More than a century after Tarzan first roamed the pages of pulp magazines, the aristocratic noble savage remains one of the world’s most recognizable fictional characters. In the story’s latest incarnation, Alexander Skarsgård (HBO’s “True Blood”) stars as John Clayton III aka Lord Greystoke aka Tarzan. The hunky Swedish actor follows a long line of vine-swinging, white athletic studs for a rumble in the jungle.
In The Legend of Tarzan, Greystoke and his wife, the plucky American Jane (Margot Robbie), are lured to the Congo Free State, the personal fiefdom of Belgium’s King Leopold. The film’s setting is constructed from pieces of actual history. Among the European leaders who carved up Africa in the late-19th century, Leopold was the most malevolent, running Congo as a slave state and ruthlessly exploiting its resources. Greystoke is ostensibly on a good will mission for the British government, but his sidekick, the American emissary George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson), is working to amass evidence of Leopold’s crimes for the court of world opinion. The villain is Leopold’s adjutant, Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz), a man whose white suit barely conceals a black heart. Seeking diamonds in the mountainous stronghold of a fierce tribe, Rom strikes a deal with their chief (Djimon Hounsou): diamonds in exchange for the man who killed the chief’s son, the one they call Tarzan.
Plagued by dull stretches and special effects-dependent fight scenes, The Legend is in need of an actor more dynamic in Greystoke’s role than Skarsgård, who is suitably buff but has less personality than a tree trunk. The willful yet in-need-of rescue Jane is played by Robbie in one dimension. Hounsou has nothing to do but look grim under his leopard skin cap. The always-engaging Jackson is on hand as comic relief as the anachronistic soul brother and sole character who sometimes realizes how ridiculous the story is becoming. He accompanies Greystoke into the heart of darkness in pursuit of Jane, kidnapped by Rom and captive aboard a heavily armed steamboat. But then there is Waltz, marvelously focused as an utterly amoral functionary dressed up with a thin veneer of civilization. Waltz steals the camera during every minute of screen time.
The survival of Tarzan as the subject for a 21st-century wannabe blockbuster is curious, given his roots in the racist pseudo-science and prevalent white supremacy of a century ago. But like any enduring character, he is capable of being reinterpreted. Today’s Tarzan has become a champion of Africans as well as the animal species he knew so well as a wild boy raised by jungle apes—this at a time when animal cognition has become a popular science topic. The film’s best special effects involve close encounters with those creatures. The human characters don’t fare as well.
The Legend of Tarzan
Alexander Skarsgård
Christoph Waltz
Directed by David Yates
PG-13
