Harryhausen meets Caravaggio: Tarzan in 3D
OK, you’ll have to allow me this little detour into teenage obsession. When I was about ten, my parents bought me a View-Master with a 3-reel set of Tarzan of the Apes. Being the dreamer that I was – and still am, I suppose – I just loved to get lost inside those stereoscopic images, and I’ve looked at them so often that they must have left a questionable imprint on my young brain. The lush, nightmarish tableaux struck a nerve in me. All that muscle, the big hairy apes, plus a Jane outfit so tight that I kept expecting it to burst open… Let’s be honest: This was nothing less than a sexual awakening.
Unfortunately, I lended my View-Master reels out to a friend, who lost them when he moved to another house. Since then, all I had left was my memory of them. Enter the Internet… More than twenty years later, I googled the words “Tarzan view master” and guess what? There they were: All 21 images collected on a single webpage, captions included! As soon as I discovered this link, a wide grin appeared on my face. Too bad the pictures looked a tad fuzzy, I thought. Then it occurred to me that they were perhaps fuzzy for a reason. I grabbed the red-and-green glasses that came with my son’s Spy Kids 3D DVD (no recommendation), and yes sir: Glorious 3D! A lot of detail, sense of depth and color information got lost in the translation to cyberspace, but this 36-year-old kid is grateful nonetheless.
There’s something about this artwork (a combination of miniatures, clay models and matte paintings?) that I still find incredibly appealing. It’s the sensuous mixture of realism and artifice, kitsch and craft, romance and savagery; the melodramatic poses; the chiaroscuro (some of the lighting is pure Caravaggio); the meticulous staging. This is what Ray Harryhausen‘s wet dreams should look like.
Go get your 3D glasses (I know you saved them in a drawer somewhere) and have a look yourself. Do any of you recognize this View-Master set? Is there someone who can tell me more about who made it, and how? Which animation studio will have the guts to produce a CGI-feature that looks as awesome as this?
Peet, seen the pictures with 3d glasses on. Great!
I can imagine how it would be to see this as a ten year old boy and be reminded of that period of your life.
But why don’t you buy this one at ebay to share it with your sons:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/Viewmaster-Reel-Tarzan_W0QQitemZ230109323831QQcategoryZ411QQcmdZViewItem
…or this one:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/View-master-3-schijfjes-van-Tarzan_W0QQitemZ180097859158QQcategoryZ411QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
Good one, Syb! I guess even memories are for sale.
To tell the truth, I haven’t even got a View-Master anymore. And the ones I’ve looked through in the stores recently give me a headache.
Peet, not only do I own several copies of this Trazan View-master package (which I never had as a kid – but I must admit I think it’s the absolute masterpiece of my collection) but I also have collected a few viewers that offer a much bigger image than the regular viewers. I suggest you visit this site : http://www.3dstereo.com/ for all your 3D needs.
Benoit Racine
Toronto
Hey! These were some of my favorite reels too. Oh, how I ogled the teenage Tarzan when I was but four years old myself. ViewMaster Tarzan: my first crush. These images have totally affected what kind of guy I find sexy. They may also have influenced my career in puppetry. The colors are amazing and every shot is full of action. The models are sexy, undeniably, but these reels also contained more violence than I had ever seen before. I remember thinking, ‘Wow. Tarzan is totally choking that guy. That guy is choking to death. Tarzan is killing him. Whoah, no way.’ It made me think about when good guys do bad things. A huge impact on my very early childhood, I am so glad these images are online.
The artist who did the Tarzan images was the “Great Montyne”, a fascinating Renaissance Man of the fifties and on who also did many of the over-the-top Las Vegas hotel statues and Murals (and was the inspiration for Caesar’s thematic Ancient Roman look). His style was similar to an Italian innovator, Domenico Mastroianni. He built up clay bas-reliefs and photographed them, destroying the originals afterwards (sadly).
The Tarzan sculptures by Montyne were constructed from a resin material that the artist created. Never were the works destroyed. Sadly some have been lost to time. We have managed to collect many of the works and are now under the protection of the Montyne Estate.
PS: Thank you dearly for all the kind words spoken about Montyne – a true artist.