Planet of the Apes brings up the question what right does one species have the right to dominant the other? How does a person enslave another human? Civil rights and human rights for that matter are brought up in watching the Planet of the Apes. The film gives us a twist by having the apes rule and the humans enslaved. As an audience we sympathize with the humans and how they are treated to as slaves. As we watch this film, the director does it on purpose so we can see the point of view even though this point in time humans know that enslaving any other culture, race, or person is out of the question! Though our society understands this, can we still as a society oppress people that we think are less than ourselves.
As many films tip toe around uncomfortable issues, Tim Burton gets straight to the point and clearly shows you explicitly the civil rights and prejudices we have towards each other. In the scene of the dinner table the battle to what the rights of the humans should have and the apes shouldn’t. When the military ape says that we should just get rid of all the humans they have no soul. Once you say that they have no soul that de-humanism them. Makes them easier to kill because they don’t have soul therefore they are just walking meat sacks. As the daughter of the important government official, refuses to believe this and says that threw science she can vouch for the humans having a greater intelligence that they know of. She was right as we look at the scene with the military goes to his father's death bed and his father tells him, the humans one advantage over us as is there power of technology. As than shown in the 1968 movie, technology and fast progress is what killed us as human beings.
In the second scene, which is about how the wild human attacks the house slave human and saying how the household humans thinks he is better than us. Not even talking to him first just by judging him because he was a house slave. That is another thing we humans due, jut because someone might be more well off than another does not mean and gives them no right to think that they are better than that other human. It goes both ways, just because someone isn’t as well off as another human or just got lucky like that human did doesn’t mean that another human is better than an “unlucky” human. (I use that term “unlucky” very loosely).
In conclusion, the Planet of the Apes brings up topics that we all see as profiling judging, and human rights to the audiences attention.
Burton definitely gets to the points in his films, and he isn't afraid to speak his mind and show his opinions. It's interesting how you say their lack of soul "dehumanizes" them. The apes obviously believe that they themselves have souls, but they would probably say something more along the lines of "de-APEnize". It's interesting that humans have this word "humanity" that is meant to describe so much about what it means to be human.... it shows another way about how human being believe themselves to be the most superior beings.
ReplyDeleteKatie Frederick