Elkins Planet of the Apes

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One duality I found very interesting in Planet of the Apes was that of science vs. primitivism. Both the 1968 version and Burton’s version deal with this duality, although Burton’s version is a little more fleshed-out. In the 1968 version, Taylor’s story of crashing on the planet in a spaceship (speaking of which, there’s another link – the main characters of each film are horrible at landing their respective space-ships) is dismissed as heresy against the ape religion. In Burton’s movie, the technology that Davidson possesses makes the apes fearful.

Two scenes that illustrate how the science vs. primitivism conflict helps to develop character through conflict: the scene where Davidson retrieves his supplies from his crashed space-ship and the scene where General Thade breaks the red decoration and finds the gun. The scene where Davidson retrieves his supplies from his crashed space-ship is important because it further expands the gap between the humans and the apes. When Davidson fires his gun, one of the apes says, in a hushed voice, “Sorcery.” Sorcery and magic in general are usually just terms for sciences we do not yet understand, and thus we dismiss them as being associated with “the Other,” which sort of gives it a negative connotation. The apes hold strongly to their religious beliefs, and, as this scene illustrates, are hesitant to deal in matters that question their religion.

The scene where General Thade breaks the red decoration and finds the gun also helps to illustrate the apes’ fearfulness of technology. Thade, a character that already hates humans, is introduced to the invention of the gun by his father, who says that the gun is “the symbol of destruction” or something like that (I don’t remember exactly what was said). The apes are a civilization that uses swords and spears to fight (a very medieval thing) and don’t use modern weaponry (or, at least, none that I saw). His dying father’s condemnation of guns further deepens Thade’s hatred of those who use them  - the humans (although, I’m not sure how the apes grew to use the modern weaponry as seen in the end  - to be honest, I thought the ending was just kind of dumb).

Burton uses Planet of the Apes to again deliver a message he’s well familiar with: the misconceptions that most hold for one another. Although,  I think Burton did a weaker job of addressing that message with this film than his previous films (but that’s just me).