from Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Angelina Jolie made waves in the 1990s when she bared all in multiple films, a trend that carried over into her early years and the peak of her popularity. None of these scenes are as strange and inexplicable as the time she plays Grendel’s mother Beowulf.
Jolie admitted that it wasn’t until she was sitting in the theater watching the film that she realized that the heroine would not be a scaly lizard monster, but instead would look exactly like her. It’s the strangest choice director Robert Zemeckis has made in a strange movie that would never be made today. It’s so unique that if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your time.
A revival of the classic poem
Beowulf adapts the classic Old English poem that most people know from their high school English classes, and it inherently doesn’t lend itself well to the structure of a major Hollywood film. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery wrote the script over 10 years, intending it to be dark and brutal. This is appropriate as Avery works on Criminal with Quentin Tarantino. When Zemeckis took over and decided to make an animated film instead, he instructed the two to “go wild” and write scenes that would cost a million dollars a minute in live action.
The move to use advanced motion capture and rotation Beowulf in a live-action animated film brought with it a budget increase from an estimated $25 million to $150 million ($228 million adjusted for today’s inflation). Unlike some movies where you can’t believe so much was spent, the shockingly realistic versions of the cast show exactly where the money went.
Angelina Jolie wasn’t the only star stunned by her appearance in the film, as Ray Winstone, who played Beowulf, couldn’t believe how much the character looked like him if he was a 6ft 6in Viking with eight pack abs. Reacher star Alan Ritchson was used as the character’s body model.
Angelina Jolie thought that as Grendel’s mother, she would be more like the classic monster instead of being portrayed as a succubus, but she still loved the role and enjoyed being an evil, powerful woman in a male-dominated society a decade ago hexadecimalt. Grendel brought to life by Crispin Glover, who worked with Robert Zemeckis for the first time since Back to the futureit looks like a giant clumsy corpse. The battle between Beowulf and Grendel is far more exciting on screen than it ever was when read aloud by bored sophomores, and it’s still the most brutal fight Zemeckis has ever filmed.
The studios would never make Beowulf today
Beowulf took advantage of perfect timing, arriving just as 3D was taking off in theaters and studios were willing to take a risk. “Weird” is one way to describe the film, but “experimental” is another, as Zemeckis took a huge swing with this film, and luckily, it worked out in the end.
The film grossed $196 million at the box office, but ultimately became profitable thanks to the DVD release. It has become a cult classic over the years and still receives praise for its high-quality animation work that holds up even decades later.
We’re now in an era where Hollywood studios are risk-averse, and it seems that nothing but remakes, established franchises, and superhero movies get huge budgets, making Beowulf a delightful breath of fresh air when filmmakers could be as creative as they wanted. If you’ve never seen Beowulfor it’s been a while and you forgot how groundbreaking it was, it’s available to stream on Max today.
