Planet of the Apes review (Madison, Ariane and Mariah)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Film Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjcpRHuPjOI

Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner

Screenplay by: Michael Wilson, Rod Sterling

Starring: Charles Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison, Lou Wagner

Running time: 112 minutes

Synopsis

Flight crew George, Landon and Dodge find themselves on an unknown planet when their spaceship takes an unforeseen landing into a remote lake, leaving the men questioning when they are, rather than where they are. The men set out for shore in a small yellow raft with only enough food and water to last them about three days. After many hours of walking through rocky mountains and deserted plains, the men find green land populated by other humans, who lack the ability to speak. An attack begins and large apes riding horses kill the colony of humans, while kidnapping George Taylor, his two other flight crew members, and Nova, a female from the colony populating the green land, bringing them back to their territory and putting them in cages like animals. George meets doctor Zira who is interested in his advanced mental and physical capacities. George Taylor, Dr. Zira, her fiancé Cornelius and later on, her nephew Lucius, find themselves in trouble with Dr. Zaius, the leader of the apes, for he fears humans and does not want to reveal to his “people”, or apes, that man is superior and populated the land before they did. Once having proven the theory that man lived there first, Dr. Zaius blows up the cave containing the evidence and frees Taylor and Nova, to discover the reality of when they are. After venturing long hours on horseback, Taylor finds the Statue of Liberty halfway sunken into the side of a mountain and beach, revealing that man has been abolished, and apes now rule planet Earth in year 3978.

Film Review 

One of our favorite things about Planet of the Apes was that the map which Cornelius showed Taylor really looked like a map of New York City. It was a very small detail included in the film, which we had only noticed our second time watching it. Having this small detailed appear halfway through was an interesting thing for the director to do, because it alluded to the big plot twist at the end of the film.
We disliked the science behind the movie. The rock formations (all the cliffs) looked like the grand canyon. New York, the place where the movie is supposedly taking place, is relatively flat, and that amount of rock formation would not be possible in the approximately 1000 years Taylor was not on earth. Clearly, there weren’t many scientist consulted on that, and it is extremely obvious that that amount of rock could not form in that short of a time, making it an extremely unbelievable ending to an otherwise very good movie.

We were very impressed by the costumes and makeup. In 1968, computer technology was not as advanced as it is nowadays. They could not use computer CGI programs to create the monkeys as they have done with recent films in the Planet of the Apes franchise. All costumes were made by costume designers, and weren’t just green screen bodysuits, which makes the film even more impressive. Filming outside in large furry suits could not have been pleasant for the actors, and makes the quality of their acting, given the circumstances, seem even better.

We really enjoyed the film Planet Of The Apes and all the ideas about the future that it brought to the viewers’ attention, but found that the ending created fearful thoughts for what is to come. A very significant passage to us was when Dr. Zaius admitted to knowing man ruled the Earth first. We found this to be paradoxical because of the topic of evolution clearly present in the film; where although man ruled the Earth first, humans evolving from our closely related ape family came rudimentary. The acting in the film, as well as the storyline, was very well executed and expressed, and we found that for a film made so long ago, and so far from present day standards in terms of special effects, Planet Of The Apes did not lack in any way. When the main character in the film, George, discovered the Statue of Liberty half sunken into the beach and the side of a mountain, discovering mankind had been abolished and year 3978 belonged to a world run by apes, We were slightly disturbed. We had never given much thought as to the possibility of Earth one day belonging to another species, as having the idea enforced so upfront definitely creates an unsettling mood for some viewers.

Film Techniques

There were not many shadows in the film on the characters. The set was extremely well lit, which made the entire movie have a happier setting. Even indoors, there were very few shadows. This made the film seem less serious, and made the theme feel more satirical than suspenseful. One of the few faults pertaining to the shadows, however, was when George Taylor was running from the Apes in the “museum”, there was a few shots where you could see a clear shadow of the camera following him.

Blue lighting was such an interesting effect. It blew up the entire sky in what looked like an inverse color effect in Photoshop. The use of the lightning like that reminded us of heat lightning in the summer, and was very cool to see. It reminded us of lightning on earth, but because the flash was much larger than we had ever seen. We truly thought that they were stranded on a foreign planet.

The non diegetic sounds interested us the most. The music was always the same type. There was some very strange, alien-like sounds that we are not used to hearing on a daily basis and that were not familiar. In our opinion, the purpose of this use of abnormal sounds was to make us feel disoriented, confused and a bit frightened. This was most likely to make us believe how different things are on the=is foreign planet by using multiple senses, rather than just sight. This is an interesting technique because incorporating sound into a movie with the purpose of having a greater sensory experience of what’s going on is a good way to keep the audience engaged with what is happening.

George Taylor was one of the crew members from the rocket ship that landed and he was a very well portrayed character. He was a very strong-minded and tough character, and he grew as a person over the length of the movie. He seemed very close minded at the beginning, but as the film progressed he adapted well to his new surroundings. George was a complex character for he was very unpredictable with his actions as well as gradually showing more emotions as the movie went on, giving the viewers a better insight on his personality. At the beginning of the film, Taylor was an extremely imposing male character, who acted as an Alpha. You can see that he thinks he is better than everyone else, and even claims that he and his crew members have the ability to run the planet because the other humans seem to be unintelligent. Throughout the movie, this opinion changes. He views certain others, such as Dr. Zira and Nova, as his equal. This character arc shows his development as a character and shows that he understands not all humans are equal, and not all species are worth less than humans.

The costumes in the film were very well represented in accordance to the hierarchy established by the apes, and the reverse roles of humans and apes. In one moment towards the end of the film, before running away to the caves, George asks Dr. Zira for better clothes than the cloth he is wearing over his indecent areas, to which she is astonished saying that she cannot give him a brand new ape's suit (an ape's suit is an actual suit, a play-on-words to the colloquial phrase "Monkey suit"). The apes who ruled the colony wore very well tailored and designed suits, clearly separating them as the leaders, for they dressed like no other ape. The soldier apes wore military type clothing such as vests and black armored outfits. George along with the other humans wore cloths and scrap materials as clothing. I found the costumes to be very well thought out and created to properly represent the idea the film was attempting to portray, which is that apes are the descendants of humans and hold the same if not very similar capabilities and capacities as humans.

Issues and themes

A main issue covered by the Planet of the Apes film franchise as a whole, is the topic of animal personhood and cruelty. The Planet which George Taylor and his crew lands on is one in which a society of apes rule the planet, and humans are their test subjects, which is the complete opposite from our current society. The humans in the film are treated as unintelligent animals, and are used for experimental surgeries, behavioral studies and research purposes. There's even what appears to be a museum with taxidermied humans in different scenes, including one of the astronauts from earth. This was done to mimic the way we as Humans treat non-human animals, and how we recklessly test on these animals without considering the impact it may have on them. This is animal cruelty and showed many people how animals in testing facilities are treated. The film also raised the question of how and when we apply personhood to animals. In the film, George is treated as worthless, and is not given a say in anything that happens to him. He is truly treated as an animal is in our society, however, George is also tried in front of the head of the academy, something that humans would never do to an animal. They gave Dr. Zira and Cornelius the chance to defend him, whereas most institutions would attempt to rehabilitate an animal, and either send them to a zoo, release them into the wild or euthanize them if the problem with the animal could not be fixed.

One other issue is the presence of racism in the movie. Although it is very discreet visually, the movie definitely raises the issue in the text. In fact, we can see that the superior monkeys are orangutans and their skins are pale in the movie. They have higher level jobs and play crucial roles in the society. On the other side, dark skinned chimpanzees are inferior and under control of orangutans. They have lower level jobs and they do not have the same privileges. It is also the case with gorillas that are even lower than chimpanzees in the hierarchy and are involved in the security. In addition, the only dark skinned human in the whole movie died at the beginning. In the actual dialogue, the way ape's speak among each other changes based on race. Dr. Zira and Cornelius speak differently to Dr. Zaius, and speak to the ape's of the same fur color in a different, more colloquial way. This shows that the more pale apes demand a certain level or respect because they feel they are superior.

Words: 1808

Quality

The quality of the film is very good considering   the year it was made. The special effects used, such as the blue lighting, were advanced and not used in excess, so they seemed very real and not out of place. The sound quality of the music and sounds were extremely well done, and the bright lighting and vibrant colors were extremely strong features in the film. The acting in the film was quite weak. The actors seemed to be reciting lines, without a deeper insight into who the character actually was. There was no depth to their acting, and this left us with very dry characters. We enjoyed the ideas that the movie brought to the viewer's attention, such as the

hierarchy and racism among animals, questioning evolution, the subtle way that the destruction of human kind during the time the film was created hinted at the cold war and the idea that the roles of non human animals and humans could be reversed. The costumes where truly superb, given the minimal resources they had available at the time, and the use of props such as the map which was shaped like New York really made this film worth the watch.

4 out of 5 stars

Course Connections

Black box

During ”The Planet of the Apes”, Dr. Zaius speaks of “The Divine spark in the Simian brain” and states that “Man has no soul”. He implies that humans are animals, and therefore do not have souls and cannot think for themselves. When he spoke of this, I instantly thought of the documentary we watched in class, “The nature of things, Mysteries of the Animal Mind”. Most specifically, I was reminded of the idea that animal consciousness and intelligence was something that was taboo and that people did not want to talk about. Animal consciousness and cognition was referred to, in the documentary, as a “black box that we shouldn’t open”. In the movie, the same idea is shown. The apes do not want Dr. Zira exploring the idea that animals have a conscious.

Animals and person hood

In Planet of the Apes, Dr. Zira refers to George Taylor as “bright eyes”, and talks to him as though he were her equal. She trusts him and attribute human-like qualities (or, in this case, ape-like qualities) to George. She treats him as a person, and with respect. This suggests that she sees George as her equal, and treats him as an ape. This plays on the idea of personhood. Although George is not an Ape, he acts so much like one and is valued and appreciated, and is therefore considered almost like an “honorary” ape by Cornelius and Zira, and at the trial, although there he is not permitted to speak for himself. This idea is the idea of personhood, that an individual is considered a person, dependant on certain factors including, but not limited to, race, gender, species, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. Although George is from another species, he is considered an ape by certain individuals, much like how many humans may consider their dogs humans.

Minimal self and self-aware self

In the film, Zaius thinks that man can be domesticated. He says things such as “he       can only see a man acting like an “ape” and that “man has no understanding” or that “they can be taught a few simple tricks nothing more”. He believes that men have minimal selves. Minimal or core self means that they cannot reflect on themselves or observe themselves. They are just directly reacting to their environment. They are an “I” without a sense of what an “I” is, or that they even have one. In the film, all apes are taught humans have no rights, no souls and no minds. Ape researchers attempt to study them, to see if they have some form of consciousness just like we do with apes in our society. However, for them, Taylor is a different case because he seems to have self-aware self. He knows he exists, he can reflect on himself and he can speak. He is an “I” with a symbol of an “I”, and knows that he is and “I”.

Questions

1. In a film based on the mistreatment of non-human animals, and more rights for every species, is sexism a prevalent theme within the film?
2. Nuclear war is a subtle theme in the movie, given the time it was made and the idea of the human population disappearing almost completely. Do people still talk about nuclear war? (in relation to the film or outside of it)
3. What is the role of religion in either the film, or our society today?

Web Links

https://www.thedodo.com/9-reasons-you-should-support-g-677503244.html

This news article touches upon the idea of why humans should support Ape person hood. It raises many different arguments but one of the most prevalent topics was that Apes have very similar brain and mental capacities to humans. The article also goes on about Ape culture and language; and how they have developed their own. I found these topics to be relevant to the film because of the backwards society presented where humans are treated like animals, the same way we as humans actually treat the Apes on our planet.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy3G_kmpWco

This video shows an example very similar to the makeup from the movie Planet Of The Apes. The makeup and costumes in the movie were very detailed and well done for the apes, so it is interesting to see how the faces of the apes were created with different molds, makeup and hair. The video shows how gelatin type molds are gently glued to the actor's face and then makeup is applied to blend the look together. The most interesting part in the movie which was shown well in the video is how the mouths moved so realistically in the movie, because it is not one large face mask but small individual pieces.

Citations

Lecture-McKinney, Kelly. “Knowing the Inner Self-Mysteries of the Animal Minds” 28 February

2017. John Abbott College, Sainte-Anne de Bellevue, QC. Class Lecture.

Mysteries of the Animal Mind, Daniel Zuckerbrot, CBC's the nature of things, May 16, 2015.

Accessed February 27 2017.

Planet of the Apes. Franklin J. Schaffner ,Performances by Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall,

Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison, Lou Wagner, 20th Century Fox, 1968.