Planet of The Apes (1968)

October 30, 2017

Knowing the Inner Self, Kelly McKinney: Blog Project Assignment

Planet of the Apes

By: Azelie Roch, Ryan Perkins and Alina Traa

Planet of the apes was released in 1968. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and was written by Michael Wilson and Rod Sterling. The stars cast in the movie were Charlton Heston (Taylor), Roddy McDowall (Cornelius) and Kim Hunter (Zira) (Full Cast and Crew. IMDb, IMDb.com, 17 Oct. 1990, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063442/fullcredits)

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

 

Review:

Planet of the Apes is a movie based on the survival of an individual from planet earth. To start off four astronauts, Taylor, Landon, Dodge and Stewart set off to travel at the speed of light to travel the universe. Suddenly they crash land o a new planet. Swiftly and quickly they all exit the aircraft before it sinks into the body of water they crash landed in. Since they are all safely out they begin to paddle to land. They then realise that so far there is no life form on this deserted and dusty planet, so they begin exploring the planet since they have no way to leave. Suddenly they come across a plant that sets them off eagerly to look for more living organisms. In the middle of no where they discover figures that look like scarecrows. Distracted by a noise Taylor runs by the scarecrows and discovers a waterfall. While they are merrily enjoying the waterfalls, quietly their clothes begin to disappear. They follow the trail of their ripped-up clothes. All three now and see humans. Abruptly a roar breaks their concentration and gorillas on horses appear whacking the grass and attacking the humans. The three of them run in different directions to save themselves.

 Taylor is captured and left with an injury that impedes him from speaking. Taylor has now become a test subject and is being study by Dr. Zira. She is a chimpanzee who can talk and is a kind psychologist who takes care of Taylor. She pays special attention to him since he can communicate, and the other humans can not speak at all. The humans are put into captivity because they behave like “animals”. On this planet apes dominate and control the society.

Taylor shows them that he can write and tries to explain where he came from. Yet, no one takes him seriously. When back in captivity, Taylor is brought a new friend that is a female from this planet. As they form a romantic connection Taylor gives her the name of Nova. Taylor is now fed up with being treated like an animal and is frustrated that nobody believes his story so, he attempts to escape. During his escape he realizes that Dodge was killed during the attack and is now an item in their museum. Taylor can’t get far, he is captured but is now finally able to speak and he expresses how he feels, “get your stinking paws off me”.

Taylor, Dr. Zira and Cornelius are sentenced to a hearing on the grounds that they believe Dr. Zira experimented on Taylor and somehow forced the function of his brain to speak. Due to the fact that apes can not believe that they evolved from humans. They try to plead their case, while doing so Taylor tries to identify Landon who he soon realizes has turned into a mute because the primates purposely tampered with his brain. At the end of the court case all three defendants were found guilty. With one last attempt Dr. Zira, Cornelius and Lucius (Zira’s nephew) help Taylor and Nova escape. Even after all that effort, they get ambushed in the forbidden zone. After Cornelius shows Dr. Zaius the proof that humans had been on the planet before apes, he quickly shuts down the fact and says that they are still guilty. Taylor negotiates with Dr. Zaius and ends up travelling by himself with Nova through the forbidden zone. Taylor soon after realizes that the forbidden zone is where man kind used to live and that they destroyed it with nuclear war. Which explains why humans are treated like animals because they behave like them. With the help of the statue of liberty Taylor realizes that he isn’t on a new planet, in fact, he has returned to planet earth.

Analysis:

The costumes worked effectively in this movie. At the beginning of the movie the astronauts were seen wearing nice white suits which showed that they were different from the norm on this planet. Interestingly, they were seen naked at the waterfall scene and then throughout the movie were seen with brown ragged clothes. If they were truly animals, then they would be seen wearing nothing. Finally, they were seen wearing the ragged clothes because it was mandatory for the Hollywood censors. Next, we have the orangutans who are at the top of the hierarchy. The orangutans wear a nice colour of orange to differentiate themselves from the rest. the orangutans are seen as the governors of the primate society. Orange can also represent them physically but on another hand orange is a strong and powerful colour when compared to green and brown. Next on the hierarchy we have the Chimpanzees. Th chimpanzees wore a colour of green. They are seen as neutral individuals they are neither at the bottom nor the top, so they must wear a neutral colour in between. They are the scientist of the primate bunch. Finally, we have the gorillas. They are seen as individuals that are territorial and will attack others. So, they wear the colour of brown (a dark colour) which isn’t the most appealing. The colours displayed represent the hierarchy of the primate’s society. This hierarchy is symbolic of racism or classism in human culture. The lightest colour was seen at top of the hierarchy and the dark colours were seen at the bottom.

 

Throughout the movie tons of music was played to enhance the meaning of the scene. For example, one of the very first scenes was the plane crash landing on the new planet. During the scene suspenseful music was playing to show that the passengers are in danger and need to exit the aircraft quickly or else they will go down with it. At another point in the film when they were exploring the planet, mysterious music was playing. It emphasized that they were in a new place that they knew nothing about.; that they didn’t know what to expect or what they were going to find. Once again, while they were enjoying the waterfall, a secretive piano music began because their clothes began to disappear. It enhanced the message that they were about to uncover something new about the planet and that something was happening without their attention.

The props were very significant in the film because it helped convey the audience that the orangutans were hiding a secret from the rest of their society. For example, the ape scrolls. They are constantly mentioned and abide by them religiously no one dares to look beyond the scrolls. They created them so that the primates wouldn’t discover anything new. If they were to go beyond the boundaries of the scrolls they would have consequences. Another example is the paper airplane that Taylor created. Dr. Zaius discovered the paper airplane and before anyone could explain or even test it, he quickly crumpled it up. Dr. Zaius knows something that the rest of them do not and he does not want change. He did not want others to see it so that they would get ideas. Most importantly we have the human like baby doll. At the end of the movie, the doll made a crying noise which was a feature of a human. Which was proof that the ape society evolved from humans and that humans had been there before apes. Which was the secret that Dr. Zaius was hiding from everyone.

Framing had a large roll in helping the audience understanding the plot and message of the film. At the very beginning of the movie when they had crash landed on the planet a long shot was taken. It showed that they were in the middle of the ocean and that they were far from land. As well a few long shots were taken when on their journey to explore the planet. The long shots showed how they’ve been walking for awhile as well, it shows the desolated landscape and that there is nothing for miles. Another scene is when they had crash landed, they had a close up on each astronaut. It was to show that they had been travelling for a very long time because they had all managed to grow a decently long beard.

Editing was a main factor used to convey the message to the audience. One of the first scenes was of the crash landing on the new planet. The crash landing was a long take. There were also a few shots upside down and looking downwards to show how dangerous it was getting. It also showed how the spaceship was losing control and that it was losing it fast. As well, there was some cross cutting at the end of the movie. The cross cutting showed Taylor walking across the shore and then discovering the statue of liberty and then it switched to the apes using explosives to seal up the cave. It showed that Taylor now understood that man had in fact destroyed their species by war and the ape didn’t want that so they destroy any evidence of another life form. At the beginning of the movie there were once again long takes. They were taken when first exploring the planet and walking around. It emphasized how long the astronauts have been walking for.

 

The movie sent a great message when the switched the rolls of the human and the ape. The apes had claimed themselves the prime species whereas humans were seen as animals. It helped us understand that humans think they are the center of the universe and that they are the most important. That humans become selfish and self destructive. We always want more and that’s what to led to the end of the human species. The human race is so selfish that it ens up being destroyed in a self-imposed nuclear war. On the other hand, it could also show that we need to treat others the way that you want to be treated. We need to have respect for every living life form because that’s how we’ll survive and no one will be humiliated.  We must treat animals properly and not as if they are beings that are underneath us.

Word Count: 1704 Words

Film Quality 

 

Although this film brought forward many good ideas and thoughts for the viewers to think about, it seems dated. Comparing it to newer films, where they mostly rely on special effects and other technologies to make a good movie, it had very bad visuals, the costumes that were used did not fully show the transition of roles between the humans and the apes, the humans had clothes, which made it seem as if they were a primitive society as opposed to beasts. It was slow at times, and did not have very good techniques, at times there was too much sound, and scenes were too long. This does not keep the audience’s attention and in a movie like this one, where details are important, it is important to keep the viewers' attention. However, for a movie that was released in 1968, it is very good, since they didn’t have the advantage of having the technology we have today. This is good, it had very good visuals for a movie of its time. Next comparing the ideas and messages the movie brought forward. Again, comparing it to the majority of today's films, it has very good messages which were told in very interesting yet effective ways.

 

Class concepts

 

Three major topics that came up in this film and that were mentioned and talked about in class are, anthropocentrism, automatons, and Anthropocentrism.

1.       Anthropocentrism:

In this case the apes are taking on the roles of humans therefore they are the ones who anthropomorphize. The apes are taking on the mindset of humans. Therefore, they take on the same centralist mindset of humans. Some examples of these are the fact that the apes completely ignore any ideas of past civilized human life. They continuously shoot down ideas of evolution from a human form, they go as far as to try others for treason and conspiracy, this clearly indicates a closed-minded outlook on the life they have currently (which humans thinking there is nothing greater than themselves). Another example of this is the way they treat the humans. In this case 'Taylor' who is the only human who 'acts like an ape' is treated like a mutant. According to their science he is to be put down because he counters current faiths that apes are the ones who were sent from God to breed and take the earth and to strive, this is the same ideology that we currently take on. In Christian faith, God created man on earth in his own image, implying that humans are made in the divine form, shooting down other species. 

2.       Automaton (Black box)

As our old science views animals as a black box which cannot be opened, now the apes treat humans in the same way, the apes 'know' that humans cannot have emotion, they cannot reason, they cannot think for themselves and they cannot learn or be one with society. All they have is an input and an output calculated in their brains and displayed through actions. There are no other brain functions that go on inside the brain, there are no emotions being processed. This is an exact definition of an automaton, a being which is only used for input output analysis.

3.       Anthropomorphism

The humans in this film are viewed as beasts and the apes have the same ideologies of ‘animal automatons' as we do today. However, there are always the odd few out, these are the ones who tend to use anthropomorphism. In this film the one is Dr. Zira. She studies animal psychology, meaning she looks into brain functions and processes of the brain. Unlike the rest of her kind, she continuously describes humans with attributes that apes would use on one another. This is the same as anthropomorphism, defined as giving human attributes to non-human animals, and since in this film the roles are switched, it is considered the same thing.

 

Questions:

Question 1:  If you had the chance to travel through time and end up in the 31th century, would you do it? 

 

Question 2:  If you woke up one day and Earth was governed by non-human animals, what would your reaction be? 

 

Question 3:  Why did Zaius not tell Taylor earlier that he was on Earth? 

 

Web Links:

 

A.                https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/c/chimpanzee/ 

This is the national geographic website about the chimpanzees.  On this site you can find a lot of information about them like their diet, their scientific name, their behaviour and more.  We can also see pictures with a great quality and videos of them in their natural habitat.  The national geographic website also provides information on many more animals.  

 

B) https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html 

This is the NASA official website about space launches.  You can find many topics, missions, gallery, and there is even a NASA TV.  If you go in the overview, you can find the explanation of how the space launch system works.  You can learn about the astronauts, the NASA, leadership, organization, locations and much more.

 

Works cited

Planet of the apes. Directed by Frankiln J. Schaffner, performance by Charlton Heston, roddy McDowall, and Kim Hunter, 20^th Century Fox, 1968.