if you want that, read the book. the cartoon as mentioned is based more on the boulle novel.
personally i don't think that would have worked for the movie. i think the primitive way of living was simply how they CHOSE to live and makes sense, and the irony of what the main character is feeling would have not fit if the apes lived in air conditioned condos.
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Tbh, I'm glad it wasn't a hi-tech society.
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I read in a movie magazine that the original plan WAS to have the apes be hi tech and the reason it was not done was because that would have been more expensive to film. The primitive ape village was cheaper to show on film.
Yes, that is correct.

the 2001 version with a younger Mark Wahlberg ended that way. There was a time travel incident where history was altered and there was a modern Earth in the other time line run by intelligent apes.
I read in a movie magazine that the original plan WAS to have the apes be hi tech and the reason it was not done was because that would have been more expensive to film. The primitive ape village was cheaper to show on film.

Yes pointing out the facts is being picky.

Allright James if you insist on being picky, stone. Sheesh.

They still live in mud houses
They weren't mud but carved out of stone.

The technology of the apes does appeaser to be a bit of a mishmash. They still live in mud houses and ride horses yet they have semi-automatic guns and advanced medical procedures. This mainly comes from the films budget. The original script called for the apes to live in an advanced city but the producers soon realised they didn't have the budget to construct such an elaborate set so they went for the more modest low tech village you saw in the final film.

Real reason, budget.
In the book the apes have cars and helicopters but in 1968 SciFi was not the box office powerhouse it is now so the studio opted for a neo primitive look which also gave the art design a nice alien look.
Also this plays in with the idea that the elders rejected technologies that ancient man used.
This works well in the science vs religion aspect that the film portrays.

Fair point

True but he seemed to suppress science that would lead to knowledge of man's history and true nature such as Zira's behavioral experiments and Cornelius' archeology. Yet he is for experimental brain surgery. As far as other technology, there is no evidence in the film whether he was for it or against it.

True, but wasn't he also Defender of the Faith?
If those pen pushers up at city hall don't like it,well, they swivel on this middle digit!

See my response to Alan below.

Their "Minister of Science" seemed to be a euphemism for belief manipulation and information control.

Maybe but they seemed to put a lot of emphasis on science. They even had a Minister or Science, most human governments don't have that office or post.

Maybe shunning technology was the wrong description. More a case of happy as they were.
If those pen pushers up at city hall don't like it,well, they swivel on this middle digit!

Yah, that makes sense too.

I always took that as more Zaius trying to hide Taylor's true nature. Especially since it takes place in the movie long before it is revealed that the planet is earth in the future.

I got that impression with the paper airplane. Zaius seemed to know that man had achieved flight, but he was denouncing that it was possible, fearing that the chimpanzee's intellect might lead to experimentation.
At the end, Zaius admitted that he'd always known about man (of the past).

Never got that impression myself.

Don't really see any evidence of that in the film.

Yes, because the orangutans were aware that "ancient" man had used their technology to destroy themselves. They didn't want that same technology to exist now, in case intelligent humans still existed.

I always thought of them as a little bit like the Amish where they shun technology, or at least to a degree.
If those pen pushers up at city hall don't like it,well, they swivel on this middle digit!

The apes seem to have a level of technology equal to that of the mid-19th century. But they do have very bad beer!