Tarzan 101 | Tarzan and the Lost Empire

Celebrating Tarzan's 101st anniversary by walking through Scott Tracy Griffin's Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration.

Burroughs had moved around a lot as a kid and often lamented having to repeat the same Greek and Latin classes over and over again as a result of changing schools so often. The classical education came in handy though in the spring of 1928 when he wrote Tarzan and the Lost Tribe, a novel that was eventually re-titled Tarzan and the Lost Empire.

Though Lost Empire is the next official novel after Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, there are two more Tarzan stories in between those books. People don't count them because they're children's stories: The Tarzan Twins and the crazylong titled Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins with Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion, which are sometimes reprinted together as Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins. Griffin covers them later in their own section, but they're important to Lost Empire because they introduce the character, Dr. Von Harben, a missionary who reappears in Lost Empire to solicit Tarzan's help.

Von Harben's son has gone missing while looking for a lost tribe in the mountains, so Tarzan goes looking for the young man. Tarzan's accompanied by a small monkey named Nkima - who makes his first appearance in this novel - and the two of them track the younger Von Harben to a hidden valley populated by the descendants of a lost, Roman outpost who have perfectly preserved the ancient culture, including colosseums and gladiator games. Somewhere along the way the outpost divided into two, rival cities, so Tarzan has to escape the slave pits of the one to find Von Harben in the other.

This may have been the first Tarzan novel I ever read; it's certainly one of the earliest five. I remember thinking that Nkima was so much cooler than Cheetah from the Tarzan movies, which - because they included him - is one of the reasons I loved Filmation's Saturday morning cartoon Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle so much. As I got older, I appreciated Cheetah's antics more and more, but I still have a soft spot for Tarzan's smaller, literary pal.

Griffin acknowledges the rivalry in a supplemental chapter, "Nkima Versus Cheetah." He covers the history of Cheetah's appearances in the MGM Tarzan films, from being the only live ape in the first couple of Tarzan movies (the rest of Tarzan's ape family were played by costumed actors) to stealing the show in later installments. Burroughs never so much as mentions chimpanzees in his Tarzan stories. He lets Nkima serve the same purpose as Cheetah though: a cute ally and useful friend who can run for help when Tarzan's in trouble.

It's interesting to me that Burroughs never gives Nkima an origin story. In fact, in reading this chapter by Griffin I was surprised to learn that Lost Empire was Nkima's first appearance. It's impossible to tell from the novel that he and Tarzan haven't been buddies for years.

17 Movies I Liked Okay in 2011

37. The Eagle



The more I think about it, the lower on the list I think I should have put this. I love an historical action film and the Roman Empire had some great visual style, but I'm remembering that the story here didn't make any sense. That's the problem with making this list at the end of the year; I forget stuff like that. Still, my recollection isn't that I disliked it, so the visuals and action must have been pretty good? Maybe I just blocked out the worst parts. I dunno; you tell me. I'm certainly not watching it again to find out.

36. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy



An intriguing drama with some great actors, but very, very slooowww.

35. Sucker Punch



Awesome visuals and set-pieces; confusing message about female empowerment. Hell, just confusing in general.

34. Beastly



Beauty and the Beast for the Twilight crowd. And me, apparently. Not exactly original, but I'm a huge sucker for that particular fairy tale and Beastly hit the right beats to make it work for me. Vanessa Hudgens doesn't give me a ton of reasons to believe Alex Pettyfer would fall that hard for her, but he's great in it and sells the attraction anyway.

33. Drive Angry



Great grindhouse schlock. Didn't exactly make me love Nicholas Cage all over again, but it's my favorite thing he's done in years.

32. Conan the Barbarian



I've seen the Schwarzenegger Conan movies countless times, but I don't hold the first one in as high regard as most fans do. In fact, I like Conan the Destroyer a lot better. Which is to say that my standard for this movie was pretty low and it met my expectations just fine. It's not a great movie and it's not everything a Conan movie should be, but compared to the rest of the sword-and-sorcery movie genre that exists in reality and not an ideal world, it's toward the top of that pile.

31. Our Idiot Brother



I loves me some Paul Rudd, but this is not his best movie. It's funny in parts, but the message is overly simple: that uptight women need to chillax like the bros.

30. The Adjustment Bureau



A good thriller marred by a rushed ending. Still, I love Matt Damon and I totally bought the romance between him and Emily Blunt.

29. Moneyball



I also love Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill (and Philip Seymour Hoffman, but he's wasted in this movie). The game-changing formula that this movie is based on is fascinating; I just never got a great feel for what the movie is trying to say about it. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? A little of both? If it's a little of both, why does it matter enough to make a movie about it? The film works a little better as a drama about Brad Pitt's character, but even then I'm left unsure what it's trying to say and I've spent some time thinking about it.

28. The Green Hornet



I probably would have hated this movie had I been a Green Hornet fan, but I'm not and I don't mind its light-hearted approach. I allow myself one Seth Rogen movie a year so's not to get burned out and I enjoyed this one. Kind of wish I'd held out for 50-50, but oh well. This was fun, if dumb.

27. Fast Five



Speaking of dumb fun, Fast Five could have squandered the opportunity of putting Vin Diesel and The Rock in the same movie together. The cynical me actually expected it. But it didn't. Not only did it make the most of their screen time together, it built a storytelling engine that will easily (and interestingly) power this series for the next few movies. On the other hand, them dragging that safe down the street at the end was helladumb.

26. The Mechanic



I only have vague memories of the Charles Bronson original version, but what I do remember was handled more to my liking in this one. I know that's cryptic, but I'm mostly talking about the last five minutes of both movies. Anyway, a better-than-average Jason Statham vehicle, improved by the presence of Ben Foster.

25. Source Code



Nice scifi story. It didn't stick with me like a great movie should (maybe 'cause I figured out what was going on too early?), but it kept my attention and I rooted for Jake Gyllenhaal to figure out a way to save and end up with Michelle Monaghan's dead character.

24. Bridesmaids



Very funny and I like the meta-message it sent about gender equality in Hollywood films. I didn't buy into the romance like I was supposed to (mostly because I didn't like Kristin Wiig's character much), but it was still a funny movie with actresses I love and some nice heart.

23. Arthur



My friends who've seen the original tell me that I'm not supposed to like this, but - like with Green Hornet - I have the luxury of getting to judge it purely on its ability to make me laugh. Which it did. And the relationship between Russell Brand and Helen Mirren was awesome and touching.

22. Friends With Benefits



An almost perfect romantic comedy foiled only by a resolution as cheesy as those in the other romantic comedies it mocks. Between this and Bad Teacher though, I'm right on board the Justin Timberlake Is Awesome train now. I was already there with Mila Kunis, whom I've loved since That '70s Show.

21. Real Steel



Unambitious, but it does what it does - tell a sentimental story about a man's redemption, both to himself and to his son - really well.

The Eagle (2011)

My first instinct was to do refer to the quality of this movie as a roller-coaster, but that's not accurate. It's more of a bobsled ride. It's got some occasional, gentle slopes to keep you from feeling like you're plummeting into Hell, but the entire trip is downhill and you still end up lower than when you began.

It starts okay with Channing Tatum's Marcus Aquila arriving in Britannia to command a garrison there. If you've seen the trailer, you know the plot. His father once commanded the same area, but on an excursion into the wild North, he and his men disappeared with Rome's standard, a golden statue of an eagle. Marcus doesn't come to Britannia to find the standard, but when he's injured in battle and relieved of duty, he decides to fill his time with a quest. He takes with him his slave Esca (Jamie Bell), who's from the northern lands where Marcus' father went missing and can act as a guide.

As long as the story is about Marcus' personal quest, it does all right. Tatum makes Marcus likeable and the script leaves some doubt about whether or not his dad's death was noble and courageous or foolhardy and cowardly. Though most of the other Romans are too polite to speculate to his face, even Marcus wonders if his father may have deserted rather than fallen in battle. If the film had followed that path, it would've been a much better movie. The titular standard should have been a Maguffin for the real quest: solving the mystery of Marcus' father's disappearance.

Instead, the movie does both, which is what makes it uneven. When it's focusing on Marcus and his relationship with his absent father, it's not half bad. There's still too much shaky-cam and fogged-over camera lenses and weird flashbacks to make it Good, but it would've been Okay. Unfortunately, the eagle standard is much more than an excuse to go hunting for answers about Dad. We're supposed to take it seriously as an end worth pursuing, so that the Dad plot is wrapped up before the Eagle plot and we're still asked to care.

There's a scene early on in which Esca questions Marcus about the importance of the standard. Marcus tries to explain - something about "The eagle is not a piece of metal. The eagle is Rome" - but fails to adequately express it and settles for, "You're not a Roman. You wouldn't understand." Well, guess what, makers of The Eagle? I'm not a Roman either. I'm your audience and I need to understand if you want me invested in your story.

There's another scene towards the end of the film where the heroes are valiantly fighting against overwhelming numbers to defend the standard. (I hope that's not a spoiler that Marcus and Esca do in fact find the eagle at some point). As they battle, the camera switches to a high-angle view of the field with the standard in the foreground as the men fight below. I'm pretty sure it's meant to be inspiring, but it made me sad and a bit sick. It was like this hunk of metal was proudly watching over the meaningless violence and death it had inspired.