Pota Research Paper

McGeary 1 Marianne McGeary Dr. Nelson Hathcock English 434: Literature and Film 4 May 2004 The Year of the Ape Tied to his chair, his mouth covered with a cloth, Bobby Seale sat in a Chicago courtroom, belligerently listening to testimony on his culpability in a conspiracy. It was 1968. The courtroom where Seale sat bound and gagged was, for three months that summer, the eye of a national hurricane of protesters versus the establishment. The Democratic convention that year attracted far more than delegates to Chicago. The youthful war protesters known as “yippies” evolved from the peace- loving hippies who had so entranced the nation since 1967’s San Francisco “Summer of Love.” The yippies wanted more than daisy stickers and flowing robes. They wanted, they demanded, peace: now. Their agenda began with an end to the draft and the war in Viet Nam and spread out to include the Women’s Liberation, Black Power, and Gay Rights movements. They spoke for the disenfranchised, and wore their youth as a badge of honor. They were in the face of the nation. They were loud, demanding, and unreasonable. “Hell no! We won’t go!” they screamed at the generation of their parents, who survived the Depression; and the same generation who unquestioningly served in the Second World War and had unquestionably changed the world by doing so. This generation wanted to change the world as well, but by refusing to support a war they did not believe in. They were the best educated generation in America’s history, already known as the Baby Boomers, well

McGeary 2 fed and pampered, raised on television, and used to having their say. They were “antiestablishment,” and proud of it. “The whole world is watching,” they said, and it was. Many Americans watched in fear and anger. This was the condition of the American psyche when the movie Planet of the Apes opened, and that is why this science fiction adventure film, adapted from the novel by Pierre Boulle, was raised to iconic status, and came to symbolize the uproar in America. Pierre Boulle served with the French army in Indochina in 1939 and the French Resistance in Malaysia before he was captured by the Japanese. As a prisoner of war, Boulle experienced forced labor until his escape in 1944. Boulle turned his six years in southeast Asia in World War II into a major work, The Bridge on the River Kwai (Le Pont de la Riviére Kwai) (R.J.A.C. 1). Like Graham Greene, he used the frame of an adventure, war or spy story to study themes of false ideals and human destructiveness (R.J.A.C. 5). Boulle combined in his works a captivating story with a pessimistic view of human endeavors and absurdities. His novel Planet of the Apes (La Planéte des Singes) is an ironic tale about the relationship between men and animals. It transferred the basic relationship between the Japanese soldiers and Allied prisoners—the repression of a weaker group by a stronger and its moral effect on both sides—into the distant future. Boulle depicts a world where humankind has lost its position as the dominant species, and apes rule over human savages (R.J.A.C. 5). Boulle’s Planet of the Apes is a frame story, beginning and ending with Jinn and Phyllis, “a wealthy, leisured couple” (Boulle 3), traveling through space while on vacation. They discover a note in a bottle floating outside the ship, and the reading of the

McGeary 3 message begins the story of Ulysse Mérou, a man who resembles many classic heroes of literature. Like Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver, he is a man shipwrecked among creatures strange to him. Like Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in that novel, he is cast adrift and lands in an alien place. It is clear from the name Boulle gives his hero that he intends a comparison to Ulysses (Odysseus) in Homer’s The Odyssey, who for twenty years tries to return home over the seas only to find that his world is much changed. Mérou lands on another planet, where the apes are intelligent. Humans, who have lost the power of language and thought, are exhibited in zoos. Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans all have equal rights. Humans are used as guinea pigs in laboratories. Some of the planet’s scientists refuse to acknowledge that an animal has a soul, while according to another view there is only a difference of degree between the mental processes of beasts and those of apes. Mérou speaks at a scientific congress and tells the astonished audience (R.J.A.C. 6): “I come from a distant planet, from Earth, that Earth on which, by a whim of nature that has still to be explained, it is men who are the repositories of wisdom and reason” (Boulle 174). At the end of the book, Mérou finally returns to Earth, and is received at the airport by a gorilla. Another twist of the tale is that Jinn and Phyllis are chimpanzees, and consider the story incredible (R.J.A.C. 6): “Rational men? Men endowed with a mind? Men inspired by intelligence? No, that’s not possible; there the author has gone too far. But it’s a pity! (Boulle 268)” Boulle’s novel explores the cruelty of man toward animals, starting with the hunt into which the travelers are caught, reminiscent of the 19th century hunting parties of the

McGeary 4 European aristocracy (Hladik 2). But on this planet, Soror, men are among the prey. Beaters drive the human game toward the ape hunters, who shoot the helpless men and women, and capture some of them in nets to be transported to labs for experimentation. The relationship between captors and captives is examined in the way Mérou is treated in the labs of the Ape society. Experiments in conditioned response are performed on the captives, and their mating practices are observed. “The only surprising element in these displays was the scientific ardor with which the apes followed them, never omitting to make copious notes on the procedure” (Boulle 112). Boulle also examined class systems through the roles assigned by species in the ape society: “There are three distinct families, as you have noticed, each of which has its own characteristics: chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. The racial barriers that used to exist have been abolished and the disputes arising from them have been settled thanks mainly to the campaigns launched by the chimpanzees. Today, in principle, there is no difference between us.” “But most of the great discoveries,” I persisted, “were made by the chimpanzees.” “That is true.” “What about the gorillas?” “They are meat eaters,” she said scornfully. “They were overlords and many of them have preserved a lust for power. They enjoy organizing and

McGeary 5 directing. They love hunting and life in the open air. The poorest of them are engaged on work that requires physical strength.” “And the orangutans?” Zira looked at me for a moment, then burst out laughing. “They are Official Science,” she said. “You must have noticed this already and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to confirm it. They learn an enormous amount from books. They are all decorated. Some of them are looked upon as leading lights in a narrow specialized field that requires a good memory. Apart from that…” She made a gesture of contempt (Boulle 127-128). In the orangutans, Boulle demonstrated scientific close-mindedness, and the fear of a change in the status quo. At an archeological dig, a human baby doll is found. Mérou deduces that humans used to rule over Soror, but gradually allowed the apes of the planet to take over. The humans devolved, and the apes took dominance of the globe (R.J.A.C. 4). Zaius, an orangutan, plots the downfall of the upstart human: “Needless to say, the Council knows perfectly well how little that old fool’s scientific views can be trusted, but they are pretending to believe he is more qualified than I am to study this exceptional subject, because the latter is regarded as a danger to our race. They are counting on Zaius to make it impossible for him to do any harm” (Boulle 255). “The orangutans hate you because you are the living proof of their scientific aberrations, and the gorillas consider you too dangerous to be allowed at

McGeary 6 liberty much longer. They are frightened you might found a new race on this planet. But apart from this eventuality, they are frightened that your mere example might sow unrest among the men” (Boulle 256). The idea for a movie version of Boulle’s book was relentlessly promoted by the producer, Arthur P. Jacobs, who came up with the original concept (Nichols 1). Jacobs saw in the book a compelling, original, and visually exciting film. Hollywood, however, found the idea of costumed apes uncomfortably close to Saturday-morning cartoons. Only Richard D. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century Fox, was willing to make the film: “We chose it strictly for its entertainment value. It was something that we’d never seen before. I didn’t read any kind of message. I saw it as an interesting, unique piece. The later films got into message, but I wasn’t trying to make a statement” (Nichols 2). The script was co-written by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling. Wilson, a screenwriter who was blacklisted during the 1950’s, ghost-wrote the script for River Kwai. Serling became a genre legend as the creator, host and principal writer of TV’s landmark The Twilight Zone (1959-63). After that show’s cancellation, Serling began to take on film script work, delivering works with strong and ardent political views. The early scenes in the film with Charlton Heston delivering a series of lengthily embittered comments on the human condition are pure Serling (Scheib 1). Among the major issues that drove the 1968 film was nuclear proliferation, and man’s escalating violence (McEver 3). In the film, Mérou is called Taylor, and he is so fed up with humanity that he opts for a space mission that endures for years (McEver 3).

McGeary 7 A harsh, bitter man, Taylor is a refugee from a human society he suspects has long ago destroyed itself with hate and nuclear warfare (Nichols 2). “He’s a misanthrope,” said Heston in an interview. “He’s disgusted with life and the human race.” In the famous last scene, with a twist worthy of The Twilight Zone (Endelman 3), a half-buried Statue of Liberty not only reveals what planet Taylor has crashed on, but what fate it suffered hundreds of years earlier (Nichols 2). “You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!” screams Taylor as he falls in the sand in horror at what his contemporaries have done (Planet of the Apes). Man’s violent nature seems to have caused the present conditions on the planet; that is, that apes rule. Wilson’s experience testifying before the McCarthy commission inspired the trial scene in the film. Taylor is naked, bound, and not allowed to defend himself. His accusers smugly judge him guilty until proven innocent. Taylor argues that Zaius’ dual positions as “Chief Defender of the Faith” and the “Minister of Science” have given him the dangerous power to dictate however he sees fit. Like the Catholic Church before the Age of Enlightenment, Dr. Zaius vehemently enforces the laws of the Holy Scrolls, and dismisses the observations of science (Meyer 2). There is a greater truth that seems to intrigue both Zaius and Taylor. Zaius fears this unknown Truth, afraid that it will shatter all that he believes in. Taylor, on the other hand, has nothing to believe in anymore. He took the space flight to explore the

McGeary 8 possibility that “somewhere in the universe, there must be something better than man” (qtd. in Meyer 2). When the film opened, the public was acutely aware that some of the action seemed to reflect the images they saw on the nightly news: people getting hosed down on the street, people being beaten (Meyer 1), and a man restrained with ropes at his own trial. Planet of the Apes depicts an upside-down world—a brutal, primal place where apes are in charge and humans scavenge for subsistence, hunted and enslaved by the tyrannical primates. The sudden appearance of one man, alien to the present order and unaffected by its oppression, serves as a challenge to the status quo and a catalyst for revolutionary social change (McEver 2). Several revolutions were well underway in America in 1968. The Youth Movement contained a variety of movements: war protesters, Black Power, the Women’s Liberation Front, and the demand for gay rights. Heston, one of the most powerful and influential actors in the world at the time, was wooed by Jacobs just as producers today woo stars like Tom Cruise or Russell Crowe. According to Eric Greene, author of Planet of the Apes as American Myth, Race, Politics, and Popular Culture, it was no coincidence that Heston “a film icon of white heroic strength and Western indomitability” (qtd. in Browne 1) was cast in the role of Taylor. But Greene has put the cart before the horse. Heston was cast by Jacobs in order to ensure that other “name” stars as well as a big studio would be attracted to the project (Planet of the Apes Disc 2). He was not placed in the film as a symbol of white strength. He took the lead role, and in that role, came to symbolize the American upstart. Taylor’s

McGeary 9 cynicism mirrored that of America’s youth movement. He refuses to go along with the path chosen for him by the ruling elite. This struck a chord. “Why don’t you all just fade away?” sang the Who (The Who), and a shiver of fear, or perhaps premonition, swept up the spines of the older generation. The themes inherent in the original story by Boulle, and added to by the screenwriters, were interpreted by the film-going public as dramatizing the convolutions of American attitudes toward the civil rights movement, Vietnam, imperialism, and student revolt (Mackie 2). Planet of the Apes’ tremendous success in 1968 spawned four sequels, and became one of the most successful franchises in cinema history (Aushenker 1). The sequels, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape From the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and Battle for the Planet of the Apes, were increasingly politicized manifestos about America during the turbulent late 1960’s and early 1970’s (Browne 1). The succeeding films follow the adventures of Zira and Cornelius, the chimpanzees who help Taylor in the first film, and eventually, their son Caesar. Because the first film stirred up such strong recognition of the various movements in the US, and because Heston adamantly refused to take part in any further sequels (Planet of the Apes Disc 2), the chimpanzees had to take on all of the symbolic weight of rebellion, and became “a metaphor for the suppression of the Left by the Man” (Browne 2). The films finally ran out of steam, and ended with “Battle” in 1973. The three sequels “constituted an extended and notably pessimistic examination of American racial

McGeary 10 politics during the volatile historical period of their original production and reception (Creekmur 1). “Bring the war home!” was the slogan of the Weathermen, a group devoted to the violent overthrow of the American government, and as the Vietnam War escalated, each Ape film became more violent. The films continued to speak for the disenfranchised and enjoyed wide appeal. Today, films are sometimes planned with sequels. Successful film series such as The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Kill Bill were filmed continuously, including sequels. Planet of the Apes was not. The film was planned and filmed as a complete work. Because of the turmoil of the times, the public saw Planet of the Apes as an allegory. Taylor was the symbol of rebellion in all its forms. It was the succeeding Apes movies that were truly a mirror of the times. When discussing the fidelity of an adaptation, one question should be: to what extent has a different historical or cultural context altered the original (Corrigan 20)? The filmmakers planned only an exciting science fiction film, and did succeed in reviving the genre, but the immense success enjoyed by the story itself was due to the time and place in which it premiered.

McGeary 11 Works Cited Aushenker, Michael. "Apes as Allegory." The Jewish Journal 2004. 26 Apr. 2004 <www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=7294>. Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. New York: The Ballantine Group, 1963. 1-268. Browne,David. "Monkeyshines, No joke: 'Planet of the Apes' teems with political subtexts." Entertainment Weekly 26 Apr. 1996. 26 Apr. 2004 . Corrigan, Timothy. Film and Literature, An Introduction and Reader. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999. Creekmur, Corey K. ”Monkeybusiness.” Science Fiction Studies Nov. 2000 Vol. 27, Part 3. Endelman, Michael . "Still Going Ape Tim Buton's Remake Will Find There's a Cult Following in Place." Boston Globe 22 July 2001, Third ed., sec. L: 7. ProQuest. 30 Apr. 2004. Keyword: Planet of the Apes. Greene, Eric. Planet of the Apes as American Myth Race, Politics, and Popular Culture. New England: Wesleyan UP, 1996. Hladik, Tamara I. "Planet of the Apes." Classic Sci-Fi 1998. 26 Apr. 2004 . Mackie, Rob . "The ape man." The Guardian 3 Aug. 2001. 26 Apr. 2004 . McEver, Matt. Hollywood Jesus. 28 July 2001. 26 Apr. 2004 .

Nichols, Peter M. "Film; In a Social Mirror, The Faces of Apes." The New York Times 30 Aug. 1998, Late ed., sec. 2: 22-22. America Online. 27 Apr. 2004 Planet of the Apes. Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner. Perf. Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter, and Maurice Evans. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 1968. R.J.A.C., . Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, The Visitor. 30 Apr. 2004 . Scheib,Richard. The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review. 1991. 26 Apr. 2004 . The Who. “My Generation” By Pete Townsend. Rec. Dec. 1965. My Generation. Brunswick, 1965.