Beowulf Analysis

          This movie actually reminded me of another movie that I'm sure some of us are familiar with, How to Train Your Dragon. The elements in this movie are actually quite similar to those of How To Train Your Dragon. Both of the main characters were given extremely masculine voices, in How To Train Your Dragon the clan leader had Gerard Butler's voice and I don't know if there can be a more masculine voice than his. This goes along with something I mentioned in a presentation of mine during the Decameron Unit. I spoke of how Vikings now are depicted as hyper masculine due to the fact that in their culture males had the choice to overindulge in their masculinity or risk losing it completely. I even threw in the little tidbit of information about homosexuality in Viking society and how it was not exactly frowned upon, but rather a ritual of domination of one being over another. All this to say that I feel that even though this movie was not particularly entertaining, the way the Norse society was depicted was fairly accurate, I even recently read an article that said that the Norse peoples were accustomed to and preferred staying situated near the coast of the land they were on as well as taking in accounts of the topography of the landscape. In this movie the settlement was on the coast of whatever body of water it was, and it was situated in an elevated landscape if I remember correctly, it was on a cliff but it was also in the midst of some mountains, again, if I remember correctly.
           Another sort of ideal that especially caught my attention was when Beowulf first encountered Grendel in the movie. Beowulf was completely naked when he battled Grendel while there were all these other soldiers who were fully armed who were getting slaughtered by Grendel. Beowulf in a sort of way was so confident and in a way put everything on the line battling this evil demonic creature without the least bit of protection. This directly correlates to two other films one contemporary and the other in the movie wit Heath Ledger. Heath Ledger or Sir Ulrich/William at the end in the final round of the jousting tournament, when it was do or die, William as well put everything on the line (including his life because I imagine that if you get hit  with one of those lances in the chest without any sort of armor on the result would be fatal) but the fact that William was confident enough in his abilities and made himself so vulnerable, is what set him aside from all the other knights and turned out to lead to his victory in the tournament. I can also relate this to a very modern movie the newest Batman movie, I think it's called The Dark Knight Rises, but the point is when Christian Bale/Bruce Wayne/Batman is down in the prison/pit an the only way to get out is by scaling the wall which many have tried...with the safeguard of attaching a rope to themselves in case they fall they won't be hurt. Bruce attempts it with the rope many times until he hears a story of the only person who has ever escaped the pit was a little boy who did it without the safeguard of attaching a rope to himself. So Bruce, in turn, decides to (once again) put his life on the line and has to fully confide in himself and make himself completely vulnerable to achieve success and ultimately escape the realm of the pit.
           This was just a small facet that came together and clicked in my head. I don't know if anybody else noticed or found this interesting, but I feel like it's true and applicable and it almost sounds virtuous, "you have to make yourself completely vulnerable to achieve what you've never achieved before" or something cheesy like that. Actually I think its equivalent is the saying "you have to do what you've never done before to go where you've never been before"or something along those lines.