Bienvenu: Beowulf: Authenticity of Grendel

When Beowulf first came out in theaters I remember thinking to myself, “Why would they make an action movie completely out of CGI?” Though most action films are heavily based on the use of CGI, their biggest flaws and critiques come from unrealistic special effects and mediocre replications of what we see in our everyday lives. So why take the risk of creating an entire movie out of CGI?

Our discussion in class left me with some closure as to why making a movie in CGI might be a good idea for filmmakers. Money is saved on production (wardrobe, location, etc.), scenes can be adjusted entirely on computer rather than having to re-shoot, it opens doors to a wider range of actors and difficult shots can be taken that a regular camera might not be able to capture. Above all of these arguments stood out the idea of using CGI to “dispend reality.” When given the task of creating an unknown world (due to time period or actual existence), CGI has endless possibilities as well as capabilities. In other words, CGI can take us places we have never been. Since in most cases these places aren't real, we need not worry about comparing them to actual locations. For the most part, Beowulf did an OK job of showing us one of these unknown worlds. For this reason, it's hard to isolate a particular scene that could be enhanced by special effects. Also, the entire movie is in special effects, why would there need to be more?

At this point, my attention is turned to finding a scene where the special effects could have been BETTER, not a scene where there needed to be MORE special effects. Throughout the entire movie the major flaw is uncomfortably obvious. THE PEOPLE. The faces of the characters are for the most part true to their actors but they don’t look real! Save for a few shots, the people look fake in the face, in the way they walk and in the way Grendel throws them about. Needless to say, the creators of Beowulf have not mastered the “rag doll effect” we see done so well in video games. All of these dazzling flaws are showcased in the beginning of the movie when Grendel attacks the meat hall. They can be further discussed with a mise en scene analysis of the screen shot I have provided in which King Hrothgar confronts Grendel.

The LIGHTING KEY of this scene is obviously dark, but it is so much more than that. There are constant flashes of bright blue and white light which add to the chaos and terror of the scene as a whole. The light shines on Grendel's back but shows us the front side of Hrothgar. Even though Grendel is huge and towering over the king, the lights and the whiteness of his cloak make Hrothgar standout, making him the DOMINANT. We are drawn to him and as we see him looking up we find Grendel drooling in agony as the SUBSIDARY CONTRAST. The king says, "fight me!" demanding the attention of Grendel as well as the audience. The CHARACTER PLACEMENT shows Hrothgar located more in the center of the shot while Grendel is off to the left. The ANGLE of the shot is at Hrothgar’s eye level, not at Grendel's. All of these elements of mis en scene tell us that this is about Hrothgar and his challenging of the beast. This is where CGI fails. While looking at Hrothgar we can’t help but think how fake he looks, which belittles his role as Grendel’s challenger in this scene. We know what humans look like, and this is not spot on. On the other hand, we don’t know what Grendel is supposed to look like and we don’t even know what he is. So, in this scene and in the entirety of the movie Grendel is terrifyingly real to us because we have nothing to compare him to.

As I mentioned before, one reason why filmmakers use CGI is because it can create things unknown to us. In this example, Grendel is the mystery that has been created for us. Hrothgar, a human, looks fake and therefore seems unreal and insignificant to us. Therefore, even though this scene is about Hrothgar, the lack of authenticity in CGI humans and the authenticity of CGI Grendel suddenly make this shot about him! How can you not be drawn to the way the light shines on Grendel’s disgusting and festering flesh? We are literally mesmerized by how grotesque he is. This is why making an entire movie in CGI is risky because even though you have a certain message in mind, you can only portray it as well as your CGI looks.