Thoughts on having just seen this again, for the first time in decades
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Planet of the Apes
Caractacus23 — 9 years ago(July 24, 2016 09:45 PM)
I went to see this earlier today, as part of the ongoing Cinemark Classics Series. I hadn't seen this since at least the early 90s, and I didn't realize how much I'd forgotten about it. Other than for the iconic scene where they get captured by the apes (filmed at Malibu Creek State Park), I'd basically forgotten the whole movie. Its a very philosophical film, that largely plays out as a courtroom drama, of all things.
While it was intended (back in 1968), it seems, to mock stodgy old Christians, and especially those who doubt the veracity of biological evolution, I found it worked even better as a swipe at people who today, deny the reality of human biodiversity, and otherwise seek to transform science into Settled Science ie., into a series of unquestioned, pseudo-religious tabus. A very good movie, and arguably an important one, in this era of intellectual stultification. -
BenChimes — 9 years ago(July 24, 2016 10:27 PM)
The film also reportedly resonated with audiences of the day during the height of the civil rights movement, which Heston participated in. Certainly the crowd scenes and use of clubs and hoses by the gorilla soldiers mirrored events on the news.
"Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness." ~ Shakespeare -
joekiddlouischama — 9 years ago(July 25, 2016 12:00 AM)
Certainly the crowd scenes and use of clubs and hoses by the gorilla soldiers mirrored events on the news.
good point. The hoses and clubs would have especially reminded viewers of what happened in Birmingham, Alabama, a few years earlier in 1963.
I also believe that the references to mankind's warmongering and propensity for self-destruction could have been obliquely referring to the Vietnam War. Audiences at the time certainly may have interpreted those lines as an oblique reference to Vietnam. -
BenChimes — 9 years ago(July 25, 2016 01:33 PM)
I also believe that the references to mankind's warmongering and propensity for self-destruction could have been obliquely referring to the Vietnam War. Audiences at the time certainly may have interpreted those lines as an oblique reference to Vietnam.
The second sequel features a protest by the chimpanzees as the gorilla army marches off to war.
"Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness." ~ Shakespeare -
patrick_bateman_90056 — 9 years ago(July 27, 2016 11:33 PM)
I saw it tonight for the first time thanks to the Cinemark Classic Series and it really is fascinating and frightening how it feels like a warning for future societies.
Without turning this into too much of a political debate: you have a society who's become overtly dependent on a theocratic government that looks down on any form of education that isn't sanctioned by the government first and foremost. You have a race of people being enslaved for being "different" from mainstream society. You have figures of power who fear change and will manipulate the tides to benefit themselves and destroy history to keep their power in check.
Even without the deep subtext, it's a rich film that shows cinema at its best.
"[Redmayne] is so thirsty for awards and not in a fun way but in a sad, desperate way" - Twitter -
joekiddlouischama — 9 years ago(July 30, 2016 11:18 PM)
You have a race of people being enslaved for being "different" from mainstream society.
I viewed
Planet of the Apes
twice on the big screen last week, on both Sunday and Wednesday evenings. (I believe that I saw it, or parts of it, in 1995 on AMC, but I did not recall much of anything from that occasion.)
Upon my second viewing last week, I thought that the apes'
roundup of the humans
in nature definitely constituted a metaphor for the slavery hunts in West Africa centuries agothe sequence represented a commentary on trans-Atlantic or colonial enslavement at a time when there had probably been little such representation, if any, on television or movie screens. (
Roots
was still nearly a decade away.) Of course, there had been plenty of representations of ancient European/Middle Eastern slavery on the big screen
Ben-Hur
,
The Ten Commandments
,
Spartacus
, and so forth (all of which Cinemark has also screened as part of the Classic Series)but
Planet of the Apes
offers an ironic metaphor for the trans-Atlantic enslavement that built the New World. (The irony comes in part from the enslaved, in this case,
being "white" while the slavers are the gorillas
, and of course the fallacious and horrid notion that people in Africa were essentially sub-human and biologically closer to gorillas helped fuel or justify the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the first place.)
Of course, the film also offers representations or commentaries on segregation/Jim Crow/Apartheid/caste systems, in addition to the use of religion to justify such social hierarchies.