Film Review: Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981)

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(Edited)

(source: tmdb.org)

“What is wrong with this picture” is the question that responsible people should ask as often as possible while performing complex and ambitious tasks. It is likely that at least someone was asking that particular question at the set of 1981 adventure film Tarzan, the Ape Man. Its director John Derek was most likely to answer that question with “Who cares, people only want to see my wife Bo naked”.

As the title suggests, the plot is based on the eponymous novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which had introduced character of Tarzan to the world. The script by Tom Rowe and Gary Goddard is telling the familiar story from the perspective of Jane Porter, played by Bo Derek. Plot begins in 1910 West Africa where Jane arrives to meet her long-absent father, famed explorer James Parker (played by Richard Harris). She joins him on his latest expedition, aimed to find famed elephant graveyard. Old Parker also wants to find and capture legendary “white ape” called Tarzan. Deep in the jungle, Jane is kidnapped by Tarzan, who is revealed to be white human (played by Miles O’Keefe), apparently raised by animals. He releases Jane, but not before she falls in love with him. In the meantime, Parker’s expedition is stalked by vicious native tribe whose chief (played by Steve Strong) has some sinister plans for Jane.

Two years earlier Bo Derek made her iconic appearance as the object of protagonist’s desire in 10 and became global sex symbol. The Dereks – John as director and cinematographer and Bo as credited producer - tried to exploit this status with the film in which Mrs. Derek would appear naked, half-naked or in wet and revealing clothes as much as possible. Original novel about Tarzan with its tropic setting, and its implied erotic dimension (used even in a rare nude scene in 1932 pre-Code Hollywood version) seemed like the perfect choice for such effort. The only problem was that John Derek in this film wasn’t able to direct his way out of the paper bag. The film is overlong, confusing, poorly edited while the inept and unconvincing action scenes are made even worse by the use of slow motion. The acting isn’t much better, with Harris often going over the top, unlike the subdued and almost unnoticeable John Philip Law as Parker’s photographer. Bo Derek is not much of an actress, but she does her job, especially in some of the more bizzare scenes, decently. Miles O’Keefe, a stuntman who replaced the original actor, does the best acting job, mostly because the script doesn’t require him to work hard and his character doesn’t say a single word. The only things that makes this film significantly better is very good musical score by Perry Botkin Jr., which makes Tarzan, the Ape Man sound more epic than actually is.

What is even more disappointing about this film is plenty of missed opportunities. Any slightly more ambitious or talented film maker could have made Tarzan much better with steering it towards certain direction – either by adding even more irreverent silliness and turning into full-blown parody or wandering into somewhat darker territory like Italian cannibal films that used to be popular around that time. John Derek wasn’t such director, but he could expect to see hordes of young males coming to cinema for the single reason of seeing his wife naked. In the days when home video wasn’t that widespread, lack of alternatives helped Tarzan at the box-office and it became a hit despite horrendous reviews and terrible (and mostly deserved) reputation. Today’s audience, on the other hand, doesn’t have much reasons to subject themselves to unnecessary ordeal of watching this film.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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