Tarzan the Ape Man

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Director: W.S. Van Dyke

This movie had some amazing parts. It was also amazingly politically incorrect (but so were the books). I used to love these movies when I was little; it was a lot of fun to see them again.

The story is about a girl named Jane who comes to visit her father in Africa. They go on a journey to find an elephant burial ground. Their party is separated by an attack from dangerous spear-wielding natives. Enter Tarzan. Tarzan meets Jane and decides…well he decides he wants her in his tree. He doesn’t really do anything with her, I think he was just bored and wanted something fun to look at. And he has a monkey. That’s pretty much it. He plays with Jane, saves some people, and screams a lot. It is better than it sounds.

This movie has Tarzan wrestling several animals. A leopard, some sort of deer, and two lions. What amazed me was that he actually fights live animals. This isn’t one of those movies where they unconvincingly fight a stuffed or animatronic animal. These animals are the real deal and let me tell you, the lions especially did not seem happy. They sure don’t make movies like they used to. The scenes where Tarzan is flying through the jungle rate right up there with Spiderman for amazing and awe-inspiring acrobatic movie performances.

There is one point in the movie where Tarzan is arguing with the chimp and he gets angry and pushes the chimp. I don’t know why but I laughed so hard watching that. I rewound it and watched it 5 times. I mean who does that? How often do you see a movie where someone shoves a chimpanzee. Never. You never see that in a movie. Another of my favorite scenes is when a herd of elephants stampede through a pygmy village (really just a whole lot of black midgets). And elephant runs up to a pygmy, picks him up with his trunk and throws him. I was in awe. “How did they film that?” I thought. How do you get an elephant to throw a midget without hurting him? I don’t know, but if you watch this movie keep a lookout for that scene and maybe you can tell me.

It’s a little outdated, but still a lot of fun. I think they should make a live action Tarzan movie today; sort of a cross between Planet of the Apes and King Kong. It could be totally awesome. They should follow the books more. The books are great.

My rating: 4 out of 5