Coppola was the most famous, but I suspect every filmmaker gets to play Col. Kurtz eventually. Icelandic-Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson's mad folly is Beowulf & Grendel, a gamy retelling of the Anglo Saxon epic on what seems the least hospitable film location...
PRESS ARCHIVES
Beowulf & Grendel Reviews
Epic Tale is Poetry in Motion
Trolls are bothersome at the best of times. At the worst of times they can be downright deadly. That's what the sixth century Danish king Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgard) learns in the epic revenge tale Beowulf & Grendel. Hrothgar kills a troll but spares its young...
Beowulf and Grendel: heroic epic
WE ALL KNOW the story of Beowulf, the hero from Geatland who rescued Danish King Hrothgar by destroying the monster Grendel and his mother. We know how Grendel had savagely slaughtered Hrothgar’s thanes celebrating in the great Hall of Heorot, how Beowulf tackled him,...
1,200-year-old story has great visuals
Movie has new characters, updated dialogue and a post-modern take on the quest BEOWULF & GRENDEL Rating 21/2 Director: Sturla Gunnarsson Starring: Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, Stellan Skarsgard, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson Classification: 14A Parental warning: Violence,...
Beowulf, circa 2006
Ancient tale remade; New version fails to satisfy purists or the bloodthirsty College students beware. This version of Beowulf is not the one to watch before writing your English literature exam. Featuring new characters, updated dialogue and a post-modern take on the...
Beowulf saga gets an update for ‘postmodern’ movie
Beowulf and Grendel ** 1/2 Starring: Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, Stella Skarsgard, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson Directed by: Sturla Gunnarsson. Rating: 14A, gory violence; sexually suggestive scenes; coarse language. Playing at: AMC Kanata, Empire 7, SilverCity - - - College...
Epic
Beowulf & Grendel was shot on location on the Icelandic coast.By stripping the ninth-century epic poem Beowulf down to its narrative bones, and by shooting it with an unembellished, steely realism, the Icelandic-born Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson has made...
Real characters emerge from myth
Beowulf & Grendel's people have both hero and villain in them Warning: 14A: Gory violence, sexually suggestive scenes, coarse language.103 minutes Grade: B "You want a beer?" -- Hrothgar "Oo-o-hh, yeah." -- Beowulf Seems an entirely appropriate way to greet the...
Beowulf & Grendel an epic movie
Starring Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, Sarah Polley, Ingvar Sigurdsson. Written by Andrew Rai Berzins. Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. 103 minutes. At major theatres. 14A By stripping the ninth-century epic poem Beowulf down to its narrative bones, and by shooting...
Epic film based on epic poem makes a few, mostly good, changes
Review: Beowulf and Grendel Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson Starring Gerard Butler, Stellen Skarsgard, Sarah Polley and Igvar E Sigurdsson Opens Friday, 10 March All right, so you've heard about this famous Beowulf poem of bygone days, about the Danes and Geats and...
FROM ANCIENT EPIC POEM TO THE SILVER SCREEN
Beowulf & Grendel is lost in translation If anyone ever suggests that adapting a thousand-year-old 3182-line Old English epic poem into a movie is easy, laugh. Despite the inherent difficulties, however, Beowulf & Grendel director Sturla Gunnarsson delivers a...
Troll Story
Starring Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley. Written by Andrew Rai Berzins. Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. (14A) 103 min. Opens March 10. A lot can go wrong when you're making a movie. A whole lot more can go wrong when that movie is an adaptation of an Old English epic poem...
‘Beowulf and Grendel’
Starring Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, Stellan Skarsgård and Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson as Grendel Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson We are about to swamped with Beowulf films, in the same way we were inundated with Robin Hood outings a while back and other cluster films...
`Beowulf & Grendel’
Screening: 4 p.m. Nation: Canada/Iceland/United Kingdom Director: Sturla Gunnarsson Synopsis: Director Sturla Gunnarsson ("Such a Long Journey") brings visual panache and psychological depth - as well as touches of humor - to this tale of retribution and revenge,...
Beowulf and Grendel ***
(Sturla Gunnarsson, Canada/Iceland/UK, 2005) Making the most of what was obviously a small budget, this could have been an interesting humanitarian interpretation of the Beowulf legend but for one thing: Sarah Polley. In a movie where we come to accept everyone as...
Mini reviews: Brief reviews of festival films
BEOWULF AND GRENDEL Going back to the very beginning of the English literary tradition, Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson takes on the heavy task of adapting this epic Anglo-Saxon poem to the big screen. Thanks to a modern adaptation from screenwriter Andrew Rai...
Beowulf & Grendel is Impressive
[b]See link above for complete article.[/b]
One Week in Another Town: Whackadoodle history, evolving myth and the abiding banality of evil
The richness and variety of artistic endeavor displayed in the Toronto International Film Festival's splendid lineup can't help but renew your faith that smart, caring folk are still wrestling with the world's pressing problems. And in such heady environs, it's easy...
TIFF Report: Beowulf & Grendal Review
http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/003569.html I'm sure if I had told either of the Wonder Twins I had an opportunity to see a film pertaining to the poem 'Beowulf' and did not go they would have strung me up and found interesting ways to make amends for my...
Beowulf and Grendel
[Canada/UK/Iceland; Sturla Gunnarsson] How could I resist? With all the noise around The Lord of the Rings, this classic story was ripe for the telling. In fact, it's being told twice; here and in a film scripted by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery. To be honest, I really...