An African Beowulf:
There's a trailer
here
and a discussion of the sadly predictable response in some circles
here
With any adaptation there is little point in leaping up and down because something has been changed..whether it’s an African Beowulf or the “president’s big push” and “holocaust’ in Jane Holland’s “Lament of the Wanderer”. The interesting question is what do these things do with the original? Do they invite us to go back and rethink our assumptions? Or do they diminish the poem by making it something lesser?
So I have shelled out pennies for a copy, knowing that the money is going to American and Norwegian Cancer research (or so the story goes). And I will report back… It cannot be any worse than the animated version.
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4 comments:
Liam:
JUdging by the trailer, it doesn't look all that bad, if you're willing to suspend disbelief a bit. Heck, the original Beowulf was a kind of "prujection-fantasy" anyway, so why not suspend disbelief. As for the people who object to this, they seem an awfully sad and narrow-minded lot. Beowulf, after all, is an important piece of world literature. And yes, Africans actually did travel a lot. Maybe not to Scandinavia or Iceland, but they certainly traveled, one way or another, to parts of Europe and Asia. And don't forget Timbuktu, or Great Zimbabwe.
Anne G
I thought it looked worth the price of a copy.
The middle ages and its literature does seem to attract a range of ...interesting...people.
No one seemed to mind a Beowulf played with a Scots accent in Beowulf and Grendle..or as cockney enforcer in the animated version....both are just as incongruous and historically "wrong".
Though claiming "Beowulf" as a 'Danish epic' because it's set in Denmark really is stretching things.
Thanks for taking look at BPOG. And indeed the story about the money going to cancer research is true. 100% of all proceeds are going to the American Cancer Society here in the US, and to the Norwegian Cancer Society for al European sales. I send the checks out myself. To date we have just passed the $11,000 mark.
Scott Wegener
Executive Producer
Scott
great news on the fund raising front.
And in all honesty, compared to some bigger budget attempts to film Stoker's Dracula, your film is much more entertaining.
Best of luck with the fundraising
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