Unmissable film Planet of the Apes (1968), as relevant as ever

Planet of the Apes, the original film with Charlton Heston, was produced in 1968 when I was a boy of just five years old. Back then, I was happy every time this sci-fi movie aired on TV because I was also passionate about the future of space exploration and the possibility of finding aliens on another planet. Yet it all seemed so surreal. Also, I thought it was impossible that apes could have ruled the world. Fifty-three years later, having rewatched the film, I am able to interpret the script from a different and mature perspective, while also appreciating the prescient power of the plot, which included poignant images and metaphors. It is not my intention to reveal everything that happens in this sci-fi movie. However, I like to point out some parallels with the events that are taking place at the beginning of the 21st century. As readers know, science fiction sometimes predicts the future and gives viewers ideas on how to improve technology and lifestyle. In this sense, Planet of the Apes is exemplary.

At the time of filming, viewers of the movie might have questioned the outcome of space exploration because the United States was in a race with the Soviet Union to reach the moon. In 1967, three astronauts lost their lives in a fire during a launch pad test, demonstrating the danger of such exploration and raising questions about safety. In school, as children, we read books about how we would one day travel to space, and on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 took three American astronauts, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin, to the moon on a flight which lasted eight days, 3 hours and 18 minutes. Therefore, there was a lot of impetus to create science fiction movies that explored numerous possibilities.

At the beginning of the film, four astronauts, three men and one woman, find themselves in the middle of a journey towards an unknown frontier, space. First, Charlton Heston, who superbly plays the role of Captain George Taylor, sets the stage with his dictation from a journal, explaining how he and his crew have tried to accomplish the mission objectives. Then, finally, he settles in for a long nap, with the spaceship on autopilot. Not surprisingly, these men land somewhere in the middle of a lake, on a planet unknown to them. Having discovered that their crewmate died, the remaining three men know they won’t have long to live if they don’t find food. So, they embarked on this quest to find out where they are and how to survive.

Surprisingly, the spaceship had three men but only one woman. At one point in the film, Taylor says that the crewmate had been sent to repopulate the planet. One might find it strange that one woman, rather than two, was sent on the journey, calling into question the ability of humans to use foresight. However, they did not consider the possibility that she might die on the way. The fact that the team did not believe the woman’s death was a possibility represents the notion that people often prepare for the future without considering everything that can go wrong.. In real life, people tend to be optimistic and think that their lives will be better somewhere else when, in fact, life could be much worse on another planet or in the future. Therefore, human progress is not always guaranteed, especially when attention to detail is not paid.

First, Taylor’s team discovers that the mysterious planet in the film is ruled by apes, making viewers imagine that in real life, animals could rule the world if humans were no longer on the planet. These advanced apes speak English and also possess human characteristics, repeating unethical mistakes just like humans. Obviously, the apes in the movie mistreat humans, including a tribe of primitive pre-linguistic humans who don’t understand the language of the astronauts. Additionally, powerful primates use humans to conduct scientific experiments, often stuffing their bodies for museum display, allowing George Taylor to question such practices. Although he was dissatisfied with life on Earth years before his flight into space, Taylor now discovers that this new world is far worse than he ever imagined.

Taylor reads the ship’s calendar to indicate her arrival on the planet as November 25, 3978, years after her 1972 departure. Taylor meets Nova, a mute woman who represents the simplicity and kindness of the pre-linguistic tribes. without technology, unable at that moment to threaten the planet. She is unlike the many sophisticated women she had known in the old world she came from. She follows him, trusts him, and does whatever he tells her with her expressions that she should make of her. She also embodies the simple beauty of a woman who doesn’t ask questions and does what she’s told.

Cornelius and Zira are two intellectual chimpanzees who care about finding scientific truth no matter where it leads. Zira, a chimpanzee, has a mind of her own and follows her sense of logic despite what the male chimpanzees dictate. Her main desire is to understand scientific truth wherever it takes her, without the religious dogma of chimpanzees. Her mind is genuinely open and willing to try to understand the connection between primates and humans. Cornelius, her husband, is an absolute pacifist, sympathetic to his wife, an intellectual genius versed in history, who represents both primate personified and open-minded male.

Still, Dr. Zaius, his supervisor, is an orangutan who uses religious primate doctrine to protect the world from scientific truth. Although he is well educated, the film does not reveal exactly where he and the other primates completed their studies.

The search for scientific truth versus covering it up for the sake of politics in this film is paralleled by governments denying the discoveries of objective scientists who wish to present facts. So many scientific facts are ignored that it would hurt the economy. In addition, influential people and companies have denied climate change, claiming that it is simply a natural process, and they still deny it. The film is prescient, warning that humans may still try to save the planet.

George Taylor finally discovers that he is not far from home in a place where life is turned upside down, with humans the lowest link. While Dr. Zaius believes that man will destroy everything, he sees nothing wrong with covering up the truth, editing it as he pleases for what he considers to be the greater good. As a result, both people and apes appear selfish, even if some are “different.” The result is a vast amount of dry and barren land, a population of apes going the same way as humans, perhaps ignorant of the truth. Knowledge is masked in a false truth to satisfy the needs of power, which is just as harmful as sheer ignorance. Planet of the Apes is a great classroom discussion! This movie is worth watching for its story, exceptional acting, and compelling costumes. Most importantly, it encourages viewers to ask a lot of relevant sociological and scientific questions, certainly intellectually stimulating!