What’s up guys,
Hope everyone is doing well. I thought I would focus my second appetizer post on a movie that some of you may be familiar with, Beowulf (2007). If you aren’t familiar with the story of Beowulf, that’s okay, it won’t be necessary to analyzing the grotesque within the film.
Beowulf finds himself battling several grotesque monsters throughout the film, however, I would like to begin our discussion analyzing a scene in which the first monster, Grendel, is attacking the mead hall. When viewing the clip, I would like you to keep in mind the following questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWmiv9uIXQk
- What do you notice about our monster, Grendel? Point out some of his features and how they are grotesque.
- What else in this scene is grotesque? Is it just Grendel? Or are other characters contributing as well?
- What kind of reaction does this type of grotesqueness evoke from you? Is it comical because it’s animated? Does it make you uncomfortable?
Thanks guys. Looking forward to seeing your discussion.
Ok, so I was definitely not prepared for whatever it is that I just watched, and I’ll just say I’ve got a lot of questions about what is going down in this scene. First of all, I’ve never seen this movie and therefore am not familiar with the animation style or cartoonish atmosphere. But I will say that it was one of the most unsettling things I have watched in the recent past. Grendel is this ugly, ginormous, half-dead monster that doesn’t seem to have skin or anything separating his insides from the outside environment. That, to me, is incredibly grotesque because we are exposed to his organs and muscle fibers and just everything about him is inside out. The violence against (what I imagine are) the townspeople is immense and gruesome––with blood spurting everywhere and people being impaled left and right. The way in which these people are being brutally killed screams grotesque with the gore and horror of death.
Another thing that I want to say about this scene is that the strobe lighting effect somehow makes the whole thing significantly harder to watch and even provokes the anxiety that surrounds a typically scene like this in a horror movie. Even though the film utilizes some cartoonish elements (like the blood and people being thrown around), it retains that uncomfortable nervous feeling that I typically associate with scary movies.
Grendel definitely has a lot of grotesque characteristics. The audience is really confronted with his body and it’s extremely exaggerated- as Hannah said it’s like he’s inside out and you can see bones and organs. The villagers that he’s attacking are also grotesque in a way- in parts of the scene you can see a pig roasting over a fire which is reminiscent of a lot of the grotesque and carnivalesque feast scenes that we’ve read/watched.
I found the violence in this clip pretty shocking and intense. Even though it’s animated, it’s drawn in a super realistic style which made it lifelike. The sound effects definitely added to it. It was very different from the scenes of carnivalesque violence that we’ve read about it Rabelais, where the exaggeration in those scenes made them unrealistic and silly.
I think you have both highlighted some interesting points. First off, Hannah, I cannot explain to you why they made the movie like this, considering none of these details are included in the original text. To me, this is also a rare form of animation, for I can’t recall any other animated movies that have this much gore in them. That’s mainly why I chose this scene. We are exposed to these images in movies with real people more often than we are in movies with animated characters. I wanted to see if your reactions differed due to the fact that these were animated characters. So far, both of you have explained that the lifelike details, sounds and style, provoke the anxieties similar to a regular horror movie. I think this is a really important point. It doesn’t matter if the movie/video game/whatever it is you are analyzing is real or not, your reaction to the grotesque all depends on the way it is presented. Here we have a very realistic style that evokes an uncomfortable response regardless of the fact it isn’t real people. However, in a video game such as call of duty if someone gets blown up by a grenade, (and yes it will show them exploding), at least for me, I don’t get the same reaction. The animation is just as realistic, but the reaction is much different.
I would now like to draw your attention to another scene featuring Grendel. Here, he is being defeated by the movie’s hero, Beowulf. If the previous scene didn’t have enough gore for you this one definitely will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmCRz-Skf0M
Some things to think about:
1. Point out some more elements of the grotesque exhibited in this scene. (Look at Beowulf too)
2. How have your feelings changed about Grendel compared to the last scene? Do you feel bad for him? What humanlike behaviors do you notice that might evoke this feeling?
3. How might the shock factor of these incidents contribute to your uncomfortable reaction of the grotesque violence?
This scene reminded me of the first (which makes sense considering it’s also a fight scene) but there were also some major differences in the outcome. Grendel still has his grotesque appearance with his torn skin and violent consumption of his enemies, but he also bleeds a substance other than blood (reminded me of pus) that establishes him again as a non-human. I found it funny (and also confusing) that Beowulf was naked because it exposed literally every inch of the human form against Grendel’s twisted body that is also naked. There is something very primal and raw in the fact that the two are facing off against each other in their most natural forms, but as a modern viewer I think it also contributes to the absurdity of the scene.
I agree that his appearance as well as the fact that he doesn’t bleed red blood emphasizes how non-human Grendel is. It’s kind of hard to feel bad for him when he’s killing people in such gruesome ways, but I did feel bad for him when he was yelling, because it was such a pained, human sound. I found the moment when the guy hit Grendel over the head with his sword kind of funny, just because it got stuck and Grendel had absolutely no reaction. The scene was just really absurd in a way that was amusing.
The fight between Beowulf and Grendel was also kind of ridiculous, what with them both being naked and all the acrobatic moves that Beowulf was able to pull off. I thought it was interesting how in the end, after Grendel was defeated, he and Beowulf were the same size. I thought that Grendel was much larger than humans.
I didn’t really think about Grendel’s size at the end of the scene until you pointed it out, but now that you mention it I do think it’s an important part of the narrative. While I don’t necessarily think it increases my empathy for Grendel, it does emphasize his similarities to humans.