WOLF LARSON’S TARZAN-57-THE STONE MAN

 

WOLF LARSON’S TARZAN-57-THE STONE MAN

“Tarzan understands. Tarzan wants to help.”

 

“Some things in the jungle are best kept secret. Tarzan taught me that.”

 

Dan’s journal: Saturday the 2^nd. 1993 has Jan and October. 1994 has April and July. 1997 has August. 1998 has May. There are still things in the jungle untouched by the hand of civilization.

 

Using a kind of kiln, Jane makes Kiwi pie. When Roger asks how she learned to make something like that, she explains books. Ancient Mesopotamia, 4500 BC. Her library is always open. Cheetah stills what looks like banana slices but what is their pie (?) and starts to eat it. Watching them all was a native hidden in bushes. He is about to fire a dart at Cheetah but Numa scares him off.

 

NOTE: one thing this series does not excel at that the Ely series did is depicting native tribes in Africa or any kind of African civilization or society. It’s sort of disheartening and makes this series eventually fall flat, especially by episode 57.

 

Chasing Cheetah, Roger falls and hurts himself and has to be escorted inside with help from Jane!

 

Roger’s recovered fast and he and Jane chase Numa who has chased the man/boy into their compound. Numa jumps up on the jeep; the man raises a weapon at either Numa or Jane and Roger. It’s hard to tell. Tarzan watches from the trees. He fires an arrow at the weapon and it falls. Tarzan swings to them. Jane points out the man’s ankle, bleeding and with a chain around it.

 

The man passes out. Soon enough, Dan uses a hacksaw to cut the chain off. What IS Roger looking at when Dan does this?

 

Roger thinks they should call in the police but Tarzan stresses that this young man/boy is primitive and does not understand the strangeness around him now. When Dan asks, both Tarzan and Jane think that Dan should not call in the Bendali police or take him to the clinic in his plane. They plan to take care of him here. Jane recognizes the markings on the man.

 

He bolts and grabs a rock but Tarzan confronts him with open hands and friendliness. The man gives him the rock. He never saw a woman with hair like Jane’s. He thinks Jane and Tarzan are the spirits of his ancient ancestors sent from the heavens to punish him. All this from Tarzan. He then attacks the red jeep. He has learned to hate machines with wheels. He passes out and Tarzan carries him over his shoulder…to the treehouse apparently. In a hammock outside it, Tarzan tends to the ankle wound. He uses leaves on it. He gives him fruit to drink from. Tarzan tells him he has a strong desire to be free and a strong heart.

 

At night at 3am, Roger says to Jane, “Maybe it’s just some fascination you have about men with tattoos.” He also says, “My head feels like Tantor stepped on it.” Jane quips that he can just look at the pictures. He finds what they are looking for, the markings on the man, in a book from her shelf.

 

Dan arrives in the morning and didn’t realize Jane was such a later riser. Their rapport is nice. She slaps his shoulder. He overheard some construction guys working on a new development in Zambutu talking about a couple of their buddies picking up a stone age man.

 

Atu relates to Tarzan that men with machines came and destroyed his land. Atu ran away with wife and child and went back to his old hunting grounds. He was captured and taken away to a faraway place, away from his family. For many days, he was caged like a wild animal and there were no trees, no birds but only the terrible sounds of the great wheeled beasts. Atu escaped. NOTE Wolf’s thumb on his right hand, it looks as if it is disjointed or had been broken. It’s oddly bent.

 

Why does Roger even question that helping Atu is for the best? And returning him to his family? Why even wonder if that’s a good thing?

 

Later, as Jane writes in a log or catalog, Roger talks about Scientific American (earlier he mentioned National Geographic). Here, he starts to “talk science” about how Jane can keep this a secret. She could be on the lecture circuit and anthropologists will be knocking on her door to write intros to their books. He agrees that they will just take photos, study Atu and write in their own journals but none of this is to be made public or Atu and his family will be hounded for the rest of their lives.

 

Later, as Tarzan teaches Atu how to fire a bow and arrow, Roger wears his THE ABCS of the RAINFOREST shirt. Later still, Roger teaches Atu to say, “Get out of town.” Roger’s shirt also says, “It’s not a matter of nature or man it’s nature and man.”

Dan, panicked, arrives and tells Roger to go find Tarzan, who is probably at the treehouse. Dan calls for Jane. Hunters have picked up Atu’s trail.

 

We hear dogs barking as Roger helps Atu toward a tent and as Dan looks for and calls for Jane.

 

Although Roger’s dialog is hard to understand he references KING KONG. Tarzan tells Jane and Roger to pack supplies; and Dan to take Atu to the treehouse and wait for Cheetah who will take them to Tarzan.

 

Tarzan uses Atu’s hunting pouch to lead a false trail. Atu shows them with a rough map in dirt and a rock that his home is near a stream and at a pyramid of rocks that his people used to worship at. It is between two great trees near where the river splits into two. The development boxed off Atu’s access to his family but Tarzan knows a way through. Tarzan and Jane take him. His ankle hurts again. Wolf’s loin cloth has never looked this skimpy before and/or ragged. And gosh, I’ve never seen abs like Wolf’s before.

 

Despite Atu trying not to resorting to this, Tarzan has to carry him over his shoulder. He puts him down later when Jane wants to have a talk. She suggests that Atu and his family are the only ones left of their tribe and that maybe being closer to civilization or in civilization they might have a better chance of survival. Tarzan seems innocent. He also suggests maybe Jane cares more for science than for Atu. She tells him that is not true. I can’t understand their relationship anymore. She seemed fine bringing Atu back. He seems to trust her implicitly but now he’s blaming her for not caring for Atu? What?

 

Jane takes supplies through the water and plants in the water while Tarzan and Atu swing overhead in the trees. A large snake comes at her. In a scene with ZERO tension, Atu swings to her and helps her out while she says, “Hurry. It’s over there.” What? Tarzan removed his knife as if he was going to kill it but he watches. Atu hisses at the snake and does some kind of hand gesture with his pinkie and pointer finger and it goes away.

 

“Atu knows the jungle. Like Tarzan. If Jane takes Atu out of the jungle, Atu will no longer be Atu.”

 

Tarzan’s boots seem to change shades again.

 

The soundtrack is pretty good in this episode.

 

Embarrassingly, Atu has his own call (I don’t believe we hear Tarzan’s call in this ep at all). A bird flies by. Atu’s wife and child appear further away and he goes to them. He returns first to Jane and Tarzan and calls them family. As the family reunites, Jane and Tarzan are standing very close to each other and Jane hugs him. Tarzan, Jane and Roger briefly talk about Atu. Jane finds it ironic that they call themselves civilized but destroyed Atu’s people. Tarzan hopes they can keep the secret so that Atu and his family can grow and live in peace. Cheetah kisses Atu’s picture.

 

That ending is not a joke, not a laugh, and not a gimmick. It works in a way that this episode, well, almost works. It sort of doesn’t.

 

As with many episodes before this one, there’s the feeling that this could have been a fantastic adventure with a lot of action and a lot of morality and thought. It does make one think but…look, any episode of almost any TARZAN series is going to look lavish compared to house bound sitcoms and even other adventure shows. So, this looks good and even has a dark edge to it but…

 

…it probably didn’t have enough money to have more than just Atu and in one brief, non speaking scene, his wife and small child (boy or girl? I say girl). Cheaply, we do not see the dogs OR the hunting party.

 

Sadly, all this episode, a cut above others somewhat, proves is that this is STILL just a kid show. It doesn’t want to go there.

 

This episode could have provided us with much action, much info about native tribes and how they do not fare well when discovered by “civilization”. It touches upon it with talk. It doesn’t get too dark and probably can’t because this IS a kid’s show. We learn nothing about Atu really. What kind of tribe was he from? How did they get destroyed? If destroyed, were they discovered? Captured? Killed? Forced out? How did Jane recognize markings if he was a “lost tribe”? How can Roger, after befriending Atu, still tempt Jane to reveal Atu? How did Atu escape? Did he kill someone?

 

Even worse, in a way, is the fact that we only hear the hunters and the dogs and then maybe only TWO hunters. We NEVER see them so their threat is not palpable or even tense. I guess it might be predictable that Tarzan would have to get their butts but it would have been what this should have been: an action adventure in the jungle. Instead…

 

…we get another river, another swamp, another snake, and a predictable outcome. I can’t help but think the more adult ELY TARZAN show would have REALLY made something of this, even if it ended up downbeat. It would have done the excellent premise justice, even if it became very dark at times.

 

We get vague background info and a sadly routine “adventure” of trekking through the jungle.

 

And how could Jane even think Atu would be better off in civilization when she would never think of letting anyone take Tarzan there? All the conflict between Roger and Jane; Tarzan and Jane all feels forced.

 

Visually, this works. It’s never looked better than this. Wolf looks fantastic. Lydie looks beautiful. Even Sean’s face has cleared up. The cinematography is brilliant as ever.

 

It’s a shame because this is not really bad but not really good either. It just is sort of there and looks pretty and brings up powerful topics without being powerful and/or terribly meaningful. These are big issues, serious issues about people’s survival in the encroaching developments (think EMERALD FOREST and its violence and conflicts) but it really doesn’t GO THERE and falls flat with such an interesting premise.