So I just saw Beowulf and I'm, well, perplexed. I offer up a spoiler-alert for the principle of the matter, but I'm not sure you can really "give away" this movie. Needless to say it's different than the saga, but it does stay true in ways no previous movie has accomplished. However, the ways it deviates--I'm just not sure. I walked out and could only say "huh".

Beowulf has always been a figure more romantic than literary; that is, because of the lack of text offered and the writing styles of 8-900 A.D. England the saga doesn't offer up much in the way of character development. Different movies have approached this different ways with varying degrees of success and sometimes outright failure. Beowulf featuring Christopher Lambert comes to mind as an example of failure; so does Beowulf & Grendel starring Gerard Butler. The 13th Warrior has met with derision, but I still maintain it is one of the better ones. Partly because it maintains the feel of the story, but especially because it provides the emotion I, at least, as a 20th (at the time I read it) century reader felt like should have been there but was inaccessible to me. I imagined that in its day that emotion rolled out of bards' mouths, but when I read it I had to imagine how I would feel if this story was told to me in an easily connectable way. As it was I always enjoyed it, barbarian/warriors are obviously one of my favorite hero archetypes, but for as fantastic of a movie as it made in my head it never seemed to translate well to screen.

This movie approaches Beowulf as the story of a man. A fantastic approach, really, but the screenplay doesn't provide us with much of a man to connect to. In an effort to depict him as heroic but flawed, his heroism is beyond measure, and his flaws are so enormous as to be nearly unforgivable. What the viewer is left with is a polarized man--one half is amazing, the other half is despicable, and nothing much exists in between. Towards the end of the movie an older, and much wiser, Beowulf demonstrates more range of thought and emotion; his character is more easily sympathized with and relatable, and following the last great battle you do find yourself cheering for him, and mourning for him. The end to some degree makes up for the lack of development in the beginning, but to some degree I still felt cheated. Cheated because I was denied watching him grow in the same way the beginning denied the chance to get to know him.

And perhaps the part that really gets me, the part that has me writing this now, is you are never given a true hero. Beowulf is heroic; he fights bravely, and honorably. But his character is flawed in ways that, for me, deny true heroism. I know, that's harsh, but it's true. It isn't a simple matter of sex, him cheating on his wife, or sleeping with the enemy; it can't be simplified that way. But at the same time, it does come down to sex and wealth. Grendel's mother hangs his men from the ceiling; she is evil. And not evil because she is a demon, or even because she takes revenge. But because she traffics in men's souls. She offers deals that offer much for very little on the surface, but the price of giving in to her, the price of agreeing to her terms is your integrity.

And so I guess that's what bothers me. Beowulf can fight monster's, but he can't fight a woman (yes, she is a monster too, but not so obviously). And for that to be his greatest weakness, while I understand why, is to deny him the sort of integrity I need in a hero. I need a hero that isn't swayed by wealth or beauty. I need a hero that can say no when tempted with an alluring deal. Being heroic is more than physical for me; it's as much an ability of the mind, a mental strength, as it is a bodily one.

I would have been okay with the movie had I been presented one character, one male character, that obviously, and fairly easily, said no to Grendel's mother. I wanted a hero from among the warriors that was as noble in spirit as he was in deed. And I didn't get it. Hrothgar's Queen was the closest by far, but hers was a strength I understood and, while respected, didn't inspire the sort of adoration one of the warriors should have. That's due in part to the time and situation her character existed in. She couldn't be Wonder Woman and she was never presented with the temptations any of the men faced. But what I wanted from one of the men, what I really wanted to see, was a Superman.

You can be heroic in many ways. Beowulf was, without a doubt, an amazing warrior and worthy of song. He was a good king and friend. I wouldn't even call him a bad husband per say. But he was weak when he needed to be strong and so, while he was heroic, he wasn't exactly a hero. The point of the movie was that he was only a man, and I respect that. But men can be heroes sometimes, and so I guess I don't accept that in order to show he was a man, we have to accept he was weak.

I think there is a place for stories about men who struggle with their character. And I think there is a place for stories about men who struggle with their heroism. I just wasn't prepared for Beowulf to be one of the former instead of one of the latter.