Beowulf: Movie and Book

What do you do when you read a book then watch the movie on it? Do you watch it to get the picture of the story or do you watch it to compare the two? When reading a story then watching a movie you need to watch out for the similarities and differences between the two. The book Beowulf and the movie Beowulf have a few similarities and a good bit of differences. Some similarities are they both have the same characters, Beowulf cuts off Grendel’s arm, the people celebrate the death of Grendel with drinking, they hang Grendel’s arm for all to see, and Beowulf kills both Grendel and his mother. The differences deal with Grendel’s father, Beowulf’s father, where Beowulf fights Grendel, how the outcome of the plot ends, and the dragon. The similarities may not over weigh the differences but are still extremely important in comparing the book to the movie.

Though the similarities may seem to be over weighed by the differences they are very accurate. The main characters in the story are Beowulf, Grendel, Hrothgar, and Grendel’s mother. These are the same for the movie. Beowulf cuts off Grendel’s arm while he is fighting him in the book. The same goes for the movie, with Beowulf cutting off Grendel’s arm in a fight. The people both in the book and movie celebrated the death of Grendel by drinking, they also hung Grendel’s arm for all to see it. Beowulf kills Grendel and his mother both in the book and movie. These similarities may seem like the only thing needed to compare a story to a movie but you also need to contrast it using the differences.

The differences that occur in the book are Hrothgar isn’t Grendel’s father. Beowulf’s father was known by Hrothgar. Beowulf fights Grendel in the Great Hall and his mother under the fiery waters. The castle stayed remaining after all the fights were done with. There was a dragon at the end of the book that killed Beowulf. The movie has completely different way of showing these. The movie’s perspectives of these are Hrothgar is Grendel’s father and Beowulf’s father is Bale. Beowulf fights Grendel in the basemen (water dungeon) and fights Grendel’s mother in the dining hall. The castle ends up being burned down and everyone dies except for the king’s daughter and Beowulf. There is also no dragon at all in the movie, which in my eye is very disappointing.

Even though the book and movie have different and similar things happening in their plots, they both portray Beowulf to be the heroic figure. He takes care of the people even though they are unworthy to be protected. He defeats the villain and good triumphs over evil.

In conclusion the book and movie are both excellent in portraying Beowulf in their own way. With from showing the same characters to not having the dragon in the end, they both are excellent. When reading a story and then watching the movie for now on I’m going to look for both the similarities and the differences. Beowulf you will never be forgotten and will always be loved.