Zemeckis Vs Beowulf Essay

One’s memory is not reliable as humans are prone to form opinions which leads to one using selective memory, a phenomenon where one deliberately or subconsciously chooses not remember specific events. Plus, everyone interprets certain events differently. This eventually causes a shift in perspective, which is exactly what happened in the epic poem“Beowulf’ when compared to the adapted, modernized movie directed by Robert Zemeckis. He tells the story in a different way instead of simply translating what the initial narrator exhibited. By doing so, Zemeckis is able to recreate the same scenes, but with his own opinion of the main character.
In the epic poem the main character, Beowulf, is an example of the ideal Anglo-Saxon hero where he possess the characteristic of bravery and gains honor in his search for glory. Beowulf sacrifices his life to help Hrothgar by killing Grendel and even shares his treasures with his people. However, the movie depicts the hero as an unreputable individual for being selfish. While Beowulf fights only to gain achieve greatness in the novel, he fights for women, a golden horn, along with the king’s wife in the movie. This in turn made him less …show more content…
For example, Beowulf dreadfully tries to convince his audience that he killed nine sea monsters during the swimming competition with Breca. With Unferth against Beowulf, some were even courageous enough to mock him and say “Last time it were three.” In contrast, Beowulf was much more believable in the epic poem,especially when he told the story about swimming with Breca and killing the nine sea monsters. It reads “Then the gray-haired treasure-giver was glad;/ far-famed in battle, the prince of Bright-Danes/ and keeper of his people counted on Beowulf,/ on the warriors’s steadfastness and his word.” The reactions of the audience in the movie and novel are completely different which shows the different portrayal of