Adaptations

The Beowulf Epic has been adapted to film or written text over its years of popularity. A great deal of these take extreme liberties with the text, but the fact remains that their roots do lie in the epic poem. However, cataloging the entirety of film and literary canon that draws from Beowulf would be nearly impossible.

Gaiman's "Bay Wolf"
Adapting the Beowulf narrative to fit a more film noir/Baywatch style narrative, Neil Gaiman's "Bay Wolf" offers up an alternate plotline in which the story of Beowulf takes place on a beachfront in Southern California. Instead of a great deal of warriors, the Danes are portrayed as simple buff buffoons with a penchant for steroids and other indulgences. This particular take on the Beowulf story emphasizes the animal qualities of the hero, seemingly likening him to a werewolf.

Beowulf (2007)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Neil Gaiman, this version of the Beowulf take takes liberties particularly with the roles of Unferth (who in Beowulf is portrayed as something of a useless counselor, but in the film he is portrayed as an equally useless yet devout Christian counselor), Grendel's mother (who in the poem is described as highly animalistic, yet in the movie looks rather like a rather titillating version of Angelina Jolie), and the dragon (which is revealed to be the child of Beowulf and Grendel's mother). The film has drawn criticism for a great variety of reasons but remains a reasonably faithful adaptation in some other respects.

The 13th Warrior (1999)
Directed by John McTiernon, written by Michael Crichton, and starring Antonio Banderas, this adaptation increases Beowulf's lonely hunt for the monsters to a hunt by thirteen warriors (with an emphasis on the accidental lucky number 13).

Beowulf (1999)
Taking a sci-fi look at the source material, this film (starring Christopher Lambert) garners criticism for its inaccuracies. However, the film does offer an interesting perspective on the relationship between Grendel and his mother.