a fade was supposed to be there, but something was definitely
wrong. Foggy scenes, especially one in particular, look downright dreadful. There is an exorbitant
amount of noise present in one such scene, and it's perhaps the worst moment I have
seen on a Blu-ray disc. Blacks are a little bright at times and cause the picture to look washed out.
Haloing is an issue here and there. The image is rather flat throughout. Even when it looks good
(and that is quite often) it doesn't jump off the screen. Overall this is a decent transfer with more
than
a fair share of problems. The bottom line is that for the majority of the runtime this is a nice
looking transfer, but when problems arise it can look pretty bad.
Fortunately, Beowulf and Grendel fares much, much better in the audio department. Starz
has included both Dolby Digital 5.1 and 5.1 PCM uncompressed audio
tracks. This
film has a powerful yet beautiful score. It is subdued and almost angelic sounding and it is a perfect
match for this film. The film was nominated for a Genie award for the score, and it is worthy
of such recognition. This is a mostly front heavy track. Dialogue can be slightly muddled at times,
and the thick
accents of most of the actors doesn't help clear things up. The track is appropriately loud when it
needs to be without distortion. Bass will vibrate in your seat. There was nothing spectacular about
this track, but there was nothing noticeably wrong with it either. It's a solid, loud, and often
spellbinding audio track that makes the film that much better.
Unfortunately, this disc is pretty short on supplements. The main attraction is a commentary
with
director Sturla Gunnarsson, screenwriter Andrew Rai Berzins, first assistant director Wendy Ord,
and costume designer Debra Hanson. This is one of the more interesting tracks I have listened to
recently (it always helps when you love the film) and it is obvious that the crew members
enjoyed
the experience. They provide an in-depth background on the difficulties in filming in Iceland due
to
cold and uncooperative weather. They even discuss a blessing placed on the film beforehand and
how it seemingly turned into a curse. Dressing and grooming the actors appropriately, complete
with unique hair extensions and scars, is discussed. Interestingly, there were no CGI effects in
this
film. Colorful language is heavy in this film that was not present in the original story. The
filmmakers have received a lot of criticism for this, but they claim that such words are based on
old Norse dialect and they are "as old as we can make it." The story of Beowulf as we know it
today was
likely written down by a monk (though the original author of the poem is unknown), and
the filmmakers contend that such an individual would have left such colorful dialogue out of the
final story.
The only other special features are a 480p storyboard comparison that runs just under three
minutes, a 1080p trailer for Beowulf and Grendel and 480p trailers for Macbeth
and The Other Conquest.
Wow. I'm in awe of not only how great this movie was, but also about how I feel after watching
it.
I'll
be re-watching this again very soon. I knew I liked it after finishing it, but the longer it sunk in,
the
more I can't help but to be drawn closer to it. It's a powerful, touching tale that delves deep into
the human psyche and engenders in its viewers the ultimate message to never accept anything
based on face value alone. Yes, Grendel is a monster that cannot be allowed to continue to
murder but we, along with Beowulf, soon realize he is a misguided man with a good heart that
operates on instinct alone. Never accepted for what he is, he has nowhere to turn but inside his
own heart to determine what course his life will follow.
This is a film that moves along at just the right pace to draw us in deeper into the story. It's a
deep film that will undoubtedly leave you thinking about it long after the credits roll.
Unfortunately, the video quality is subpar as are the list of supplements. Please don't let the
negatives of the image quality sway you from buying this disc. The
problems are there, but they do not plague the entire runtime of the film. Even when they are
present,
the film is still watchable, and the disc sounds just fine. Based on the strength of the movie
alone, I'm recommending this Blu-ray. Highly.
