My son’s pretty excited about the new Beowulf movie coming out soon. He’s been a fan since reading the myth in high school. You don’t know how good it feels to actually be able to say that my son read something worthwhile by way of literature in high school given some of the other things I’ve seen come home as assigned reading. But, I rant. The movie looks like it will be slick and a feast for the eyes, but I’m hoping that they stick with the story, something Hollywood seems to have difficulty with.
A friend of mine and I have a conversation now and again about “originality†and creativity in stories, books, and films. My contention is that there are only about eight stories in the world and everything is a variation on a theme of one of those or a combination of those. In writing circles these are sometimes know as “master plots.†Like the Preacher said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.†Once you know the master plots you’ll recognize every story in any media. That’s something my youngest son seems able to do keenly. Often, sitting before the t.v. after popping a rented DVD into the player on “movie night†it won’t be fifteen minutes into the film when he’ll insist on announcing where the movie plot is going. It can be annoying sometimes.
Here’s an interesting short article titled, “On Myth,†by historian Marina Warner, in which she states, “Writers don’t make up myths; they take them over and recast them.†I think the same can be said of role—playing video game producers although they display even less imagination than many contemporary writers. But, I rant.
Warner makes mention of Jorge Luis Borges, one of my favorite poets and writers:
Borges liked myth because he believed in the principle of ‘reasoned imagination’: that knowing old stories, and retrieving and reworking them, brought about illumination in a different way from rational inquiry. Myths aren’t lies or delusions: as Hippolyta the Amazon queen responds to Theseus’ disparaging remarks about enchantment: ‘But all the story of the night told o’er, / And all their minds transfigured so together, / More witnesseth than fancy’s images / And grows to something of great constancy’ (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, V.i.24-7).
Here’s hoping we won’t be disappointed by another myth-based film.
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I tried to be open minded on Beowulf. I watched the section on how they produced the film, all the new digital technology and time saving filming techniques. It was fascinating to see what can be done with digital technology, but in the end the film looked like a PS-2 video game. The gamers will like the looks of the film, but will want to interact with it. If the PS-2 version isn’t out yet, it will be.
The writers and producers didn’t stick to the classic story. There were hints here and there, but it was really only an example of digital prowess. If I want digital prowess, Lord of the Rings is a much better mix of 2-D filming and digital. But then, Peter Jackson spent way more time and money on LOTR than the producer of Beowulf.
I was looking for something more and got much, much less.