A Black Tarzan

[white avenger]

His name means White Skin.

Ah HA!! Someone besides me caught that. Tarzan's Mangani name is "White" (Tar) "Skin" (Zan) Granted, no one who hadn't read the books would know that, but it is a factor that should be addressed, if there is to be any integrity in the movie.

A black Tarzan story would have to be so different from the existing one that you might have to remake the name and the story line.

The name would be "Black" (Bo) "Skin" (Zan) Plus, there is the fact that Tarzan is in reality John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, of England. That is a factor in the current movie, as well as one of the origins of his title of "Lord Of The Jungle."

Just like Burroughs did with Tarzan, as Tarzan was derived from Mowgli

In fact, both Mowgli and Tarzan were based on Romulus and Remus, the twins in Roman mythology, who were adopted and raised by a female wolf.

Well.. in my mind there has never been a Tarzan movie... not really. As each one fundamentally changed the character.

Yes, and that is the thing that has galled me since I first read Burroughs' original book. The character as described by Burroughs was, by the time he reached adulthood, articulate, multi-lingual, and could mix perfectly well on what would be considered "polite" society. The closest so far to actually capturing the real literary Tarzan onscreen was Christopher Lambert in the first half of "Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan." (The second half of the movie missed the target entirely)

Tarzan to me is always some alienated white guy in the middle of Africa and I don't se why his race needs to be changed for no good reason.

That was the major theme of Burroughs' work, and the main reason why Tarzan HAS to be white. He is totally isolated, the only one of his kind, for his entire formative years. He is not a Mangani (great ape) and he is not a Gomangani (black "ape," or man). He is totally isolated, the only one of his kind in his world, until he meets Jane Porter and her friends.

Now, I'm gonna rant for a little bit:

"The Legend Of Tarzan" is a movie that I have high hopes for, as it has the potential of correcting all of the movie misconceptions about one of literature's most amazing characters. Hopefully, by this late date, audiences will be ready to accept Tarzan as someone more than the guy in the leather jock strap who speaks broken English and swings through the trees on vines like a monkey, and, hopefully, this movie will be enough of a financial success to warrant sequels, unlike my other Burroughs hopeful, "John Carter," (which I still loved, and to hell with the critics, and to hell with Walt Disney Studios, who declared it a flop before it was even released)

If any of you are looking for something that will bring a smile of gratitude to an old man's face, do the ol' White Avenger a big favor and go and see it when "The Legend Of Tarzan" comes to your town. If enough of you do that, I promise, I'll ship Bangel for two whole weeks.

 

[Taake]

No, it's a person's preference, not thin lame excuses. I do not want classic characters, settings or themes changed simply because people want them changed.

Just how I feel. Yet when it's stuff I care about people tell me that "the right actor gets the role, regardless of skin color", even if the narrative is not of a white person. Guess I just feel if we can white wash everything, then we can black wash it as well. If there's an audience for black Tarzan, by all means, I dont' see the harm. If you don't want your classic character changed, then the trick is to not watch the movie. That's what I do with almost every book that's turned into a movie, avoid avoid avoid.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

The second half of the movie missed the target entirely

dont even get me started on the HE WAS MY FAAAATHER line. Oh my god!
 

the only one of his kind in his world, until he meets Jane Porter and her friends.

I may be wrong as I read it a long time ago but I thought when he discovered the books and taught himself to read he realized then he was not the only one of his kind.. it was just until he saw Jane that he actually ever saw another 'white' person.
 
@white avenger "Tarzan hated Tublat" exactly! and the fact they made it his 'father' ugh. That exactly what pisses me off!! (sorry for the language) with people mucking around with that stuff.. the damn thing was written in the early 1900s.. just leave it alone and present it as it. It was written for a purpose and is part of history. Leave it alone.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I could never understand why Tarzan had a fair skin, it seemed so wrong. For a white person to wear a loin cloth and yet be totally impervious to the effects from the sun, a seriously dark suntan should be a minimum.
As far as I'm concerned it isn't if Tarzan could be played by a dark skinned person but he should be played by a white person with a dark suntan.
Why is the colour of the pigments seen as so important in a film. Makes you wonder what the outcry would be if Martin Luther King was played by a white guy. But the best example of that is Jesus. Any person born in that part of the world and who lives in that part of the world is going to have a dark skin, to say otherwise is just plain dumb as far as I'm concerned.

 

[white avenger]

I could never understand why Tarzan had a fair skin, it seemed so wrong. For a white person to wear a loin cloth and yet be totally impervious to the effects from the sun, a seriously dark suntan should be a minimum.

Burroughs described Tarzan in words like, "a deeply bronzed, clean limbed young giant," so, yes, he did have a healthy tan, but it must be remembered that Tarzan spent most of his early life in the African jungles, not out on the open plains, so most of the time, he was in a deeply shaded environment. It wasn't until later that Burroughs had him wandering about Africa, discovering lost civilizations, caches of ancient wealth, and strange, wonderful people and animals.