Film legend has it that Robert Towne, who wrote the screenplay for Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan Lord of the Apes, was so dissatisfied with this movie that he took his name from the credits, substituting instead the name P.H. Vazak -- the name of his sheepdog.
And this, the IMDB.Com site tells us, means that a real dog got nominated for an Oscar.
Now, this film has very many fans, who believe it's the most credible attempt yet to bring Edgar Rice Burrows' wonderful character of Tarzan to the screen.
Sorry to disagree. I think Hugh Hudson has created a poncey, high-camp rickety edifice which does its best to demolish Edgar Rice Burrows' great creation.
In his audio commentary, Hudson claims he tried to introduce 'realism' to the Tarzan story. He has tried to show just what it would have been like for a boy to have been raised by ape-like creatures in the African jungle, and how hard it would have been for Tarzan, as a young man, to later adapt to Western society, and to his new role as the seventh Lord Greystoke.
Tarzan, in this version, quits Western society, even quits his Jane, and goes back to live with his ape-family for evermore. He just can't cut it as a born-again human.
Well, sorry Mr Hudson, but didn't anyone tell you that Tarzan wasn't real? This is a story, a legendary character created by a pulp-fiction writer of wondrous imagination. All Hudson has achieved in this crappy version of the legend is to kill the wonder -- he has tried to 'reconstruct' a legend that needed no politically-correct revision.
The movie is redeemed partly by two fine acting performances -- by Christopher (Highlander) Lambert as Tarzan, who copes wonderfully with some very stupid material, and by Ralph Richardson, who lights up the screen as Tarzan's aristocratic grandad -- this was Ralph Richardson's last major film role before his death.
It's good also to see the very beautiful Andie MacDowell in her very first film role. It's a shame we couldn't hear her as well.In an inexplicably weird decision, Hugh Hudson had her voice dubbed by Glenn Close.
Where are you, Johnny Weismuller, now that we need you? The old Weismuller Tarzan movies, especially the first six which saw the swimming champ paired with the seriously beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan, are still the best realisation on screen of the Edgar Rice Burrows character.
Although those movies also took huge liberties with the novels, they at least kept a sense of fun and wonder.
We didn't need to have Hugh Hudson savagely distort the Tarzan legend to tell us a tale about a human boy brought up totally outside of human society. The great French film director Francois Truffaut had already done that, in The Wild Child -- and done so superbly.
After watching this piece of ape-excrement, the only consolation for me is the knowledge that Tarzan, Lord of the Apes will live on long after Hugh Hudson's paltry effort has been forgotten.
Warners has brought us a superlative widescreen anamorphic transfer which gleams with lustrous colour, contrasts and shadow-details. The scenes shot on location in Cameroon merge seamlessly with location shots at the Shepparton studios, and at Floors Castle in Scotland. The transfer is fully worthy of some superlative cinematography by John Alcott.
The 5.1 Surround does great justice to a quite noble musical score by John Scott, and presents us with a very natural-sounding but basically frontal-stage soundscape.
The only extras are an anamorphic preview trailer, and an inadvertently amusing audio commentary by Hugh Hudson, in self-congratulatory conversation with line-producer Garth Thomas. This commentary does tell us some quite interesting stuff along the way -- listen for mention of just who is seated next to Ralph Richardson in a great ballroom scene at Floors Castle.
