Rating: 
Summary: So Close...
Review: "Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan" could have been a classic. Lord John Clayton of Greystoke is shipwrecked in Africa with his pregnant wife. Shortly after she gives birth, they both die from an ape attack. One of the apes take little John, and raise him as her own. He grows up strong but wild and savage (now played by Christopher Lambert). One day he is happened upon by a French explorer. He is eventually returned to his family, but he finds it hard to fit in with "civilized" people. Along the way, he falls in love with Jane (played by Andie MacDowell, but her voice was dubbed by Glen Close, but why?). It had a populor director (Hugh Hudson), an accomplished writer (Robert Towne), was beautifully photographed (especially in the jungles, it is just breathtaking) and based on one of the most populor books of the 20th century by Edgar Rice Burroughs. But it isn't. What happened? Well, the first hour or so there is no dialogue; but that is okay, because the physical expressions of the apes and Tarzan are pretty self explanatory. (By the way, he is never referred to as 'Tarzan'.) When he is 'rescued' and moved to England, nothing very adventurous happenes. What happened to pirates coming out of the wood work trying to kidnap Jane? Where are the warriors from Opar? It is very dull. The actors do ok, I guess. Ian Holm is alright, good in fact. Ralf Richardson looked like he was having a good time, and the relationship between he and his grandson. It is hard to tell if MacDowell was any good, with being dubbed over. But what about Tarzan? Christopher Lambert was actually good. I really liked his performance as the childlike savage. He played being in awe of the city wonderfully. He didn't talk a lot, but maybe that is a good thing. His acting tends to be a little wooden; in fact, in my opinion, he just happens to be in the right place at the right time, like this one and "Highlander". I read the novels and I think about how this movie could have been so much more. Still, it is a beautifully shot movie, and it dose play fair, so it is worth your time. If you can find it, watch the extended version, it is a little bit more action packed (loved how Tarzan took out the entire outpost!).
Rating:
Summary: So Close...
Review: "Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan" could have been a classic. Lord John Clayton of Greystoke is shipwrecked in Africa with his pregnant wife. Shortly after she gives birth, they both die from an ape attack. One of the apes take little John, and raise him as her own. He grows up strong but wild and savage (now played by Christopher Lambert). One day he is happened upon by a French explorer. He is eventually returned to his family, but he finds it hard to fit in with "civilized" people. Along the way, he falls in love with Jane (played by Andie MacDowell, but her voice was dubbed by Glen Close, why they did this I'll never know?). It had a populor director (Hugh Hudson), an accomplished writer (Robert Towne), was beautifully photographed (especially in the jungles, it is just breathtaking) and based on one of the most populor books of the 20th century by Edgar Rice Burroughs. But it isn't that good. What happened? Well, the first hour or so there is no dialogue; but that is okay, because the physical expressions of the apes and Tarzan are pretty self explanatory. (By the way, he is never referred to as 'Tarzan'.) When he is 'rescued' and moved to England, nothing very adventurous happenes there. What happened to pirates coming out of the wood work trying to kidnap Jane? Where are the warriors from Opar? I'm sorry, "Greystoke" was pretty dull. The actors do ok, I guess. Ian Holm is alright, good in fact. Ralf Richardson looked like he was having a good time, and the relationship between he and his grandson rang pretty true. It is hard to tell if MacDowell was any good, with being dubbed over. But what about Tarzan? Christopher Lambert was actually good. I really liked his performance as the childlike savage. He played being in awe of the city wonderfully. He didn't talk a lot, but maybe that is a good thing. His acting tends to be a little wooden; in fact, in my opinion, he just happens to be in the right place at the right time, like this one and "Highlander". I read the novels and I think about how this movie could have been so much more. Still, it is a beautifully shot movie, and it dose play fair, so it is worth your time. If you can find it, watch the extended version, it is a little bit more action packed (loved how Tarzan took out the entire outpost!).
Rating:
Summary: When comes the DVD??
Review: A pretty good movie I would like to see on DVD! Anyone who knows when it will be released? From 1984 the make-up is still stunning, infact not at all far from the recent Burton's Planet of The Apes...
The film sometimes tends to get a little silly - proving it is difficult to convert an original old victorian story to moving pictures. In mind is when Tarzan is being introduced to the 'upper English class'.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: After seeing it about 10 times, I had to own it! I read the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, and loved every word of it, so when this movie was FINALLY made... what a treat! It follows the original story, the scenery is gorgeous, and the portrayal of Tarzan by Christopher Lamphert was perfection. Oh Jane, you lucky dog!
Rating: 
Summary: Spectacular retelling of Edgar Rice Burroughs classic tale
Review: 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, his mother adopts an infant human whose parents were killed by the same gorilla. The couple were shipwrecked and thought dead by the man's grandfather the Earl of Greystoke. The 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 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 mother is murdered by tribesmen hunting the gorillas for food, he fights back for the first time killing one of the tribesmen breaking the man's back. He also stands up to and kills the gorilla that tried to kill him and succeeded in killing his parents long ago. Tarzan (Christopher Lambert in his 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 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)but the conflicts between the civilized world and his experience continues 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 Robert Towne ("Chinatown", "Personal Best", "Tequila Sunrise" and "Shampoo") took his name off the credits substituting 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 an animal 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's 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.
Rating:
Summary: THE Tarzan Movie
Review: As a Burroughs fan of more than two decades, I cannot praise this film highly enough. The only other Tarzan movie that even comes close to capturing the spirit of the character this well is the Disney animated feature (if only most of the characters in it, along with the saccharine ending and the horrendous music could be redone). Obviously, there are large portions of the film that depart greatly from the orignal novel. But, let's be realistic! There are characters and scenes in the novel that are just plain offensive by today's standards. Being the sensitive gentleman that he was, Burroughs himself would have written it differently today. If anything, the film managed to amplify the dichotomy present in the character (which, for all you non-English Majors out there, was an overriding theme of Victorian British literature). In fact, making the story more "British" than the books makes sense! After all, Tarzan is an English lord. ERB would have been very pleased with this interpretation of his most successful character. Aside from all else, it simply is an incredible work in its own right, with beautiful cinematography, extraordinarily deep emotion and content, and a solid storyline. And yes, it probably is the most underrated film of the 1980's. (Oh, to see a sequel worthy of the first, or better yet a tale of John Carter that could compare!)
Rating:
Summary: It's about stinkin TIME, Warner Brothers!!
Review: Baffling why this hasn't been released until now. I've been waiting for years!This is a wonderful film full of beautiful scenery and cinematography. The creature effects don't quite hold up like they used to, but Rick Baker is still the best "monkey man" in Hollywood. Lambert gives a passionate performance as does Sir Ian Holm. Andie MacDowell's (Jane) voice is actually dubbed by Glenn Close!
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Beautiful and touching story. Great images and good performances. One of the classics of the 80's.
Rating:
Summary: Greystoke---the best of the Tarzan epics
Review: Christopher Lambert's Earl of Greystoke is by far the finest interpretation of the Tarzan legend to be put to film. From his first encounter with his injured Belgian teacher and first human friend,to his devastation at his many losses and few gains in British society, Lambert gives a masterful performance as a young man whose surroundings molded his behaviour. It is a stunning tour-de-force,and probably the best performance of Lambert's career. Your heart will go out to the young Earl of Greystoke/ape-man as he is by turns confident,strong,confused,lost, and finds himself. All supporting performances in this fine examination of what makes a man a man are well done and without fault. Whining yuppie animal rightists should take a look at this film to see why we should really respect all the earth's creatures. The cinematography is rich and makes silent visual points about man's insensitivity to other human beings and casual arrogance to animals as those on top in each location on earth (Brits of the early century take some hits here) trod on all others. Lambert is astounding as the tortured soul who must make the epic journey of self-discovery,as do we all. Give this video to everyone you know and even remotely care about.
Rating: 
Summary: Bares no resemblence to Burrough's Novel.
Review: Even though it doesn't really bear on the quality (or lack there of) of this movie, I'd like to clear up a very common misconception about this film. It is absolutley nothing like the novel on which it is supposedly based. However, for some reason people who appearantly mistook the Greystoke press release for Burrough's novel continue to perpetuate the myth that this is a faithful adaption of the novel. Even Disney's _Tarzan_ which deviated greatly from the novel itself had more simularities to it than this. Of course this doesn't make Greystoke a bad movie. However, it is disappointing that no film has ever told the story of Burrough's book because _Tarzan_ was not only a very good novel, it is the kind of novel that would make an incredible film if anyone would ever bother to film it rather than simply borrow its title character. As for _Greystoke_, it's best near the begining when Tarzan is in the jungle, but it just becomes tedious once the story moves to England. It's hard to articulate exactly what is wrong with this film. It isn't so much that anything is wrong with it, but there is so very little good about it. The idea of a story about a man who grew up as an ape trying to become a man sounds compelling, but on the screen it gets old fast. Lambert and MacDowell don't help much with performances which like the film aren't really bad but aren't good either. Lambert to often makes it obvious that he is acting and the fact that MacDowell had to be dubbed by Glenn Close doesn't help her performance. Ralph Richardson on the other hand gives a very good performance and carries the parts of the film he has the misfortune of being in. The ending is completely unsatisfying. It tries for the same bittersweet quality of the novel's ending, but because the film so firmly establishes that Tarzan is out of place in the world of man, it has trouble coming to a sensible conclusion. Hopefully, Hollywood will someday make a good version of _Tarzan_, but this isn't it. But don't take my word for it. Screenwriter Robert Towne was so disastified with the final film that he had his name taken of the picture. Instead the screenplay was credited P. H. Vazak, the name of Towne's dog. Then again, maybe Vazak did write this one.
|
