leftovers and Beowulf…. 2/3rds of a good movie. I know the original poem didn’t know its accent from its ass (to quote the charming Bill Burroughs) although I didn’t know, until I read the wikipedia article, that some people think the whole poem’s a fraud and wasn’t even written until the 16th century, as that’s when the manuscript miraculously turned up; the accents in the soundtrack come from everywhere in the northern world at that point, which wouldn’t have been too different from real life, when there was a lot of travelling across the northern sea. I didn’t find the accents as weirding as some critics did; I guess after reading Dunnett’s King Hereafter I was prepared to hear just about anything.
Loved the monster Grendel. The script was interesting in spots but mostly so pedestrian that I wanted to slap somebody.
Jim sent me to the video store to rent Beowulf. I read the back cover and started combing the store for better picks. When I got to the check out, the owner winked at me and said “I’m all sold out of Beowulf anyway and I’ll stick to that story if Jim comes in”. To which I replied “Thank you, thank you, thank you”.