Butler - Planet of the Apes

Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes handles duality in a truly great way. In the film, the roles of the humans and the apes are switched, as the apes rule over the humans and use the humans as slaves. The apes are very oppressive towards the humans, and the apes do not even want to think about treating the humans better and letting them live side by side the apes. Because of this, Leo Davidson causes a revolution of sorts when his space pod crash-lands on the apes’ planet.  Leo changes the way in which both the humans and the apes think towards each other. This movie ultimately presents a very interesting duality between civil liberties and slavery.

            In Planet of the Apes, the humans are treated as slaves by the apes. The apes have many preconceived notions about the humans, and the apes have no plans on changing their views. These preconceived notions have been apart of the apes’ lives for many generations, as seen through the scene in which the young apes are playing in the village. One of the young apes mentions something his father told him about the humans. This scene is a perfect example how prejudices and ideas such as slavery can be carried on through multiple generations.

             Planet of the Apes also presents an interesting look at civil liberties. As previously stated, the humans are slaves in the ape world. This causes apes such as Ari to want change in their society. Ari often goes against society’s normal way of thinking, as seen through the dinner party scene. In that scene, Ari speaks up against both her father’s and General Thade’s views of how the humans should be treated. This brings up a major conflict between Ari and the world around her. Because of Ari’s radical views, she is able to develop as a character.

            Ari’s views towards the humans are very interesting for her character. Because Ari has different views than the rest of her society, her character is able to develop and flourish into a well-rounded character.  Ari’s character develops from just merely talking about freeing the human slaves to actually being apart of the movement that frees the humans. This development of character through the conflict of whether or not the humans should be free is very essential to the film, and Burton does a great job of bringing this important development to life in the movie.