esrosedotblog

GONE APE

I saw an extraordinary film today.

Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes 1984

It was on the first of the two Best NYTimes Best lists (why we have 1176 not 1000, remember?) but not the second. Someone had second thoughts.

While the Tarzan (his name is not uttered in the entire film) is just fine, the performance gems in this picture are Sir Ralph Richardson and the every reliable Ian Holm. Richardson is the Greystoke patriarch and Holm the discoverer of the 'Lord' himself.

Incidentally, while I have parenthesized the no Tarzan comment, it solves a problem that I have always had. If the Lord of the Apes grows up with the apes then who gave him his name? So huh?

Here is what I like. The totally different take on the legend after all these years of takes; a combination of comedy, adventure, and hard drama.

We have never ever seen the boy actually grow up with realistic apes. Just chimps and comic ones at that. Disney solved this through cartooning the process and came close but in this film the apes are for-sure apes and excellent fake ones and the drama of the child-rearing is a force of nature. Natch.

The director Hugh Hudson is the Chariots of Fire guy and he uses a lot of the b-cast from that film.

This one is going to get a 5 out of Netflix5.