The Legend Of Tarzan (12A)
David Yates
IT'S never been easy to make a convincing hero of Tarzan. For one thing, he’s dressed in a loin cloth: if an actor isn’t buff enough, he has nowhere to hide; if he’s too spectacular, it’s distracting. He shares his ability to talk to animals with Dr Doolittle, which makes that skill difficult to take seriously. And the catchphrase that sticks to him like a jungle tick, “Me Jane, you Tarzan”, is the stuff of spoof.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’s famed character posed a challenge that hasn’t been met well since Olympic swimmer turned actor Johnny Weissmuller in the 1930s and 1940s. Since then, it’s been mostly forgettable. Tarzan: The Legend Of Greystoke, Lord Of The Apes is best summed up by its pompous title. But that was far superior to Tarzan The Ape Man, in which the supposed lead was a bland hunk merely keeping the screen warm for his Jane, Bo Derek.
Dozens of films, all caught dangling in the vines. But director David Yates did a good job of the Harry Potters. And aren’t we a little tired of heroes in irredeemably silly costumes? Perhaps it’s time to return to one who wears next to nothing.
Yates and his scriptwriters have been smart in re-presenting their hero. This isn’t the “origins” story we might have expected, but one that knits Tarzan’s beginnings – raised by apes after the death of his marooned parents – with a story that sees him as Lord Greystoke, returning to Africa eight years after he’d left. And that story is a punchy, historically feasible one centred on the Congo of the 1880s, whose indigenous people were persecuted and enslaved by Leopold of Belgium, who sacked the country under the guise of philanthropy.
The villain of the piece is Leopold’s man Leon Rom, played by today’s go-to actor for smiling villainy, Christoph Waltz. Rom needs diamonds to pay his mercenaries; tribal leader Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou) has a stack of them, and a grudge against Tarzan; Rom lures the Lord back to Africa with the idea of an exchange.
The film gears up well, with sumptuous scene-setting in Africa before switching to Victorian London, where we find Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) as a brooding celebrity keen to be forgotten as the ape-man and taken seriously as an English lord. Wary of accepting an invitation to view Leopold’s supposed good deeds, he’s persuaded by his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) who’s keen to see her African friends. They’re accompanied by an American (Samuel L Jackson), fresh from fighting against slavery in the American Civil War, who smells a rat in the Congo.
The scenes in which Tarzan and Jane reacquaint themselves with the land, their friends and jungle animals (there should be a warning not to try lion-nuzzling when next on safari) are very appealing, while creating a slow-burn sense of anticipation.
Unfortunately, once Rom reveals his hand, it quickly goes to pot, the good work of the script unravelling in a rush from one increasingly daft action sequence to another. The film’s eventual silliness is typified by Jackson, whether reading an American riot act to tribesmen who simply wouldn’t understand him, or over-emoting in a way that only works with Tarantino.
Skarsgård makes a decent, smouldering Tarzan (sensibly eschewing the loin cloth for trousers), Robbie a feisty Jane, Waltz less loquacious than usual but still dastardly and fun. The CGI animals are just OK, but the African landscapes gorgeous. It’s a shame that clumsiness prevents this from being a better movie, and us from reconsidering a much-maligned hero.
The Legend of Tarzan opens in cinemas on Wednesday
Also released ...
Notes On Blindness (U)
Moving, thought-provoking documentary about John Hull, a theologian whose response to suddenly losing his sight in the 1980s was to begin recording observations on his blindness on hundreds of audio tapes.
Queen Of Earth (15)
Psychological thriller with a compelling performance by Mad Men’s Elizabeth Moss as a woman reeling after the death of her father and the end of her relationship, whose fraying state of mind sets her at odds with her best friend.
Absolutely Fabulous
Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley reprise their famous creations from the hit 1990s TV show, PR Edwina and magazine editor Patsy, for this big screen outing.
The Colony (15)
Emma Watson and Daniel Bruhl star in a political thriller set in Pinochet-era Chile, as two Westerners trapped in the notorious torture centre Colonia Dignidad.
Now You See Me 2 (12A)
The brash and mouthy magicians known as The Four Horsemen return, this time pitted against Daniel Radcliffes’s tech wizard cum criminal mastermind. Released on tomorrow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here