Tarzan the Ape Man (1981)

Beautiful, moving film.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

John Derek(Bo's husband) directed this explicit adaptation of the often filmed Edgar Rice Burroughs story that indeed stars Bo Derek as Jane Parker, who goes to Africa to locate her missing father James(played by Richard Harris) and does find him, but also discovers Tarzan(played by Miles O'Keefe) an ape man who was raised by apes as a baby(so the story goes) and has become one of them, though he has an immediate attraction to Jane, and her to him, much to the anger of James, who wants to kill him, but when a hostile tribe kidnaps them for sacrifice, it's Tarzan to the rescue... Inept film makes little narrative sense, but it is the stunningly beautiful Bo Derek that is the attraction here, which isn't enough to redeem film, but does make her scenes watchable.

If you are married to a beautiful woman and you have Hollywood connections (if, for instance, you once used to be a second division matinée idol) then, I guess, it is not out of the question for you to give some thought to assembling some sort of vanity project movie to showcase her looks. There is a precedent for this (Pia Zadora leaps to mind, which is probably some sort of commentary on the idea in and of itself).But, you see, the problem is that Bo Derek had already been showcased in Blake Edwards' "10", which did the job perfectly - it required her to be gorgeous, scantily (or less) dressed, and vacuous, all three of which she managed perfectly.Then husband John Derek picked up that particular ball and ran with it, and the first place he ran to (others followed) was Tarzan, The Ape Man.Miles O'Keefe is a perfectly serviceable Tarzan in this, his only Tarzan film. He certainly looks the part, and he runs, swings, swims, and looks mystified in all the places where he is required to do so.The problem is that this isn't actually a Tarzan film. It isn't even a Jane film. It's a Bo Derek film.There is some beautiful scenery and a rather perfunctory performance by Richard Harris in a slow and boring 30 to 40 minutes. And then Bo starts to get naked, a state in which she spends most of the remainder of the film both before and after Tarzan arrives on the scene.Now I have no great objection to Bo Derek naked. Bo Derek naked is, in my shallow and superficial view, a Good Thing. The problem, though, is twofold. One, the poor girl is woefully exposed as having no acting ability whatsoever, apparently being under the impression that gently nibbling an immaculately manicured fingernail amounts to emoting (to her credit, she has made films later in her acting career in which she shows that she has worked and made progress in this area). And, two, someone forgot that a movie like this actually needs a story. There is some tosh about natives painting her white, but this is hardly a story.So you might get some mileage out of scenery, and boobage, and poor old Miles O'Keefe's big break being a bit of a non-starter, but you can forget anything else.

Having seen "10" about a year earlier, and thinking Tarzan the Ape Man might be similarly funny and entertaining, I took the 45 minute drive from a very rural town in San Mateo County, California "over the hill" to San Carlos to see a late night showing one Friday night in 1981. There were only a few people in the theater when the show started and several left as the movie dragged on. I was bored out of my mind except when Bo Derek found herself in a situation where she could shed her clothes. From the standpoint of pure physical beauty of human form, Bo Derek was at her physical peak when her husband shot her for this film. Twenty-seven years later, I remember in vivid detail the scene of her coming out of the ocean in full-frontal nudity. A 12 or 14 foot tall image of Bo's glistening wet body strolling up and out of the blue ocean directly towards the camera, into bright sunlight is one of the most beautiful images a person could ever imagine. She is stunning and the image will be burned into my memory for the rest of my life. When VHS was available in the late 80's or early 90's, I rented a copy from RKO video and was disappointed that most of that scene had been cut. If anyone knows where an uncut version is available, I would surely enjoy reliving the experience.

Sexy Tarzan adventure with Bo Derek as 'Jane'.Director John Derek presents a creative version of the Edgar Rice Burrough's classic with his wife Bo traveling to the Amazon to seek her father 'William Parker' (Richard Harris, in a wonderfully colorful performance).Monkeys, snakes, elephants, and other animals make up the supporting cast as Jane joins her Dad to seek Tarzan on top of a rock that 'goes on forever and ever'. Things get even more interesting when a motley group of pygmies intrude on Parker's excursion, including the best scene in the film where the females of the tribe rub their hands all over Bo's body as they wash and paint her with green clay.Some say this movie is an atrocity; on the other hand, if you like Bo, it's the best Tarzan film ever made.