After reading some bad comments on Beowulf, I accidentally saw this movie on Friday night. Without high expectation, I found out it’s not as flat as people say. It’s not a fairy tale with prince and princess living happily forever, but a story reflecting humanity.
People hardly learn a lesson from the failure of one’s predecessor. We see and hear but we don’t get it unless we’ve actually been through it. The world is full of temptation, and people fall into deterioration everyday. Maybe a hero is not who is bold and powerful but who has the courage to face the demon in his heart. The power, wealth, glory, women earned by a dark secret, a devious way cannot bring us happiness. Well, perhaps sometimes a beauty, with her sweet voice and beautiful body, can comfort a toughening soul.
“Did you kill her?” The greatest punishment is not to expose the secret plot, is to bear it. A word is enough to bring the suffering. There is no need for an answer. The secret itself is the deepest pain. We may congratulate ourselves on our good fortune that nobody knows those terrible things we’ve done, those ugly secrets, but in the end, the evil will come back to us by the form of fear, shame and self-antipathy. How far his great story was being eulogized, how deep his pain went. Those who wanted to be extolled in history came to him to create their own stories, but the glory was just like a shooting star, brightening for a moment and disappearing in the mighty torrent of history.
Beowulf told the young girl that he used to think being a king was to go to war in the morning and fall into sleep while embracing a beauty at night, but there was nothing as he thought. Sometimes I wonder the life I pursue is really what I dream of, or it’s just a fantasy in my mind. I’m afraid, I’m truly afraid of all the emptiness, loneness and those dreams I seek dying away. Life still goes on. We all have to find the courage to persevere in our faith and bear our burdens.
The one that can go through with you is not who worships you and only sees the shining part of you, but who sees all your goods and also understands your dark side, and accepts you as whole. Nobody said that love was easy. I refuse to believe that two persons being together is just for fun or to be happy. I don’t want just happy enough. Happiness should be the outcome, not the condition. I think the biggest difference between Beowulf and the previous king is that Beowulf had someone to love, someone he wanted to protect. The king ended his life just after Beowulf claimed he’s killed the Grendel and his mother. Why did he kill himself? I saw someone wrote that because he knew that Beowulf was going to kill him and take over his crown just like everything happened before. Would a man that killed a dragon with his own hands be scared of death and then commit suicide? I don’t think so. I think there was nothing on earth able to keep him in the world, nothing worth living for and nothing needed him to carry anymore. He died in a pathetic tragic way but he’s been relieved from his curse. In contrast, Beowulf died with dignity and glory because he relieved himself from his own curse. But in my opinion, it’s because he admitted his mistake, faced it and solved the problem, and the bottom line is that there were someone who loved him very much and some friend who always supported him. Only when we take the responsibility, our love can become complete, and then, we can become whole.
This is a simple story. I can easily guess the ending. The mother monster will never die as temptation will surround us all the time. I don’t always think that a simple plot will bore us, and sometimes a straightforward script can focus the attention on the subjects the movie wants to tell. Maybe it also has something to do with my own condition at the same time, since art is about to touch people’s heart, to communicate with the souls buried beneath our fine exteriors. When I walked into the cinema, I didn’t expect a magnificent fighting scene or a cliff-hanger but looked for something reflecting my fear and weakness, which this movie achieves. It satisfied me. That’s the most important.
Beowulf is a 3D film, but unfortunately, I didn’t see it in a 3D theater. With my experience in seeing The Polar Express in IMAX theater, I could feel the effects of images they wanted to present. Although the expression on the face is still artificial and the body language is missing something, I believe as long as human being exists long enough, one day we won’t be able to tell the difference, and we might even be part of the movies.
People hardly learn a lesson from the failure of one’s predecessor. We see and hear but we don’t get it unless we’ve actually been through it. The world is full of temptation, and people fall into deterioration everyday. Maybe a hero is not who is bold and powerful but who has the courage to face the demon in his heart. The power, wealth, glory, women earned by a dark secret, a devious way cannot bring us happiness. Well, perhaps sometimes a beauty, with her sweet voice and beautiful body, can comfort a toughening soul.
“Did you kill her?” The greatest punishment is not to expose the secret plot, is to bear it. A word is enough to bring the suffering. There is no need for an answer. The secret itself is the deepest pain. We may congratulate ourselves on our good fortune that nobody knows those terrible things we’ve done, those ugly secrets, but in the end, the evil will come back to us by the form of fear, shame and self-antipathy. How far his great story was being eulogized, how deep his pain went. Those who wanted to be extolled in history came to him to create their own stories, but the glory was just like a shooting star, brightening for a moment and disappearing in the mighty torrent of history.
Beowulf told the young girl that he used to think being a king was to go to war in the morning and fall into sleep while embracing a beauty at night, but there was nothing as he thought. Sometimes I wonder the life I pursue is really what I dream of, or it’s just a fantasy in my mind. I’m afraid, I’m truly afraid of all the emptiness, loneness and those dreams I seek dying away. Life still goes on. We all have to find the courage to persevere in our faith and bear our burdens.
The one that can go through with you is not who worships you and only sees the shining part of you, but who sees all your goods and also understands your dark side, and accepts you as whole. Nobody said that love was easy. I refuse to believe that two persons being together is just for fun or to be happy. I don’t want just happy enough. Happiness should be the outcome, not the condition. I think the biggest difference between Beowulf and the previous king is that Beowulf had someone to love, someone he wanted to protect. The king ended his life just after Beowulf claimed he’s killed the Grendel and his mother. Why did he kill himself? I saw someone wrote that because he knew that Beowulf was going to kill him and take over his crown just like everything happened before. Would a man that killed a dragon with his own hands be scared of death and then commit suicide? I don’t think so. I think there was nothing on earth able to keep him in the world, nothing worth living for and nothing needed him to carry anymore. He died in a pathetic tragic way but he’s been relieved from his curse. In contrast, Beowulf died with dignity and glory because he relieved himself from his own curse. But in my opinion, it’s because he admitted his mistake, faced it and solved the problem, and the bottom line is that there were someone who loved him very much and some friend who always supported him. Only when we take the responsibility, our love can become complete, and then, we can become whole.
This is a simple story. I can easily guess the ending. The mother monster will never die as temptation will surround us all the time. I don’t always think that a simple plot will bore us, and sometimes a straightforward script can focus the attention on the subjects the movie wants to tell. Maybe it also has something to do with my own condition at the same time, since art is about to touch people’s heart, to communicate with the souls buried beneath our fine exteriors. When I walked into the cinema, I didn’t expect a magnificent fighting scene or a cliff-hanger but looked for something reflecting my fear and weakness, which this movie achieves. It satisfied me. That’s the most important.
Beowulf is a 3D film, but unfortunately, I didn’t see it in a 3D theater. With my experience in seeing The Polar Express in IMAX theater, I could feel the effects of images they wanted to present. Although the expression on the face is still artificial and the body language is missing something, I believe as long as human being exists long enough, one day we won’t be able to tell the difference, and we might even be part of the movies.
