BEOWULF

US, 1999, 99 minutes, Colour.
Christopher Lambert, Rhona Mitra, Oliver Cotton.
Directed by Graham Baker.

This version of Beowulf is almost unwatchable – unless one is a rabid fan of Christopher Lambert and his Highlander films and the mixture of science fiction with history.

While there is some delineation of character, the film is very dark, focuses on Beowulf and his struggles, and consists of a great number of battles. The villain of the piece, as in the old Nordic sagas, is the creature Grendl and his vengeful mother.

While the film is based on the epic poem Beowulf, it is really a contemporary concoction – especially with moving from the past into the future with modern weapons and science fiction aspects.

Christopher Lambert has done this kind of thing many times.

The film was directed by Graham Baker who made the third in the Omen series, The Final Conflict in 1981 and Alien Nation in 1988. He has made comparatively few features.

Around 2006, several Beowulf films were in production including a Swedish Beowulf with Stellan Skarsgaard, a popular American film called Beowulf: The King of the Geats and a more upmarket Beowulf with live action animation, directed by Robert Zamakis, with Ray Winston is Beowulf, Anthony Hopkins as the king, Crispin Glover as Grendl and the voice of Angelina Jolie as Grendl’s mother. It would well worthwhile looking at these films rather than this version of Beowulf.