We watched Planet of the Apes (1968 version) in class over the span of March 13 through March 20. Post you comments here if you want to add to your class comments or if you did not have the chance to respond in class. Consider any of the following:
- You might explore the idea of xenophobia in the film, or remark on any of its other social commentary.
- Keeping in mind that the film was made in 1968, what issues of its time did it address?
- What are some of your critiques of the film's plot, script, acting, special effects, or any other cinematic elements?
The thing that really bothered me was the inaccuracy of the dates. They seem to misunderstant the theory of reletivity, where instead of time slowing down for those in the ship, it speeds up outside of it. In actuallity, The reverse is true. At high speeds time changes, and thus passes at a different rate. Soo if they were traveling near lightspeed, it should have taken them 300 years to reach the planet. As is were, it took them two thousand years. In order to be going fast enough that two thousand years felt like 18 the would have had to greatly exceed the speed of light and would be much more than 2000 light years away.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why my previous comment didn't show up here. I thought it was foreshadowing in the beginning of the movie when he said 'there has to be something greater than human'. I also thought it was interesting that the apes have such capabilities for relationships, like they were having a funeral for one of the dead apes. It's interesting bewcause primates are very smart and in this they rule the humans and take it to a whole new level.
ReplyDeleteI thought the movie was humorous because the apes told Taylor that the mighty one created apes in his own image, to inhibit the jungles and the land. That is something that most humans would believe about themselves. Also the apes said all apes are created equal, which is another thing man believes. I think it should a lot of xenophobia because they were toying with the idea that the world could be destroyed and the humans would be extinct. It was during the cold war when this movie was filmed and so it was a scary time for many Americans. I think was Dr. Zauis said was true because he said man was born to kill. Humans do have a certain nature that would make them killers. I didn’t really like the ending because it didn’t seem realistic. Taylor sees the statue of liberty and realizes that he was home all along.
ReplyDeleteThe ending of this movie was so ironic. I didn't expect it at all. All this time he tried to escape because he felt humans were ruining everything and he returned only to find his worst nightmare had come true. This was a very interesting movie. Apes are very intelligent and it's scary to think what it would be like if we were no longer the dominant species of Earth.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get to see the end of the movie but I thought that the whole plot was kind of unrealistic and ironic. The humans and the apes switched places in the world, the humans were the ones in the jungles and the apes lived in towns. It was also strange how after centuries of speaking, none of the humans could talk anymore and the apes spoke perfect english.
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