TARZAN GONE MAD

TARZAN GONE MAD

Re-watching Tarzan as an adult versus my childhood self, I realized some big messages within the film. As a child I just watched it and enjoyed the music to be honest, but as an adult I comprehended the words and actions further. This movie did have some hidden messages of good things, but also of bad things.

The good message in the movie, Tarzan was that no matter the differences of people you should accept them for who they are. Like it says in the song Two Worlds, “Two worlds one family.” The lyrics of this song imply the message of the whole movie, which is to accept all people no matter where they came from. As Giannetti from Understanding Movies mentioned, “when merged with lyrics, music acquires a more concrete content because words of course have specific reference.” When Tarzan was first brought into the gorilla tribe he was looked as different, but then the gorillas came to fall in love with him. When we think of this message further and apply it to the real world, it has a deeper message. Within society we have so much hatred and animosity toward people of different races and cultures. It is awful to think this still exist, but it does and this film helps to teach people to accept everyone for who they are. The fact that this is a children’s movie is great because it teaches children from a young age to accept others no matter their differences. By doing this it influences the children to share their acceptance with others who will do the same, and hopefully one day it turns into a domino effect.

A massive negative message I found was in the violence. The violence was heavily packed in this film. There were guns, knives, and aggressive fighting. This is not great for children to be watching. If we turned this film from animated to real life people I feel the rating would be pg-13, which is clearly not for children. The attack of the jaguar was intense and scary. At what point I even jumped when the jaguar popped out. What is even worse are the guns and knives used by Clayton and his crew members to solve problems. This shows children that by using guns and knives you can solve any dispute. This should not be the message shown to children. Another factor we see that solves disputes is fighting. In one scene Tarzan tackles and stabs a jaguar with a spear. Is this how we want children to solve their disputes? I did not think so.

Overall Rating: So in conclusion I give Tarzan 2 pickles.  I think that Tarzan was too negative of a message for children. Grant it, the stabbing of the jaguar was not shown, but we all know that Tarzan had the spear in his hand. It is clear as to what happened. I would not want my children see this movie. Even though the whole theme of the movie is to accept others no matter what, I think this film is too violent for children to view. There are plenty other films out there for children that exemplify the same message as Tarzan, but with less violence. Those are the movies a child should be viewing.