Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is a 1984 adventure film directed by Hugh Hudson based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes (1912). Christopher Lambert stars as Tarzan (though the name Tarzan is never used in the film's dialogue) and Andie MacDowell as Jane Porter; the cast also includes Ralph Richardson (in his final role), Ian Holm, James Fox, Cheryl Campbell, and Ian Charleson.
Greystoke received three Academy Award nominations at the 57th Academy Awards ceremony for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Richardson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, and Best Makeup. It became the first Tarzan feature film to be nominated for an Academy Award; Tarzan (1999) became the first one to win an Oscar.
Plot
John, Lord Clayton, the heir to the 6th Earl of Greystoke, and his wife Alice are shipwrecked on the Congolese coast. John builds a home in the trees, and Alice gives birth to a son. She later grows ill from malaria and dies. While John is grieving her, the treehouse is visited by Mangani apes, one of whom, Silverbeard, kills him. Kala, a female ape carrying her dead infant, hears the cries of the human baby in his crib. She adopts the boy and raises him as a member of the clan as he grows up naked, wild, and free.
At age one, the boy learns how to walk. At age five, he knows how to swing on vines and is still trying to fit in with his ape family. When a black panther attacks, he learns how to swim to evade it while another ape is killed.
At age 12, the boy discovers the treehouse. He finds a wooden block, with pictures of a boy and a chimpanzee painted on it. Seeing himself in a mirror, the boy recognizes he is different from the rest of his ape family. He also discovers his father's hunting knife. The objects fascinate the boy, who takes them with him; but is ambushed by the ape Kerchak who savagely beats the boy before his ape mother and father arrive. The boy is nursed back to health and gets back at Kerchak by urinating on him, learning to outwit the stronger opponent rather than fight him directly. One day, his mother is killed by a native hunting party, and he kills one of them in a rage before they can kill him as well.
Years later, Belgian explorer Phillippe d'Arnot is traveling with a band of British adventurers along the river. He is disgusted by Major Jack Downing who hunts animals for sport. A band of natives attack the party, killing everyone except Phillippe, who, injured, hides in the trees. The young man in a loin cloth finds Phillippe and nurses him back to health. D'Arnot discovers that the man is a natural mimic and teaches him to speak rudimentary English. After deducing who this man's father and mother are, d'Arnot calls him "Jean". John agrees to return to England with him and reunite with his human family.
On arrival at Greystoke, the family's country estate in Scotland, John is welcomed by his grandfather, the 6th Earl of Greystoke, and his ward, a young American called Jane Porter. The Earl still grieves the loss of his son and daughter-in-law but is very happy to have his grandson home. He displays eccentric behaviour and often seems to think his grandson is his son.
John is treated as a novelty by the locals, and some of his behavior is seen as threatening. He befriends a mentally disabled worker on the estate and in his company relaxes into his natural ape-like behaviour. Jane, meanwhile, teaches John more English, French, and social skills. They become very close and one evening make love in secret.
Lord Greystoke enjoys renewed vigour at the return of his grandson and, reminiscing about his childhood game of using a tray as a toboggan on a flight of stairs, decides to relive the old pastime. He crashes at the foot of the stairs and dies, apparently from a head injury. At his passing, John mourns as he did in Africa following the death of Kala.
John inherits the title Earl of Greystoke. Jane helps John through his grief, and they become engaged. He is also cheered up when Phillippe returns. One day, while visiting London's Natural History Museum with Jane, John is disturbed by the displays of stuffed animals. He discovers many live, caged apes from Africa, including his adoptive father, Silverbeard. John releases Silverbeard and other caged animals. Pursued by police and museum officials, they reach a park, where Silverbeard is fatally shot. John is devastated.
Righteously sickened by a society where humans mistreat their fellow animals as well as each other, while also tired of the other nobles who only wish to use him to further their own agendas, John decides to return to Africa and reunite with his ape family. Phillippe and Jane escort him back to his jungle, where he reunites with his ape friend, Figs. Jane does not join him, but Phillippe is hopeful that perhaps they may someday be reunited.
Cast
- Christopher Lambert as John Clayton/Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, a man orphaned in the jungle who was adopted by a group of apes and became their leader and is the last member of the Greystoke lineage
- Tali McGregor as Infant Tarzan
- Peter Kyriakou as 1-year-old Tarzan
- Danny Potts as 5-year-old Tarzan
- Eric Langlois as 12-year-old Tarzan
- Ralph Richardson as The 6th Earl of Greystoke, John Clayton's grandfather who is the current Earl of Greystoke and confuses John for his son due to grief and his deteriorated memory
- Ian Holm as Capitaine Phillippe d'Arnot, a Belgian explorer who discovered John in the jungle, taught him the way of man, and brought him to England
- James Fox as Lord Charles Esker, a lord who tries to keep the line of Greystoke intact
- Andie MacDowell as Jane Porter, the Earl's ward who becomes romantically involved with John
- Glenn Close as the uncredited voice of Jane Porter. Close later voiced Kala, Tarzan's adoptive ape mother in the Disney animated adaptation.
- Cheryl Campbell as Alice, Lady Clayton of Greystoke, John's biological mother who dies of malaria
- Paul Geoffrey as John "Jack" Clayton, Viscount Clayton, John's biological father who is killed by his adoptive ape father
- Ian Charleson as Jeffson Brown
- Nigel Davenport as Major Jack Downing, a big game hunter enjoys hunting animals for sport only to eventually become prey to tribal hunters.
- Nicholas Farrell as Sir Hugh Belcher
- Richard Griffiths as Captain Billings
- Hilton McRae as Willy
- David Suchet as Buller
- John Wells as Sir Evelyn Blount
- Paul Brooke as The Rev. Stimson
Ape performers
- Peter Elliott as Silverbeard, the dominant male of the Mangani troop and John's adoptive ape father. Elliott was also the ape movement choreographer.
- Ailsa Berk as Kala, John's adoptive ape mother who took him in after she lost her infant
- John Alexander as White Eyes, an aggressive male in the troop who has a vendetta against John.
- Christopher Beck as Droopy Ears, a childhood friend of John who was unfortunately killed by a panther
- Mak Wilson as Figs, an overweight member of the troop who is a faithful friend and brother figure of John
- Emil Abossolo-Mbo and Deep Roy as additional ape performers
Development
Robert Towne
In August 1974 producer Stanley Jaffe announced Warner Bros. Pictures had bought the rights to the Tarzan character from the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate and wanted to make a new Tarzan film. "It won't be a caricature or a popularization", he said. "It will be a serious period action adventure true to the characters and done in terms of contemporary mores." Robert Towne signed to write the script. No director or cast was attached but the producer said "I expect the Tarzan we'll cast won't be a muscle man."
Towne later recalled, "I called up a friend and said, "Let's do it." But he says, "Oh, damn man, that's going to be a problem"—because an associate of his had met resistance trying to put together a Tarzan film. Oh, no, come on—Jane Goodall, Shadow of Man. We could actually do it now as if it really happened. And my friend said "You’re right, screw it, let's do it"." In September 1975, a report said the film would be made the following year. "It's a very heavy story", said Towne. "Very sensual. Basically it's about Tarzan and his foster mother." The film had a tentative budget of $6 million and a working title of Lord Greystoke.
Towne said working on the script is what made him want to direct. "I suddenly realized that I'd written a bunch of descriptions without much dialogue to go along with it", he said. "I'd reached the age where I realized that I couldn't necessarily just turn that over to a director and say "Don't fuck it up." It's just a bunch of descriptions, and then it became embarrassingly apparent to me that those were what I saw when I wrote them down. There was nobody else who could see them, so I needed to direct... The distance between the page and the stage is so enormous that it is unbelievable how even the brightest people can misread your intent or not see it altogether. Scripts have air in them. Scripts are supposed to leave things up to interpretation, but people can misread things enormously, so sometimes it's just a matter of wanting to put on the screen what you had in mind."
By October 1977, Towne was attached as director as well as writer. Anthea Sylbert was appointed Warners executive in charge of the project. Towne made his directorial debut on another project he had written, Personal Best. This movie, about female athletes, came out of Towne's interest in human movement, which arose from his research into Greystoke. He intended Personal Best to be a "trial run" for Greystoke. However filming Personal Best proved extremely difficult – Towne had to deal with an actors strike and a budget blow out. He wound up in conflict with producer David Geffen and Warners that led to him selling his interest in Greystoke.
"Greystoke may be the kid I love the most, but I was eight months' pregnant with Personal Best, so that's the kid I had to save", said Towne. Part of the $1 million that Towne received for Greystoke was put in escrow to be held against any money he went over budget on Personal Best. Towne later said he was practically broke. "Nobody can believe how mucked up financially you can be by these studio guys. But a cab driver in New York who doesn't get tipped gets more sympathy than any Hollywood writer." Personal Best was a box office flop. In 2010, Towne said losing Greystoke was "then, is now, and always will be the biggest creative regret of my life."
Hugh Hudson
A new director became attached to the project – Hugh Hudson whose debut feature Chariots of Fire had been a surprise box office hit. "Towne's script was brilliant", said Hudson. "It was only half finished and overlong but all the jungle stuff was there and it was fascinating. I said yes at once."
Puttnam eventually pulled out and went off to produce Local Hero instead. "After looking into it carefully I felt it needed a more experienced producer", he said. "I've never worked with special effects and frankly they terrify me. And on that film you need someone who's done that. I'd have been learning on the job and that could have proved expensive and one of the things I rely on is people's belief that I can deliver good value for money. I had this awful vision of Greystoke going over budget and my whole reputation going down the drain."
Hudson said, "I think he [Puttnam] felt he had lost control because it was a studio picture set up by Semel and Daly and they wanted to deal directly with me, and he had this other film going, The Killing Fields, that he probably wanted to do more. Stanley Canter [who's credited as producer alongside Hudson] had a deal with Warners and the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, but he wasn’t involved in the making of the film." Towne had done tests involving real apes but Hudson felt this was too difficult and decided to use humans in ape costumes.
Production
Casting
Hudson wanted to cast unknowns as Tarzan and Jane Porter. "They are complete innocents, and therefore somebody new is more acceptable to the audience than a face you know. They also represent the innocent side of ourselves, and we should be able to identify with them. So Tarzan is what we might be, if we had lived like that: light, lithe, every muscle used, but not rippling like a Charles Atlas." The film was shot in Korup National Park in southwestern Cameroon and in the United Kingdom.
Several great houses in the UK were used for the fictional Greystoke family seat in Scotland:
- Floors Castle near Kelso in Roxburghshire, Scotland, was used for the exterior and ballroom scenes.
- Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, was used for the entrance hall and the grand staircase.
- Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, was used for interior scenes.
Post-production
Warner Bros. cut out 25 minutes from the jungle footage of Tarzan growing up. "I was sorry to lose those scenes", said Hudson. "But you can't have everything." Vangelis was also considered, but according to Hudson, he got "writer's block", so the production hired John Scott, "and he did a very good job in a very short space of time", said the director.
Featured in a series of Bisto gravy granules adverts that ran from September 1984 to Easter 1986. With the phrase "Much More Ahh".
Reception
Box office
The film grossed $45.9 million upon its release, making it the 15th most popular film at the box office in 1984.
Critical reception
Colin Greenland reviewed Greystoke for Imagine magazine, and stated that "If there's a better film this year than Greystoke, I shall be astonished." Variety praised the film's cast and production design, while considering the film to be more faithful to the source material than previous adaptations.
Accolades
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| rowspan="3"| Academy Awards
| Best Supporting Actor
| Ralph Richardson
|
| align="center" rowspan="3"| <br>
|-
| Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium
| Robert Towne and Michael Austin
|
|-
| Best Makeup
| Rick Baker and Paul Engelen
|
|-
| rowspan="6"| British Academy Film Awards
| rowspan="2"| Best Actor in a Supporting Role
| Ian Holm
|
| align="center" rowspan="6"|
|-
| Ralph Richardson
|
|-
| Best Cinematography
| John Alcott
|
|-
| Best Make-Up Artist
| Paul Engelen, Peter Frampton, Rick Baker and Joan Hills
|
|-
| Best Production Design
| Stuart Craig
|
|-
| Best Sound
| Ivan Sharrock, Gordon McCallum, Les Wiggins and Roy Baker
|
|-
| British Society of Cinematographers Awards
| Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature Film
| John Alcott
|
| align="center"|
|-
| César Awards
| Best Foreign Film
| Hugh Hudson
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Jupiter Awards
| Best International Actor
| Christopher Lambert
|
| align="center"|
|-
| National Society of Film Critics Awards
| Best Supporting Actor
| Ralph Richardson
|
| align="center"|
|-
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards
| Best Supporting Actor
| Ralph Richardson
|
| align="center"|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Saturn Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Fantasy Film
|
| align="center" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Best Costumes
| John Mollo
|
|-
| Turkish Film Critics Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Foreign Film
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Venice Film Festival
| Golden Lion
| Hugh Hudson
|
| align="center"|
|-
| Writers Guild of America Awards
| Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium
| Robert Towne and Michael Austin
|
| align="center"|
|}