was a major foe, but is an ally here for reasons that only be- come clear later on), and the book’s “fantasy” elements, par- ticularly the dialogue between Tarzan and his ape tribe, have been understandably eliminated, though a peculiar side effect of this decision is that the name “Tarzan” is never once men- tioned in the film! Hudson (director of CHARI-
OTS OF FIRE and a less fantas- tic tale of the Dark Continent, I DREAMED OF AFRICA) expertly condenses Tarzan’s discovery of his parents’ tree house and trin- kets that clue him into the fact that he is not an ape, but a boy; however, the following set- piece—Tarzan’s introduction to mankind in the form of a na- tive who kills his ape-mother Kala—lacks the poetry found in Burroughs’ prose. In the book, it is a momentous occasion when Tarzan first lays eyes on his own species, but not so here, where revenge is instantaneous, and no real curiosity is conveyed—that is, until he meets his first white man. As Frenchman Philippe D’Arnot (changed from the book’s soldier into a scientist, and played with great sensitivity by Ian Holm) lies wounded and
feverish from a pygmy arrow, we catch our first sight of the adult Tarzan, a mythic silhouette, backlit by the sun before it stoops out of the blinding gold rays to reveal Christopher Lambert, dancer and future star of HIGH- LANDER, in his feature film de- but. Lambert makes a terrific Tarzan, one that we can only assume Burroughs would have favored: muscled and lithe like Weissmuller, but with doubtless intelligence radiating from his eyes, and an ability to believably switch from child-like innocence to animal-like rage. His yell is no fanciful yodel, but a guttural, primal roar more like what Burroughs described. Tarzan carries D’Arnot to his
sanctuary, where the Frenchman recuperates and, like Jane in pre- vious Tarzan films, quietly ob- serves the jungle lord in his daily activities. Discovering that the ape-man has an uncanny talent for mimicry, D’Arnot teaches him to speak, though the banter is not the expected “D’Arnot, Tarzan... Tarzan, D’Arnot,” but a vocabulary symbolic of Tarzan’s acceptance of civiliza- tion (“Razor!”) and his duality (“Mirror!”). The second half of the film documents Tarzan’s
acclimation into English society, his family reunion on the sprawl- ing Greystoke estate, and a kin- dling romance with American cousin Jane Porter (model- turned-actress Andie MacDowell, re-voiced by an uncredited Glenn Close). Here, Burroughs’ adventure-spirit is completely abandoned in favor of a psycho- logical portraiture reminiscent of François Truffaut’s THE WILD CHILD [L’enfant sauvage, 1970], while the film becomes intentionally stodgy to show a contrast between the savage jungle and the civilized world (the latter, of course, only masks its savagery). While Burroughs’ Tarzan exuded confidence in the face of the inexplicable, Hudson’s view of the character is insuffer- ably angst-ridden, throwing rag- ing tantrums in moments of grief (first he loses his human grand- father, then his ape-father who, in a huge plot contrivance, is dis- covered in captivity and un- leashed by Tarzan to be shot by ignorant authorities) until, in the end, the ape-man sheds his suit to return to the wild country that cultivated him. It’s an ending that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, as it is unlikely that a young man with any intelligence
Christopher Lambert as the Lord of the Jungle.
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