Wednesday - December 28, 2011

 The Planet of the Apes I

I saw the original "Planet of the Apes" (1968) film last night and was surprised by a couple of aspects: firstly, its strong anti-religious take on the suppression of scientific inquiry; and secondly, its idea of the class structure of ape society with the theocratic class filled by the orangutans, the military class by the gorillas, and the scientific elite by the chimpanzees. Above we see three members of the theocratic class conducting a hearing into the alleged heresy of the chimpanzee scientists who have claimed that a more advanced non-simian civilization existed before the simian one, a view outlawed by their holy texts. [We see  the President of the Assembly (James Whitmore), Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), and Dr. Maximus (Woodrow Parfrey)].

Above we see three members of the gorilla warrior class who hunt down and exterminate the remnants of the humans.

Here we see Taylor (Charlton Heston) and two of the scientist chimpanzees (the female is Zira (Kim Hunter)) who wish to study the apparently mutant human who is capable of speech.