Sunday, November 10, 2013

Seals- Glowing in the Twilight Frequency- Planet of the Apes


I remember watching this movie as a little kid and getting scared by Thade.   I didn’t really know what was going on I just enjoyed the battle scenes.  Now we got time complexities, weird romance, political aspects, science, and civil liberties.  Civil liberties and slavery is one of the most important dualities in the film.  Leo Davidson arrives at this strange planet.. Earth maybe? Because there are humans and apes and plant life and water?  No can’t be.. and won’t have one second of a world where humans are confined by apes.   He is put into Limbo’s cage with other humans that know what to expect from the evil apes.  Humans in cages being sold; that’s odd.  You feel bad for them but I think it’s kind of cool to refer that scene to slavery back in the 1700s in our country.  It was animal like and evil to do so but back then, and in the future apparently it was ok.   


            Ari was the link between the human rebels and the sympathetic apes that came along with her and Leo’s escape journey.  Ari thrived for a society where humans and apes lived together as equals.  She always thought about human rights and hated how the apes treated them.  She said so to her friend right when Limbo was done ordering soldiers to take the captured humans inside.  Limbo is my favorite character in the film, partly because he is an orangutan.  He is a greedy human trader who you should hate, but definitely has a funny, mindless personality. Him and Thade simply view humans as property with absolutely no civil liberties.  Limbo even sells a little girl as a pet.  But his attitude changes when he is put in chains.  He tries to capture the escaped humans and they keep him as their prisoner.  He learns what it is like to be a slave and how the humans feel.  Right before Leo leaves on the space pod, Limbo steals some aspirin and tries to sell it to little HUMAN kids.  He adapted quickly to the new situation of humans having rights so he could make more money for himself.  It was great.  The ape society adapted as well when they saw their God, Semos, and Leo were friends.  Their slavery was abolished after that, and their society was to change where humans and apes both possessed civil liberties.   

2 comments:

  1. I think your connection to periods of our history really contribute well to displaying your understanding of the film. I also found it interesting that you mentioned Burton's inclusion of humor particularly in creating Limbo's character thus poking fun at the greed of the human race. I never made the connection that Limbo's greed persisted in his adaptation specifically when he was seen towards the end of the film trying to sell pills to children which is both hilarious and interesting. I think it would have been interesting had you examined how Leo evolved as a character throughout the film. The ending of the film is particularly revealing when it comes to the topic that you addressed of civil liberties and slavery. It also would have expanded your blog if you had made more contemporary connections linking the topic to present-day political implications.

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  2. I like how you made the connection that Ari was the missing link between the two species. If her and Leo Davidson had never crossed paths, the ape's world probably would have never changed. She wants to fight for an equal society between apes and humans and uses Leo to do that. She notices something special in him, and he notices something special about her. It is also very interesting that as soon as the tables turned on Limbo, his entire approach against humans changed. Leo has a special relationship with his ape. He goes out of his way for the best interest of his ape. On the other hand, Ari puts herself in danger because she believes in something bigger than herself, the civil liberties of humans and apes. She's had this idea of humans and apes living in harmony together, and now she sees her opportunity to make the best of it.

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