TARZAN THE APE MAN
US, 1981, 108 minutes, Colour.
Bo Derek, Richard Harris, Miles O’ Keefe, Wilfid Hyde White, John Philip Law.
Directed by John Derek.
This film achieved some brief notoriety in 1981 because of its treatment of the traditional Edgar Aice Burroughs' characters and for the exploitation of Bo Derek. The criticisms were overstated. All in all, this is a pleasant enough yarn, fairly innocuous and only mildly suggestive. It certainly focuses on Jane rather than on Tarzan though Tarzan appears more than the criticisms led audiences to believe. Miles O’Keefe? is introduced in a non-speaking but yodelling role. lie fulfils all the activity requirements of Tarzan. He is also attended by cheetahs and elephants.
llowever, the focus of the film is on Bo Derek as Jane. The colour photography on location in Sri Lanka and the Seychelles Island is beautiful and of course is meant to match the beauty of Bo Derek. She is a rather prim 1910 American in search of her explorer father, who intrepidly speaks feminist points of view and goes on an expedition to encounter Tarzan and hostile tribe. Richard Harris portrays her father and gets top billing with Bo Derek. He seems to be enjoying himself - although he declaims and overacts as if Shakespeare had. written the part for him. John Phillip Law, on the other hand, is pleasantly restrained as his stolid assistant.
The dialogue at times tends to be over serious - played rather straight. At other times, the screen play is strongly tongue-in-cheek and is in the vein of humorous parodies of heroes of yesteryear, especially those done by Mel Brooks and Marty Feldman. There are obviously lapses in taste and in-jokes which may or may not amuse audiences. There are some action scenes but the film always reverts to Bo Derek. At times she acts well, at times does not at all. The film can be seen as one of several parodies of the past as well as nostalgia echoes of the straight up-and-down, black and white heroes and heroines of the past. These seem to be yearned for in so many action films of the late seventies and early eighties - following the Star Wars, Superman trend. Bo Derek's husband, former actor John Derek, photographed and directed the film. It is a pleasant, inoffensive piece of fluffy inanity.
