8. Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes
In Greystoke, like in every other version of Tarzan, Christopher Lamberts John Clayton is raised by apes, but in this version, he comes home to his real, human family for a good portion of the movie. His humanity is constantly emphasized to him by his mentor, Ian Holms Phillippe DArnot, both in terms of what he is literally and his heritage within society as the next Earl of Greystoke in Scotland. When John does return to Scotland, his only family left is his grandfather, and he feels alienated from everything else, whether animate and inanimate, and constantly struggles with the past and present, real and unreal, friends and enemies (although this part is clearer to him), and mirrors and reality. But he does build a connection with both DArnot and (of course) Jane Porter (againAndie MacDowell!). Even when John is in between species, he still finds family in the bonds he makes, finding honest compassion and kinship in more than one walk of life. And those connections remain unbroken in good times and in bad. Even when he sees some of his ape friends again, they still accept John with open arms, because its not what you are, its what has brought you together. And DArnot and Jane follow him to the edge of the world without a moments hesitation. The movie really takes the time to truly convey these bonds. One could argue that it goes to lengths too great in exploring these ideas, but any movie can nonetheless learn from Greystokes example to find key moments to just let a character look around and talk to his or her fellow characters before moving on to the next action scene. Especially when interaction and perception are the main points of your story.