A Swede, playing a jungle dweller turned noble Englishman, who in the books learnt French as a spoken language first, and read English without ever hearing the language. So, why not?
I’ve spent the last year of my life supervising on this. My dad is an uber-Tarzan fan, with probably the largest collection of Tarzan comics and novels for many miles around, and I’ve read most of them, growing up around them. So it’s been serendipitous.
It’ll be interesting to see how they avoid the connotations of white superiority that the story has.
I mean, is it even possible to have a Tarzan movie in this day and age? No matter what they do to backpedal the racialist aspect and keep it a fun, romantic tale that taps into some archetypal fantasies (running away from home, secretly being a great personage who happens to be in the wrong family, etc.), there’s bound to be someone, somewhere who makes a meal of it on Twitter or Tumblr.
What racist superiority? Tarzan has black enemies and black allies. There are both black tribes and white tribes who endanger the European visiters. Most of his most despicable foes are white, including his cousin. The story is thought to be somewhat based on Romulus and Remus, was that racist too?
I remember watching Greystoke quite a bit on HBO back in the day. But, wow, had to go back and check but that was the acting debut of the beautiful Andie McDowell. And now I’m watching her daughter in The Leftovers. I feel so old.
One of my wife’s favorite movies is Green Card, starring Andie McDowell. She usually has to get likkered up to watch it, though, or she can’t bear Andie’s “acting.”
We watched it tonight and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It’s no Tarzan’s New York Adventure, and I think I prefer the old stock footage of circus animals to the cheesy CGI, but Skaarsgaard is decent, Woltz is always fun, and the action worked for me.
Just watched this last night on Netflix. I did feel very strong connotations of white superiority. I’d prefer a different story to having him save the entire black population of Kongo from evil king Leopold.
