It’s not the scary animals in ‘Tarzan’ that might make you squirm

Taken from Michael Medved’s appearance on Friday’s edition of Seattle’s Morning News on KIRO Radio.

The Legend of Tarzan is produced by Donald Trump’s campaign finance manager, Steven Mnuchin, who is also the executive producer of The Conjuring 2. This is just one of those illustrations that all roads lead to Trump. One shouldn’t think that Mr. Trump himself wrote the screenplay, though he might have.

The original Tarzan books, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, are really pulpy. Those books, which have all kinds of racey content, have been brought to the screen.  When I say racey, I mean not only in the sense of being on the edge, but with an old-fashioned attitude toward race. This film is going to get a lot of criticism because it sort of illustrates some of Hollywood’s battled attitudes toward race. It reminds of a line in an old movie, “Great is the magic of the white man.”  It’s disturbing after a point.

The Legend of Tarzan is politically correct in the sense that there’s a tremendous bad guy played by the greatest villain on screen today: Christoph Waltz. No one else comes close. He plays an agent to King Leopold of Belgium in the 1880s who has a secret plan to re-enslave the Congolese population, and to commit genocide in the Congo in order to steal diamonds. None of it makes any sense.

“My king’s army is due in six days. All I have left to do is deliver Tarzan to Chief Mbolongo. I’m aware of his obsessive desire to kill your husband, but I’ve yet to discover the cause. What did Tarzan do?”

“Killed his only son,” Jane explains.  “And get ready because that is nothing compared to what he will do to you.”

“Your husband’s wildness disturbs me more than I can easily express.”

The Legend of Tarzan goes beyond a story about a boy raised by apes. Tarzan’s upbringing is shown in rather touching flashbacks.

The movie starts out with a prime minister – it looks like it’s supposed to be William Heart Gladstone, but it would be too late for Gladstone. The prime minister calls Lord Greystone, who is Tarzan, to 10 Downing Street. He asks him to go back to his home in the Congo to help represent the Crown’s interest. He’s accompanied on this mission by Jane, played by the spectacularly lovely Margot Robbie. He’s also accompanied by Samuel L. Jackson, playing a veteran of the Civil War and an American ambassador. We didn’t have African American ambassadors, unfortunately, in the 1880s, but OK, fine. He’s there to represent American interests.

They all go the Congo and witness mass enslavements, murders, and horrible things being done to the native population. Tarzan, played by Alexander Skarsgard, leads the defense of these poor, helpless tribes that are shown a lot in loin cloths.

Let me say that this is better than the Disney animated version. If there was any effort to revise Tarzan for our politically correct time, this would be it. But I do suspect that the many, many scenes of African natives who are happy and grateful to the great white savior are squirm-worthy.

It gets 2.5 stars. It’s rated PG-13. There are some pretty scary scenes of animal confrontations. There’s an alligator (or crocodile) scene that, in light of recent events in Orlando, sits a bit uncomfortably. However, it does not involve a small child.

Mnuchin is on everything right now and it’s funny because the Trump campaign doesn’t harbor that as Trump is, of course, supposed to be anti-Hollywood. His other film, The Conjuring 2, has been a box-office hit and a pretty good movie.

Taken from Michael Medved’s appearance on Friday’s edition of Seattle’s Morning News on KIRO Radio.

SK