Synopsis
A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.
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Cast
- Ralph RichardsonThe Sixth Earl of Greystoke
- Ian HolmCapitaine Phillippe D'Arnot
- James FoxLord Charles Esker
- Christophe LambertJohn Clayton / Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
- Andie MacDowellMiss Jane Porter
- Cheryl CampbellLady Alice Clayton
- Ian CharlesonJeffson Brown
- Nigel DavenportMajor Jack Downing
- Nicholas FarrellSir Hugh Belcher
- Paul GeoffreyLord John Clayton
Recommendations
- 90
The New York Times
Greystoke is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable films of its kind I've ever seen. - 90
Newsweek
Greystoke is entertaining, intelligent, even touching in its broad-scale treatment of a story that has always provided common ground for children and grown-ups. The main problem with this movie is that it's too short. [26 Mar 1984, p.74] - 75
TV Guide Magazine
The most intelligent and perhaps the best filmic treatment of Edgar Rice Burroughs's classic pulp novels about Tarzan, the white child of noble blood raised by apes in the jungle, since Elmo Lincoln first brought the character to the screen in 1918. - 70
Time Out
Rhetoric apart, the film offers some stirring entertainment, and a memorable ham sandwich from Richardson, allowed to steal the show as the grandfather in what proved to be his last film. - 70
Variety
On a production level, film is a marvel, as fabulous Cameroon locations have been seamlessly blended with studio recreations of jungle settings. - 63
Miami Herald
Greystoke has its many pleasures, and despite its bobtailing at the hands of the bottom-line-watchers, it has the sweep of epic. [30 Mar 1984, p.D1] - 60
Washington Post
Innovative, lavish and lacking. [30 Mar 1984, p.D1] - 50
Washington Post
Despite all the talent, form triumphs over substance. Director Hugh (Chariots of Fire) Hudson clutches, and climactic scenes miss their mark. Greystoke is curious entertainment, less satisfying than Planet of the Apes, which begs the same question: noble savage or naked ape? [30 Mar 1984, p.21]
