Yes this is a pretty boring silent film, and yes there are racist undertones. Yet considering the source material this isn't the most offensive version of Tarzan.
I have been meaning to get into the Tarzan films and the only reason I've been putting it off is because I also wanted to listen to the audiobook of the original 1912 novel. After I went looking for it I realized that it was probably not worth my time to listen to a racist book about a subpar adventure. So I ended up here instead at the first film adaptation.
Tarzan is of noble lineage and he suffers the terrible fate of being kidnapped by monkeys in Africa (yikes). But he goes a while without understanding that he is human because reasons. Then he is taught English and how to read and write pretty easily (he is a child but still comically quickly). Then he falls in love with the first white human woman he ever sees. Plus there is a whole subplot about Arab slave traders and the native Africans defending themselves against the group of whites who have come to find Tarzan that I was just too bored to follow.
The depiction of Africans as unnecessarily cruel to apes and much dumber than whites is racist enough that I don't even want to know what their sub plot was about. The fact that Tarzan grew up in such close proximity to the tribes yet has no connection to them is absurd too. Honestly there is a lot of dissection and analysis of the racism in this that could be done but I don't feel like this film is relevant enough, even in the history of Tarzan, to warrant me spending more time thinking about it.
Don't forget that this movie is also boring. The only reason this doesn't get a lower rating is because it isn't as racist as I've heard the source material is.
I have been meaning to get into the Tarzan films and the only reason I've been putting it off is because I also wanted to listen to the audiobook of the original 1912 novel. After I went looking for it I realized that it was probably not worth my time to listen to a racist book about a subpar adventure. So I ended up here instead at the first film adaptation.
Tarzan is of noble lineage and he suffers the terrible fate of being kidnapped by monkeys in Africa (yikes). But he goes a while without understanding that he is human because reasons. Then he is taught English and how to read and write pretty easily (he is a child but still comically quickly). Then he falls in love with the first white human woman he ever sees. Plus there is a whole subplot about Arab slave traders and the native Africans defending themselves against the group of whites who have come to find Tarzan that I was just too bored to follow.
The depiction of Africans as unnecessarily cruel to apes and much dumber than whites is racist enough that I don't even want to know what their sub plot was about. The fact that Tarzan grew up in such close proximity to the tribes yet has no connection to them is absurd too. Honestly there is a lot of dissection and analysis of the racism in this that could be done but I don't feel like this film is relevant enough, even in the history of Tarzan, to warrant me spending more time thinking about it.
Don't forget that this movie is also boring. The only reason this doesn't get a lower rating is because it isn't as racist as I've heard the source material is.