Feel free to discuss film or book on it's own merits. You could also discuss how it relates to Castle Rock or the King-o-verse.
Next week: The Dark Half
Some background: Beowulf the epic poem is an over 1,000 year old text, and is one of the oldest surviving texts in English. Old English, the language of the poem, is a different language than modern English (imagine if English didn’t have any Latin based words and had grammar more similar to modern German except with even more complicated case endings). It’s set in a pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon (edit: Germanic) kingdom, although at the time it was written, the unknown author would have been a Christian and writing about peole who existed around a couple hundred years before she/he lived.
Recently, I read an article about The 13th Warrior on The Mary Sue. Here. I was inspired to watch the film as well.
The gist of it is that The 13th warrior is based on the Michael Chriton novel Eaters of The Dead. To quote the article “The 1976 book was based on two sources, one being Beowulf, and the other being the very real story of Ahmad Ibn Fahdlan, an Arab explorer whose journey to Viking lands in the 10th century is one of the best primary sources about Viking culture of the age.”
There are many interesting things about the film although it was panned by critics, i.e. the Arab, overtly Muslim character, Ahmad (Antonio Banderas) being the “civilized” one while the European vikings are ones with strange customs. There’s also no female characters in overtly sexy outfits or scenes, and also female characters given important roles without feeling forced or shoe-horned, which is nice. I also agree with the article that the film is currently the best film adaptation of Beowulf. I would go a step further and compare it to the 2007 film.
In the original poem Beowulf, a visiting warrior helps a king defeat a monster killing people in the night (Grendel). After Grendel’s mother (another monster?) kills people in revenge, Beowulf finds her secret underwater lair and kills her. He becomes king, rules for a long time, and then a greedy dragon attacks. Beowulf kills the dragon even though many of his men abandon him, but he dies shortly after, leaving no heirs.
In 13th Warrior, the monsters are represented by an attacking rival kingdom or tribe of cannibals, but the the film includes the main beats of the poem and the battles, generally. Ahmad, the Arab is the main character, but Beowulf is the hero.
The 2007 film sticks closer to the plot in that the monsters are actual monsters, there is no Arab added, a
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Cool film, but I feel like it would have made a better book. I saw references to lucifer "the bringer of light", and the hanging man but the scenes with symbolism go by to fast to really examine them. Anyone know what the director was trying to portray.
For those who haven't seen it, it's on Netflix now.
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