I really don't. I didn't even know I was going to blog it. But Liam Guilar, a poet with his own blog, Lady Godiva and Me(I've read the poems), wants to know if any good films have been made of any medieval epics. I sure can't think of any. He mentions two films made from Beowulf, which he reviews here, unfavorably. He didn't, except in passing, mention The Thirteenth Warrior, which I saw a few years back, and it was good fun, I guess, and rather vaguely based on Beowulf, but more so on Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead. This was written before Crichton went bat---- about environmentalists, and when I read it last, it was mainly for the "Neandertal" connection. I read Beowulf a lot longer ago than that, in a college course devoted to the study of epic literature, from Gilgamesh onward. I should mention here that Guilar didn't like these two Beowulf films. I never saw them, but those who did, would agree with him, from what I've heard. Well, that's Hollywood for you.
He then asks if the Irish Tain cycle, or the Song o9 Roland(another epic I read in that epics course), have ever been made into films. I don't think so. Fortunately. If what the film industry has done to Beowulf is any indication, they should stay away, stay away, stay away from medieval epics! Because the film makers butcher them! I'm not eve sure either of these epics would work very well for modern tastes, except for that core of (mostly male) moviegoers who like lots of action, blood, and gore. And as far as the Song of Roland goes, there would be additional problems that I don't think any film maker would be prepared to handle. The first lines of that epic have the "infidels"(actually Muslims who inhabited Spain at the time), worshiping statues of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as statues of the Greek god Apollo, neither of which any good Muslim would be caught dead doing. And modern Muslims would, I think, be awfully quick to point this out, while "opposite numbers" would then start screaming "PC! PC! PC!"
Other "medieval-themed" films are what might be called "good fun", but they're not epics. The various versions of the Arthurian cycle come to mind, as do the innumerable versions of the Robin Hood legends, but I don't think this is what Guilar had in mind here. The Robin Hood films tend to reflect modern social problems of one sort and another, though they all draw on the same basic legends. But a real medieval epic? As I said, I don't know. Any more than I know what to title this bloog.
Anne G
7 comments:
Anne
apparently Roland was filmed, but in French...which means there's some hope of it being watchable...
You mentioned MEDIEV-L, how/where do I find it?
Liam
Liam:
Jeez. If it was French, no wonder I never heard of it!
You also mentioned that you were interested in the e-mail list MEDIEV-L If you're interested, just go here:
http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/mediev-l/mediev-l.html
When you get there, there will be instructions as to how to subscribe. I should warn you, howeer, that some of the people on that list are incredibly "stuffy" about what they know, and a few can be downright hostile at times. But it's a worthwhile list for anyone interested in medieval subjects.
Since you started out with Godiva/Godgifu, I would also recommend another list called ANSAX-L, which you can find at:
listserv. wvu.edu. This is a generalized list, but it will also give you instructions as to how to subscribe. They are more "text-based", but they're a lot less "stuffy".
Anne G
Anne thanks for this.
I found and joined mediev-l but attempts to subscribe to ANSAX-L, which I'm be far more interested in, have so far proved a failure.
Liam:
My efforts to subscribec to ANXAX-L or rather to resubscribe to it, also ended in failure for a long time. What you have to do is subscribe through the list at wvcu.edu I didn't realize this, and kept trying to directly sub to ANSAX-L. That doesn't work. The listserv at WVU tales care of all of that. They direct your request to ANSAX-L.
Anne G
Liam:
This is just a quick addendum to my previous message. You subscribe to ANSAX-L by going to this address:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.WVU.EDU
Then you put, in the body of the e-mail, sub ANSAX-L(your name). The listserv will take care of everything else, though it may seem a little slow. That's what I had to do, and it worked!
Anne G
I finally got it to to work..thanks so much for the instructions
Liam
Liam:
I'm really glad you got it to work. Some of the discussions on that list may be of considerable interest to you.
Anne G
Post a Comment