3 - Hollywood Genders the Neomedieval: Sleeping Beauty, Beowulf, Maleficent

Summary

IN ROBERT ZEMECKIS'S 2007 adaptation of the Old English poem Beowulf, the eponymous hero, having pinned Grendel's arm between the door and doorjamb of the great hall Heorot, growls the following: “I am Ripper … Tearer … Slasher … Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength … and Lust … and Power! I AM BEOWULF!” This line, added by the film's writers, marks a departure from the poem's characterization of Beowulf. Such a departure, however, fits with director Robert Zemeckis's promise that “This has nothing to do with the Beowulf that you were forced to read in junior high school. It's all about eating, drinking, killing, and fornicating.” Zemeckis makes use of the film's CGI (computer-generated imagery) format to live up to his promise in many ways, yet nowhere does his film depart more from its source material than in its portrayal of Grendel’s mother, who, along with the troll-like Grendel, a number of sea monsters, and the infamous dragon, serve as the “monsters” Beowulf must face as he builds his reputation as a hero. This change in the characterization of Grendel's mother is a deliberate one, as the filmmakers note that, although Grendel's mother is traditionally portrayed as a “demon,” they chose to complicate this by portraying her as a “siren” and “the ideal embodiment of womanly beauty.” Notably, this ideal very much captures twenty-first-century standards of beauty despite the film's purported sixth-century CE setting.

The film's importation of anachronistic ideals of feminine beauty and behavior into its carefully constructed “medieval” setting, along with its complex relationship to its stated source text, make it an ideal example of neomedievalism. It is not, however, merely a departure from what one might call historical or literary “accuracy” that marks Beowulf as neomedieval, as numerous other examples of cinematic medievalism make such departures, yet would be classified as more traditional forms of medievalism. One such film is Disney's 1959 animation Sleeping Beauty, which shares a number of similarities with Zemeckis's Beowulf in spite of the almost fifty-year gap between the release dates of the two films. Like Beowulf, Sleeping Beauty constructs a medieval setting while implementing numerous changes to its stated source.