Review of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) by Garrett C — 07 Aug 2016

The ultimate Tarzan movie.

Reystoke - The Legend of Tarzan is a big, ambitious film which obviously aims at being the ultimate Tarzan movie and succeeds. The film expands on one episode in the original books: Tarzan, who is actually the lost son of an British earl, goes back to his ancestral home in Scotland, where he is in theory at least now the heir to the earldom. Set around the turn of the 19/20th centuries, the film falls into two parts, the first showing Tarzan growing up in the African bush, and the second dealing with his attempts to become civilized in Scotland. In the first part, the cinematography of the African landscape is spectacular, and the special effects depicting primates and other wildlife remarkably well done. In the second part, the atmosphere of Edwardian upper-class life is richly recreated, and the portrayal of Tarzan's struggle to become civilized convincingly done. The highlight of the film is Sir Ralph Richardson, who steals the show as the old Earl (Tarzan's grandfather,) and whose last film this was. Though the film is perhaps a little too long and drags in parts towards the end, it's still consistently entertaining and worth seeing.

Advisories: one mild sex scene, a few gory shots of animals being eaten raw in the jungle and dissected in London.

Recommendation: if you are a fan of the Tarzan books or films, or seriously interested in the Tarzan theme in popular culture, give this five stars as something you must see. For the rest of us, a four star entertaining movie.