Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)

Directed by Hugh Hudson

Starring Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, James Fox, Christopher Lambert

Author

Faithful to the novel, maybe, but not terribly fun to watch. While the development of his character with the apes is there, we hardly see any of his adjustment to western life. That would have been the most interesting aspect of his character and the most engaging part of the story. It also would have been good to develop the relationship between him and Jane a bit more. He goes from grunts to sex to goodbye much too quickly.

The jungle sequence was pretty well-done, but they could have showed him learning more English. He adopts the language and western mannerisms way too quickly. The only real mistake was that he did not have hair on his face BEFORE he shaved. The lion roars were kinda gay. Humans just can’t produce that kind of sound. The ape costumes and the performances of the actors inside were actually pretty good.

But the plot glosses over some valid questions. How did he get back to England? What did he do the first time he saw western people, or more specifically, a human woman? And who was that ape boy dancing around the castle?

They don’t use the word Tarzan even once. Where does the name come from? And if they’re not going to tell us, why is it in the title of the movie?

Lambert and Holm were pretty good. Sad that they had to redub McDowell in her first performance.

With all of the little boy penis and dead apes around, I’m surprised this movie was rated PG.

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