Something that distinguishes this from the standard fantasy action flick is the interesting way the filmmakers wove the fantasy into real history. By setting it against the backdrop of the 1890 Belgian atrocities in the Congo, it gave the Tarzan story some real world context while also teaching the audience something they never knew. My high school educators never uttered a peep about this stuff.

The villain Léon Rom was a real person, every bit as profiteering and violent as in the movie, if not more. In real life it's reported that he decorated his garden with the heads of dissenting Congolese and was one of the first architects of genocide. The movie actually tones it down a bit, which I think was brilliant, because nothing kills a history lesson like a movie going off the deep end. (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, anyone?)

Tarzan's sidekick George Washington Williams seems so unlikely I figured he had to be a screenwriter's invention, but again he was a real historical figure who actually did travel to Africa and reported on the atrocities committed by the Belgians. An interesting note is that the movie doesn't gloss over Williams' own faults, specifically mentioning how Williams had participated in the infamous US Cavalry's campaign against Native Americans. The movie could've overlooked that oopsie and painted Williams as a gleaming good guy but didn't.

My takeaway is that I learned a bunch from this creative retelling of Tarzan, without having it beaten over my head like a purported historical epic. This is pure fantasy but it's peppered with enough reality that it gives the fable some real relevance. In that respect it reminds me a lot of The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - another work of pure fiction, but the way it's set against the backdrop of the US Civil War makes it seem more real.

Another cool reversal that makes this Tarzan re-telling worth watching is that it doesn't focus on Tarzan/Greystoke's journey from savagery to civilization, but it's the other way around. We begin with Greystoke already a proper English Lord for some 10 years, and the movie depicts his re-indoctrination to the jungle life he came from. Overall I was really surprised at how they breathed fresh life into this old fable.