Why Is Taylor So Misanthropic?
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objviewer — 11 years ago(October 26, 2014 02:50 PM)
I agree. And Taylor's cynicism meshes with the themes of the movie, a movie I think is more of a satirical allegory (kind of like Gullivers Travels) than a literal science fiction.
It's the 60's, the Cold War, MAD- the time of the insanity of "mutually assured destruction" being presented as a strategy. I put this one along side "Dr. Strange love", "Failsafe", "Seven Days in May" (another great Rod Serling script) which all in different ways preach against man's arrogance, foolishness, and violent adversarial nature made cateclysmically dangerous by his nuclear technology. -
JohnQ1127 — 11 years ago(November 24, 2014 10:22 PM)
Taylor is a misanthrope, the OP was correct. Go back and listen to his conversations with Landon.
Taylor gives broad reasons why he's misanthropic: war, famine, greed, poverty, narcissism. Taylor doesn't give any personal reasons as why he became that way. He most likely was in combat at some point. Maybe he had a failed marriage, the movie doesn't really go that deeply into his back story.
It's brilliant writing though because the misanthropic Taylor is forced to defend the human species. -
forthesafetyofpuppies — 10 years ago(June 20, 2015 11:53 AM)
It's brilliant writing though because the misanthropic Taylor is forced to defend the human species.
And, by the end, he seems to have convinced himself of the worthiness of humanity. He's pretty broken up about what became of it.
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Fluke_Skywalker — 10 years ago(June 22, 2015 11:23 AM)
Yeah, I believe you both hit on it right there; his character arc is that this cynical, misanthropic man ultimately comes to appreciate what it is to be human when his freedom is taken away from him. Of course, that's the story reason for it. As for his backstory, I think it was also hit upon more or less. This was really one of the first dystopian sci-fi flicks, helping kicking off a trend that would last until
Star Wars
was released. Taylor was a reflection of the attitudes of the very turbulent times
POTA
was made.A journey into the realm of the obscure:
http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/ -
roland-rockerfella — 9 years ago(November 26, 2016 12:07 PM)
True. He disliked Humanity greatly and was looking for something better. Then he found out the ape society had all the same flaws that the old Human one did and that the Humans were the ones being oppressed.