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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Although it doesn't quite
live up to Robert Towne's original script,
"Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan Lord of The Apes"
manages to bring much of the spectacle of Edgar
Rice Burroughs' original tale with a distinctive,
powerful edge missing from every other version of
the novel. Towne's script and the film adhere to
most of the narrative about Tarzan growing up
while drifting away from some of the more extreme
fantasy elements present in the original novel.
When the child of a female gorilla is mercilessly
beaten to death, the mother adopts an infant human
whose parents were killed by the same gorilla (the
human couple was shipwrecked and thought dead by
the husband's British grandfather, the Earl of
Greystoke). The human infant continues to have
conflicts with the lead gorilla of the group as he
grows up and is, in fact, beaten up and left for
dead at one point. As he grows into manhood, he
discovers the home of his real parents, his
mother's locket, and his father's knife and sees
his reflection for the first time. He's horrified
and fascinated at the same time realizing that,
while he doesn't quite look like his mother, she
is still his mother. Gradually, he discovers
children's blocks that show him what a human looks
like for the first time.
When his adoptive gorilla mother is murdered by
tribesmen hunting gorillas for food, he fights
back for the first time, killing one of the men by
breaking his back. He also stands up to, and kills
the gorilla that tried to kill him and succeeded
in killing his parents long ago.
Then Tarzan (Christopher Lambert, in his film
debut) is discovered by a French explorer (Ian
Holm, from "Chariots of Fire" and "The Lord of the
Rings") who takes pity on the young man and brings
him back to civilization, discovering along the
way that Tarzan is, indeed, the son of the missing
heir to the Greystoke fortune and title.
The film moves Tarzan from the animal kingdom to
the civilized world where the collision between
how he was raised and who he has to become creates
considerable conflict. Later, he meets and falls
in love with Jane (Andie McDowell also in her film
debut, but with her voice over dubbed by Glenn
Close when director Hugh Hudson didn't feel
McDowell could provide a convincing English
accent). However, the conflicts between the
civilized world and his experience continue to
threaten their relationship and his inheritance.
Directed by Hugh Hudson ("Chariots of Fire," "I
Dreamed of Africa"), the film generated much
controversy when writer Towne ("Chinatown,"
"Personal Best," "Tequila Sunrise" and "Shampoo")
took his name off the credits substituting it with
the name of his dog. Towne felt that Hudson (and
the screenwriter Hudson brought in, Michael
Austin) strayed a bit from his original script,
which had an even more epic canvas to work from.
Towne had been forced to sell off "Greystoke"
which he had intended to direct due to money
issues related to his directorial debut, "Personal
Best." While the film doesn't quite live up to
Towne's vision, Hudson's film is still quite
compelling and powerful, capturing the sweep of
the epic films made by David Lean. Although the
script becomes a bit uneven when Tarzan returns to
civilization, Christopher Lambert's portrayal of
Tarzan, along with Ian Holm, Sir Ralph Richardson,
James Fox and McDowell/Close keeps the film
interesting. Lambert's moody, brooding and quiet
performance works well at keeping Tarzan a
mysterious, sensuous figure. Lambert brings a
physical presence to the role that quickly
captures your attention. The tightly directed and
edited action sequences also prevent the film from
lagging.
Although the DVD doesn't have the type of extras
it really deserves, Warner has lavished a
considerable amount of money to bring us a very
sharp, crisp and vivid anamorphic widescreen
transfer. There are still a fair amount of analog
blemishes in the form of hair and dirt but the
bulk of this occurs during the opening titles.
This version of the film never played theatrically
in the U.S. Like the original videocassette, this
version of "Greystoke" runs about 7 minutes longer
with a prologue involving the apes and a sequence
that briefly depicts Tarzan's trek to
civilization. The marvelous score by John Scott
has been remastered for Dolby Digital 5.1 bringing
the sound up to date and we also get the beautiful
overture that greeted audiences as they walked in
during the first few minutes before the movie
began.
We get the marvelous original theatrical trailer
as part of the extras, and a commentary track by
Director Hudson and Associate Producer Garth
Thomas. They provide some very interesting tidbits
about the shooting of the film but completely
avoid discussing the decision to rewrite Towne's
script and only making a passing mention of the
voice recasting. The commentary would have been
far more interesting had both decided to revisit
their decision to bring Glenn Close to dub
MacDowell's lines and the decision to pare back
Towne's original, more expensive vision.
Although it might lack the epic vision that Towne
had intended, Hudson's film still manages to make
quite an impression. The film certainly has the
epic feel of some of David Lean's epics and if the
film becomes uneven during its second half, it
still manages to swing to a satisfying conclusion. |
