Film Critique

Briana Francisco

3/17/12

Tarzan Film Critique

                The Disney film Tarzan, was most popular when it came out.  It’s award winning soundtrack by Phil Collins made it a big hit. But the original Tarzan along with Disney’s Tarzan strikes a chord that has some people saying it’s a racist story.

                Tarzan’s story is that he is raised by gorillas when his parents die after they shipwreck in Africa. Growing up with the gorillas he doesn’t quite fit in, but once he kills a wild cat disturbing their nest he becomes respected. Meanwhile Jane and her father, along with some rough sailors, arrive to do some research on gorillas. After Tarzan saves Jane, he learns about the human’s world and he shows them his jungle world. Unfortunately leading them to his home, the ships leader bent on capturing the gorillas is able to do so now knowing where they are. Tarzan is able to save the gorillas and Jane and her father and they all live happily ever after in the jungle.

                One major complaint when researching this movie and one I didn’t notice while watching was that it takes place in Africa and there are no Africans. This jungle paradise is uninhabited by anyone but the animals and Tarzan’s shipwrecked family. Making this land thought to be white man’s land instead of belonging to the native Africans. Another complaint that was brought up regarding this, and would change perception of no Africans is that the gorillas represent the Africans. This idea horribly represents racism, if this is what was intended. One it would be representing Black people as gorillas, which has many racist implications there (less than human, unintelligent, ugly and so on). This alone, if this is what was meant, could be one of the worst examples of racism and subliminal messages in our children’s movies. But this is not the only implication if the gorillas represented Africans. It would also mean, Tarzan, the white man, is the only one able to save them. In both occasions with the wild cat and with the poaching crew, Tarzan comes to the rescue and is the only one able to save these poor creatures, naming them incapable of saving themselves. They do not have the ability to out think or out fight their enemies. In essence the white man’s burden of saving those of color, comes into play, because they cannot apparently do it for themselves. This adds to the racism to the idea that might have been trying to be conveyed about the gorillas being African. On this thought I had the horrible idea after reading this, that during the movie the white crew cages and tries to take the gorillas. This giving the idea of slave trade and the horrible things that occurred involving capturing and shipping, (in terrible conditions) black people. What happens to the gorillas in this movie, comes close to the black civilization when it comes to being taken from Africa.

 

                Briefly talking about sexism, Tarzan is the one who comes to rescue Jane. She is helpless in the jungle and she is helpless against the crew that turns against her studies. As a defense for the movie though, Jane is unfamiliar with the jungle, and Tarzan helping her there makes sense.

                All in all, many assumptions have been made about the intentions of what the Tarzan movie is saying. Are we subliminal messaging our children about race through these kinds of movies? One article says that movies like this are causing racism and that they do not help society. Other people say we all just need to chill out. To think that Disney meant to have the gorillas represent Africans, I have trouble believing that. To put something out there so overtly racist intentionally is just asking to be thrown out of society. I think Disney just tried to follow the original story of a connection with a man and gorillas. Which there are real stories to people connecting with animals who connect with them. And when movies involve animals, or say dinosaurs with personalities and societies we don’t just automatically assign them a race because they link to humanity. It’s a fictional story where animals can talk, have feelings and so on. Pushing all this aside Tarzan was meant originally, even if it has racist tones, to be an eco-hero. Connecting with nature and animals and choosing them over cities, Tarzan was a superhero of the environment. And if you look too deeply into anything, you’ll find what you’re looking for even if it’s not there.

Findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_5_59/ai_55722257/

www.nhaeyc.org/.../articles/Racism_in_Childrens_Movies.pdf

marian-henderson.suite101.com/original-tarzan-of-edgar-rice-burroughs-hero-or-racist-a347625