Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)

A shipping disaster in the nineteenth century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. The mother dies soon ... See full summary »

Director:

Hugh Hudson

Writers:

Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel), Robert Towne (as P.H. Vazak)

Stars:

Christopher Lambert, Andie MacDowell, Ralph Richardson

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ralph Richardson	...	The Sixth Earl of Greystoke
Ian Holm	...	Capitaine Phillippe D'Arnot
James Fox	...	Lord Charles Esker
Christopher Lambert	...	John Clayton / Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
Andie MacDowell	...	Miss Jane Porter
Cheryl Campbell	...	Lady Alice Clayton
Ian Charleson	...	Jeffson Brown
Nigel Davenport	...	Major Jack Downing
Nicholas Farrell	...	Sir Hugh Belcher
Paul Geoffrey	...	Lord John 'Jack' Clayton
Richard Griffiths	...	Captain Billings
Hilton McRae	...	Willy
David Suchet	...	Buller
Ravinder	...	Dean
John Wells	...	Sir Evelyn Blount

Storyline

A shipping disaster in the nineteenth century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. The mother dies soon afterwards. An ape enters the house and kills the father, and a female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captaine Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.

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Plot Keywords:

tarzan | shipwreck | africa | ape | orphan | 

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Taglines:

A legendary hero - and the tale that's never been told!

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. WB Shop / Warner Archive

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

30 March 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Greystoke: The 7th Earl Lord John Clayton, Tarzan of the Apes

Filming Locations:

Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$45,900,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., WEA Records

Technical Specs

Runtime:

143 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In a 2012 interview at the London BFI (British Film Insitute), Viggo Mortensen confirmed that he was considered for the role of Tarzan.

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Goofs

When Tarzan's ape father is shot, he lands face down. In the next shot, he is face up, then face down again, then rolled him over onto his back.

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Quotes

[a tribe of cannibals are on the riverbank]
Sir Evelyn Blount: What are they saying D'Arnot?
Capitaine Phillippe D'Arnot: Dinner is serving. No! Arrived, dinner has arrived is a slightly better translation.
Sir Evelyn Blount: I don't think that's frightfully funny D'Arnot!

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Alternate Versions

In 1992, an "Extended Version" was released to home video by Warner, and this version runs six minutes longer than the original release. The Extended Version videos feature the following:

• An overture of John Scott's main orchestral themes, which runs for about 01:40.
• Immediately following the Warner Brothers logo is a reinserted prologue with the great apes. The scene opens with a master shot of the African jungle from a bird's-eye view, complete with smoking volcano in the distance, rolling storm clouds, and the caption "EQUATORIAL WEST AFRICA 1885". During this sequence, there is a storm and the volcano gushes lava, causing the apes to go into turmoil. The tribe's oldest ape, Silverbeard, calls the warning to the others and they all rush to shelter from the rain, etc. Kala, nursing her infant baby, seems reluctant to go. Silverbeard roughly tries to get her to move, accidentally(?) causing the death of the little ape, as it falls from Kala's grip and plummets to the rocks below. Kala sees her child die and howls with anguish, ending the scene with a fade-out to black. The next shot is the original opening, with one change: a new caption: "SCOTLAND. TEN MONTHS EARLIER." This whole jungle prologue clocks in at about 01:45, and serves as a bookend for the film, as the film now ends on practically the same shot as it opens, but at the end of the film the scene shows a peaceful view of the jungle.
• After Lord Clayton leaves Greystoke for his tropical journey, and the scene shifts to the African coast, a reprinted (which means this shot now exists TWICE in the sequence) shot of the shipwreck (post-accident) now replaces the original shot, which was a beautiful, wide master of the whole coast where the ship has crashed, looking in from the ocean.
• Once Capitaine D'Arnot and Tarzan reach civilization (the "edge of the world") and rest at Buller's inn, another whole sequence has been reinserted. After D'Arnot shows Tarzan fire, the sequence cuts to about an hour later, when D'Arnot attempts to arrange a charter for passage to England. We meet the rest of the gang in the bar, which includes a pointed acknowledgment that Captain Billings ("It's not my fault, don't blame me") from Lord Clayton's shipwreck IS among them, and has been for some time. D'Arnot explains he has no money for the arrangement but can promise an I.O.U., which sets the whole gang at the bar off. They accuse D'Arnot and Tarzan of possibly being escaped convicts and threaten the D'Arnot with violence. Tarzan pounces on the attackers, roaring like a panther, and starts a fire with an oil lamp (showing that he does understand fire's danger). Everyone flees the inn, which is soon completely ablaze. Amid the chaos, D'Arnot and Tarzan escape in a canoe. The scene then cuts to the original versions long shot, in daytime, of D'Arnot rowing down the river with Tarzan. The entire sequence features some repeated music scoring cues, and extra music not heard in the original. As the sequence ends, we hear D'Arnot add, in voice-over: "I sense that we have a long and difficult journey ahead of us; perhaps weeks of waiting for a ship that will give us passage to England. I will try to teach John some rudimentary manners and a greater understanding of the language. Like a father, I am resolved to impart to him all that I can, but never, not even for a moment, do I doubt that to take him back is a perilous undertaking...for John, but also for his family." The voice-over narration concludes after the fade-out on Africa and over the shot of the Greystoke estate, in Scotland. Note: in the original theatrical release, the inn sequence ends before any major hint that D'Arnot and Tarzan could be in danger, and cuts directly to them rowing down the river. The original voice-over narration from D'Arnot: "And so began John's education of the world he had just entered. I was determined to teach him as much as I possibly could, but never for a moment did I doubt that to bring him back would be a perilous undertaking...for John, and also for his family." This original narration ended just as the African landscape fades to black. The newly inserted sequence runs about 03:15.

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Connections

Referenced in Crocodile Dundee (1986)

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Soundtracks

Sontag Polka
(uncredited)
Music by Eugen D'Albert
Arranged by John Scott

User Reviews

a great film!

I, unlike a lot of you unkind movie reviewers, actually liked the movie. The movie was slow? That it wasn't. If it was, I would have sent it back to Amazon.Com. All of Tarzan's actions in the movie HAD to take place. Like the love scene. You'd be stupid to think that Tarzan would turn into a Romeo and just make love to Jane..duh..he's half ape peoples! If you're in the mood for a beautiful movie, don't listen to the no-brainers, see it, you'll love Greystoke! I first saw it in Theaters when I was 11, and I loved it then & I still love it now. All the actors in the movie did a great job..the jungle scenes are beautiful, and the original score is a masterpiece. 9 out of 10