“Somewhere in the Universe, there must be something better than man...”
The Planet of the Apes was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner in 1968 based off of
the novel, Monkey Planet, written by Pierre Boulle’s. In the movie, a group of scientists
traveling through space, crash land on an unknown planet. On this planet they discover
that apes are the dominant species and humans are nothing more than speechless wild
animals.
Their relationship in the movie between humans and apes mirrors that in the
real world only the roles are reversed. The apes cringe at the thought of evolving from a
lowly species such as humans, who are beastly, uncivilized, and distasteful. In the real
world this viewpoint was held by many people since the discovery of the great apes.
The apes believe that the humans could never really equal the intelligence of their own
species. Although the apes find it amusing when the humans do something that mimics
their own behavior saying things like “human see, human do”; they do not believe that
the humans have the mental capacity to actually contribute anything or become equal
members of their society. This view of humans mirrors how upper class members of the
1960’s viewed those of the lower classes.
Much like the real world society of the 1960’s, the ape society is very flawed. As
soon as the apes are introduced into the movie it becomes clear that there is a rigid
hierarchy in their society. This hierarchy is an allegory of 1960’s Western society,
but instead of a hierarchy based on class, race, and sex; the ape society is based on
species. The orangutans are at the top of the social pyramid, they are the politicians
as well as the religious leaders. They are clearly in charge of the society and will see to
it that anyone who gets in their way of keeping the society in the exact order that they
want it in will be taken care of. The chimpanzees are the scientists and based on the
characters introduced in the movie, the most open minded and curious. The gorillas are
the warriors and enforcers, they do not appear to have the power of the the orangutans
or the intelligence of the chimpanzees. The humans in this society play a similar role
to what apes play in the real world. They are treated as a lower species that may have
some capability to learn a few new tricks but will never stack up to the intelligence of the
highest species.
The fact that apes were chose to represent the dominant species in this world
brings up an interesting point. It is well known that apes are the closest known living
relatives to humans, thus making them the most logical successors to the planet if
the human race were to destroy itself. But beneath this base level of observation lies
a deeper meaning behind the choice of apes. Throughout history people of the elite
class would often assign apelike descriptions of those people belonging to a group other
than their own. This movie flips this and gives the same ape-like characteristics to the
humans, thus causing the audience to sympathize with the other group.
The Planet of the Apes provides a look into a society where the humans are not
the top of the species hierarchy. It provides a glance into a future where the humans
of the protagonist’s society could not learn to live in peace and ended up destroying
each other because of differences that they deemed important. These differences
could be anything from race and gender to species. No matter what the cause the one
of the messages from the movie is this, if the human race cannot learn to coexist with
members of its own society as well as other species than it will ultimately lead to its own
demise.
