[CRITICAL] TARZAN

Tarzan has been reviewed by Antoine in the context of the topic, Reflections of Poetry.

The umpteenth film adaptation of the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, TARZAN from David Yates, continues the tradition of the remake hollywood is that, since the advent of the digital revolution, has not ceased to explore the power of technology through classical tales. Very soon, these issues take the form spectacularisante that it is. In other words, digital imaging replaces the natural surroundings and the body in action (Tarzan included), letting you see the seams of the shoot in the studio, and not that of the congolese jungle. With a budget of $ 180 million, it was entitled to expect a little more than two or three animals, digital, especially, that some plans are far reaching hyperrealism sought (the burden of the wildebeest is as unworthy of a blockbuster). Having never really convinced about the saga Harry Potter, David Yates complying with the specifications of the studio, but never manages to evoke any emotion or offer some brilliant visual. In terms of images, the film is a poverty abyssal (see the recent remakes of the Jungle Book and The planet of the apes fall under any other power of narration, the more exciting and shimmering). Conversely, writing screenplay offers a few “surprises” (the atypical bone development, Tarzan), although these are not always in the best taste : the case of the flash-back is symptomatic of hollywood cinema always wanting to pick up the pieces, to show everything to explain.

The credits of the film begins with historical indications “serious” ; that will make any little smile when those will be followed by an action scene between noble savages and colonial with a lot of plans at idle and its cutting out epilepsy. But this historic argument inevitably brings a reformalisation of the literary myth, that is Tarzan, a fictional character to make faces to the political authorities corrupted. The good idea script is to have introduced the characters of Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) and George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson, who reprises his role of 8 guys) that move and the stakes of the narrative : the fictional biography, we move to the historical novel with strong political connotations (colonialism, slavery). Of course all of these promises will not be kept, or even made. The example of the buddy movie, built around Tarzan and Williams, book one or two sequences of loosening of the sympathetic playing of humorous way on the contrasts physical of the two characters and about their past violent and controversial. The duo works simply by the talent of the actors – the style offhand Jackson did wonders in the face of the game mineral of Alexander Skarsgård – because place in such backgrounds, it is still difficult to feel the interaction, and therefore the emotion, with wild Nature and animal petting to a lion or an elephant calf, the battle against his brother-ape Akut, etc). As for the rest of the protagonists, they are all sacrificed : the courageous Jane (Margot Robbie), the machiavellian Leon Rom (Waltz, which made the bare minimum) and the avenger Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), is reduced to mimicry of the faces, with the possible grunts or screams, all eyes in the distance.

“Skillful Interaction between myth and History around the figure of the hero, Tarzan provides two models of heroic : after having re-established order under threat, first founded a family, it is the” warrior’s rest “, while the second sets out again to other adventures, this is the cycle of the Eternal Return.”

Leaving the world of the apes, and the internal conflict of Tarzan, that is to say, the fiction for the benefit of a passage from the controversial History, the writers mix the literary myth to the historical reality without necessarily initiate the changes needed to their mythical figure. In the end, Tarzan is still more stubborn in wanting to save the one she loves (the girl in distress) that the congolese people (community control), which is consistent with the myth. But it is only a simple intermediary, a kind of guide all-terrain, for the other hero of the story, the Dr. Williams. As the exemption joyfully Leo Rom during a scene, the true hero is the one who marks the Story (he wanted to save the Belgium of bankruptcy), title finally returned to Williams in the film. Skillful Interaction between myth and History around the figure of the hero, TARZAN provides two models of heroic : after having re-established order under threat, first founded a family, it is the “warrior’s rest” while the second has to go back to other adventures, this is the cycle of the Eternal Return.

Antoine Gaudé

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