Beowulf and Grendel: Beer-soaked Trollslayer Edition
by Captain KhajiitTurns Sturla Gunnarson’s complicated and serious film into a straight-forward light-hearted short adventure film about Beowulf’s clash with Grendel. Fun and humour are emphasised.
member ratings: 
(6 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10, rated)
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tagline: Gone in thirty minutes!
original film name: Beowulf and Grendel
new film name : Beowulf and Grendel: Beer-soaked Trollslayer Edition
film studio name : Movision / Darclight
edit crew name : Captain Khajiit
Date Original Film Was Released : 2005
Date Edit Was Released on FE : August 2009
Original Runtime : 103 min
New Runtime : 35 min
Amount of time Cut/Added : approximately 70 mins removed
Cuts removed/added/extended : see below
Fanedit details :
Xvid avi: 352 MB, 940 kbps xvid video, 5.1 ac-3 audio at 480kbps, AR: 1.78:1, 25fps
DVD : PAL SL DVD, anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1, AC3 5.1 audio – English only, static main menu with appropriate fonts, animated scene selection menu, no subtitles
Intention for this fanedit: to turn Sturla Gunnarson’s complicated and serious film into a straight-forward light-hearted short adventure film about Beowulf’s clash with Grendel. Fun and humour are emphasised.
How intention was achieved:
* All the on-screen textual chapter headings are removed from the film.
* The slaying of the Troll’s father by Hrothgar and all subsequent allusions to it are removed. The king is now a weak drunken ruler, but not
a culpable one.
* There is no attempt to explain why Grendel is the way he is. In this edit a ****ing troll just does what a ****ing troll does.
* Grendel’s bashing of his forehead and hands with stones is now his crazed response to the noise or mere presence of the hall, or the
actions of the warriors. His anointing of his forehead with blood is now done in imitation or mockery of the pagan priest’s sacrifice at the
beginning of the story.
* The witch has been removed from the story, as she is the main plot device by which the reasons behind the Troll’s behaviour are
expounded.
* All Christian elements have been completely removed from the story, including references to God in the dialogue and the figure of the
priest. He can be seen in the background in one scene, but is not in focus and could be any villager with a staff.
* After the Troll’s second visit to the hall, the blood trails that he left previously now guide the company of warriors to his lair. The figure
of the guide is removed completely, and the first fruitless ascent in search of the lair is telescoped with the finding of the lair’s entrance
on the company’s second ascent.
* The smashing of the Troll’s father’s head is removed. Brecca’s “treatment” of the entrance to the Troll’s lair now becomes the motivation
for the Troll’s vengeful return to the Hall.
* The final fight scene with Grendel is edited to make it consistent with the new plot.
* Disapproving glances at the parading and mounting of Grendel’s severed arm during the victory celebration in the hall are minimised.
Hardware and software information :
- DVD Decrypter
- Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD
- DVD Lab Pro 2.0
Time needed for the edition: two weeks – including learning time
persons involved: one
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Images:
Cover art by boon23 (download here):
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Review by White43
I’m actually quite partial to Beowulf and Grendel, I think it was much better than the animated Beowulf that came after it. Sure, they both take liberties with the story, but at least with B&G, I felt that the backstory they gave Grendel was far more believable.
Anyhoo – so what we have here is an almost purist edition of Beowulf, the original Anglo-Saxon story. But cutting out 70 minutes is pretty bold – does it work?
By and large – yes. B&G is fleshed out with back stories and extra characters, but at the core, is the original story. Strip all those extra elements out and you still have Beowulf the original story at the centre…
Of course, some will argue that now they don’t understand Grendel’s motivation – but then again, he never had one in the original tale – as the editor puts – “a ****king troll just does what a ****ing troll does.”. Now he’s a nuisance to which our heroes try to resolve.
Another issue some might be considering is lack of character development – but, your main characters are Beowulf, Grendel and Hrothgar….Grendel, is well Grendel….but surprisingly, Beowulf and Hrothgar do get enough lines and time on the screen for us to have a sense of who they are and what they’re about.
So, in terms of the actual edit and story – 10/10
Video and Audio quality were also spot on – good first entry – well done!
Review by white43 — August 10, 2009 @ 8:15 pm
White43 has given you a very fare review, cutting 70 mins out of any movie is very gutsy. For your first edit its really very good. A sensible coherant story, Great video and audio, you get a 10/10 from me too.
Review by searcher — August 13, 2009 @ 12:20 am
Thanks for the comments, guys. They are better than I dared to hope!
Review by Captain Khajiit — August 14, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
Heh. Entertained, but it doesn’t feel like a movie anymore. It’s just a little bit of random fun. Good video and audio work, I hope we will see more edits from you after this one.
It’s not a wonder of story telling, but we have no trouble following what’s happening. I’ll award it 7 out of 10 for being a generally good work but not feeling like it’s a full story.
Review by spelledaren — September 3, 2009 @ 11:24 am
Beowulf And Grendel by Captain Khajiit
review by boon23
Prologue:
I found the original a mostly slow, yet detailed watching experience that did not entertain me too much. Yet I do like medieval movies. This is a drastic cut. The good comments and reviews led me to being quite excited about watching it.
As for all my reviews: this is just my personal opinion of this fanedit. I cannot tell anybody else, if he or she will experience it in the same way or the opposite. So my review is not objective and does not reflect the opinion of fanedit.org.
!!!!This review contains heavy spoilers!!!
The edit:
The idea to cut back to the very source of the Beowulf & Grendel story is nice, because the original suffers from distractions and long rather dull moments IMO. However cutting it down so much to just 35 minutes did not make it appear as a movie anymore. The plot is well delivered though and works. Being Beowulf centric it took the best of what the movie had to offer and made it more of an action movie in the way of 13th Warrior.
On the bad side all the subtlety of the original story (motives of the Troll and his mother) is gone and what is left is a superficial (fitting to the title) slayer movie.
The ending fell flat through a drastic cut from the funeral to Beowulf on the ship leaving Denland.
Overall I was mildly entertained, but in the end disappointed by the unnecessarily quick ending.
editing: 8 of 10 (the ending was not well executed, the end credits list people that were not in the fanedit)
entertainment: 5 of 10 (original 6 of 10. What was too long in the original was too short in this fanedit)
Image and video quality:
Image and video quality were very good. Womble once more shows its strength here.
Video quality: 10 of 10
Audio editing and audio quality:
There were no hard audio cuts. Audio was perfect.
audio editing: 10 of 10
sound quality: 10 of 10
resulting in a 10 of 10 for overall audio
presentation:
The DVD comes with a still menu with no sound. There is an animated chapter selection without sound. I have seen worse. The cover art was created by me, so I cannot take it into account. There are no extras.
To sum it up:
Animated scene selection is nice but not really necessary for such a short movie. The project would have been better with more effort, like the inclusion of extras. As it is it feels like a rushed job.
resulting in a 4 of 10 for overall presentation
Final result: 6 of 10 (because I stick in this case to my concept of not rating more than 1 star higher than the movie was entertaining for me)
A quite good firstling.
Review by boon23 — September 22, 2009 @ 3:30 pm