In 1886 a shipwreck strands Lady Alice Clayton (Cheryl Campbell) and Lord Jack Clayton (Paul Geoffrey) – a British couple of noble lineage from the Greystoke family – in the wilds of Africa, where her ladyship gives birth to a boy. After the death of his parents, the child is raised by apes.
Twenty years later the young man, now known as ‘Tarzan’, rescues a wounded Belgian explorer, Phillippe D’Arnot (Ian Holm) and nurses him back to health.
D’Arnot resolves to take Tarzan back to civilisation and restore him to his rightful place on the Greystoke estate.
Tarzan is reunited with civilisation as the aristocratic heir to his grandfather, the Earl of Greystoke (Ralph Richardson in his last film role).
Christopher Lambert excels as the feral interloper, awkwardly coming to terms with a new society that contains its own fair share of barbarism while romancing the genteel Jane, played by then-newcomer Andie McDowell.
A $33 million epic retelling of the Edgar Rice Burroughs legend which was visually lush with some fine acting (including Glenn Close’s dubbing of MacDowell’s voice).
John Clayton (Tarzan)
Christopher Lambert Earl of Greystoke
Ralph Richardson Captain Phillippe D’Arnot
Ian Holm Lord Esker
James Fox Jane Porter
Andie MacDowell
Glenn Close (voice) Lady Alice Clayton
Cheryl Campbell Lord Jack Clayton
Paul Geoffrey Sir Evelyn Blount
John Wells Major Jack Downing
Nigel Davenport Jeffson Brown
Ian Charleson Sir Hugh Belcher
Nicholas Farrell Captain Billings
Richard Griffiths Buller
David Suchet
Director
Hugh Hudson
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D’Arnot resolves to take Tarzan back to civilisation and restore him to his rightful place on the Greystoke estate.
