This Forgotten '80s Adventure Movie Is One Of The Best Adaptations Of Tarzan Ever Made

Hugh Hudson's 1984 film "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes" isn't terribly well-remembered by modern audiences. It's strange how little the film is talked about, given that it has a very impressive cast, some amazing photography, and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Ralph Richardson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Robert Towne and Michael Austin were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Rick Baker and Paul Engelen were nominated for Best Makeup. Baker and Engelen cast human actors as the apes and put them in some very impressive ape masks, well deserving of an Oscar. Sadly they lost to "Amadeus." 

"Greystoke" was, of course, a modern riff on Edgar Rice Burrough's "Tarzan" novels, and starred Christopher Lambert as the titular vine-swinger. "Greystoke" tells the Tarzan story from the very beginning, when Tarzan's human parents (Paul Geoffrey and Cheryl Campbell) crash-land their plane in a remote part of the African rainforests. Tarzan, of course, was named John Clayton, but his mother dies of malaria when he's still tiny, and his father is killed by an ape, Silverbeard (Paul Elliott). The infant is taken in by Kala (Ailsa Burke) and raised among the apes. 

After that, though, the plot of "Greystoke" skews from what most audiences might be familiar with when it comes to Tarzan. Most versions of the story see a group of colonialists traversing into the deep underbrush and finding Tarzan there. In this film, Tarzan is discovered by one man and taken back to the big city. It won't be until Tarzan is back on the Scottish Greystoke estate that he will meet Jane (Andie MacDowell, with her voice dubbed over by Glenn Close). 

And, to reiterate, John Alcott's photography really makes this film come to life. The misty sharpness is among the best of the 1980s. It should also be noted that the species of apes in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories, called Mangani Apes, are wholly fictional, so it's fitting that they should be played by human actors in ultra-realistic suits. These are advanced, human-like apes, so human actors are appropriate. 

Tarzan is discovered in the jungle by a Belgian explorer named D'Arnot (Ian Holm), whose party was killed by the locals. It will be D'Arnot who teaches Tarzan about human language and who will take him back to the Greystoke estate. Ralph Richardson plays Tarzan's grandfather, the 6th Earl of Greystoke, and his kooky performance, as mentioned, netted him an Oscar nomination. Jane is the Earl's American ward, and it was Andie MacDowell's first major film role. According to a 2016 retrospective in the Hollywood Reporter, the director disliked MacDowell's Southern accent, causing him to hire Glenn Close to dub all of MacDowell's lines. Hugh Hudson had directed the Best-Picture-winning "Chariots of Fire" a few years earlier, so his ability to attract high-profile actors was strong; "Greystoke" was, in his hands, a prestige project. 

In the Hollywood Reporter retrospective, Hudson said he wanted to make a Tarzan story that was realistic. He said that Francois Truffaut's 1970s film "The Wild Child" was his template, as that film was based on a true story. He wanted a Tarzan that had trouble adapting to human society. No Johnny Weismuller moments for this Tarzan. 

The Hollywood Reporter retrospective is fascinating, and Hugh Hudson talks about the entire process of making the film, the people he hired, and the actors he had the joy of working with. He even told a story of how ape actress Ailsa Burke was nearly accosted on a subway in between filming days, and that she snapped into ape mode and frightened off her attackers. He also noted that Andie MacDowell didn't like having her voice dubbed over, but that she went to acting school after making "Greystoke." She got a raw deal in the '90s. 

Hudson also told an amusing anecdote about glimpsing a strange creature in the woods during shooting, only to learn that it was a skulking Ralph Richardson. Richardson had no scenes with the ape performers, and was keen to see them in action. According to Hudson, Richardson had brought his pet rat to the set. Sadly, Richardson died before the release of "Greystoke," so he never got to see the apes filmed in all their glory. He was right to visit the set with his pet rat. 

"Greystoke" has a respectable 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews. Vincent Canby, writing for the New York Times, said that it was one of the most enjoyable films of the year. These days, the most popular films from the 1980s tend to be the kid-friendly films and blockbusters ("Ghostbusters," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," etc.), with Hollywood prestige pictures of the era having fallen down a deep memory hole ("Hannah and Her Sisters," "Ordinary People," etc.). "Greystoke" suffered the same fate as the latter, even if it is, in passages, as entertaining as the former.