Scene Anatomy 101 10.15.08: Planet of the Apes
Posted by George H. Sirois on 10.15.2008
I'm not old enough to have remembered seeing social commentary in science-fiction, but I feel I have to remind everyone else about it...
ISSUE #188 – 12 TO GO
Everyone is probably aware of the fact that I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton. I let the UBS readers know this when I wrote up my incredibly biased review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and I waited until my second column of Scene Anatomy 101 to talk about Ed Wood. However, while there are a lot of his movies that I look at fondly while others look on in confusion or just dismiss - Mars Attacks comes to mind – one movie didn't work for me, and that was his take on Planet of the Apes.
Being a fan of the original and the sequels that followed it, I saw this remake as a missed opportunity, and like other remakes before and after this one, it only made me look more fondly back on the 1968 Franklin Schaffner classic starring the late great Charlton Heston...
Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle – who at first considered that story among his silliest and had little chance for life beyond publication – where the original film succeeded and the remake failed was the insistence on injecting some very poignant social commentary. Science-fiction is a very powerful storytelling tool that can be used to tell some outrageous stories that find a way to hit close to home. For some reason, we don't see that as much anymore, and we certainly don't see it in the remakes of the sci-fi films from the 60s and 70s.
But I'll get to that later. For now, let's just stick with Planet of the Apes and the screenplay by Michael Wilson and "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling. The original film introduces us to George Taylor (Charlton Heston), the leader of a four-person crew on a spaceship that travels as far away from Earth as possible and simultaneously proves a theory that shows the crew barely aging with every light year they fly while Earth itself has aged by almost two thousand years. The ship crash lands on a distant planet where the only female crew member is killed and the ship sinks into the planet's ocean.
After walking the land of this Class M planet – oxygen atmosphere – and getting accustomed to their new home, they find a group of savage men and women grabbing food from crops. Suddenly, they are attacked by the rulers of the planet, fully evolved and civilized apes. Various savages and one of Taylor's crew are killed, and Taylor and his partner Landon are taken prisoner and split up.
It takes a period of time before Taylor can speak again since the attack by the apes resulted in him getting shot in the throat, but once he does, he attracts the attention of everyone in the ape city. He is looked at as a missing link, a freak that must be attended to, and the one ape leading the charge to have Taylor silenced is Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans).
The scene we are covering this week takes place after a very intense hearing, where a doctor named Zira (Kim Hunter) and her husband Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) are trying to implore the judges that Taylor deserves to live and represents the opposite of what the sacred scrolls had stated many years ago, that apes were made in the image of their god. Now that the trial is over, Zaius has Taylor brought to his office. The guards bring the man in, and Zaius then nods to them.
ZAIUS: Wait outside.
The guards do as they're told, leaving the wise old ape and the bound human together.
ZAIUS: Well, the verdict is in. At the moment, your two simian friends and sponsors are free on bail. But they'll soon be brought to trial for heresy.
No one has ever questioned the authenticity of the sacred scrolls the way that Zira had, and as soon as word gets out that she was able to do that and get away with it, the door is opened for chaos to bring down the society that Zaius has dedicated his life to defending.
TAYLOR: What about me?
Zaius smiles a bit as he prepares to tell Taylor his fate. It's not going to be pretty for him, but it is the right thing to do for this planet.
ZAIUS: You? Your case was preordained. In a way, you did the state a service because you made it possible for us to expose Zira and Cornelius. Now the tribunal has placed you in my custody for final disposition. You realize what that means?
Whatever Zaius has in store for him, it can't be good. Especially since Taylor was very much aware of how primates are dissected and studied on Earth. This place has been a mirror image of the society he has lived in all his life.
TAYLOR: No.
ZAIUS: Emasculation, to begin with. Then experimental surgery on the speech centers on the brain. Eventually, a kind of living death.
Taylor is immediately reminded of the only other surviving member of his crew, Landon. While Taylor was put into a cage and watched by Zira, Landon was given a frontal lobotomy and turned into practically a walking corpse. That's what's in Taylor's future now that he's been handed off to Zaius.
ZAIUS: However, I have the power to grant a reprieve. That is why I summoned you here tonight. Tell me who and what you really are and where you came from, and no veterinary shall touch you.
TAYLOR: I told you at that hearing of yours.
ZAIUS: You lied! Where is your tribe?
For such advanced primates, Zaius has a difficult time believing that there could be some other form of life out there in space. Taylor had lived among people like him in his early years, but as time passed and the human race started looking out at the stars and dwelling on eventually leaving Earth, those voices of doubt grew softer. It's still possible that Taylor can change Zaius' mind about this.
TAYLOR: My tribe? They live on another planet in another solar system.
Zaius nods, still insistent that Taylor's telling lies, but he is also trying to dissect the human's words even though he is only preparing himself to dissect the man himself later.
ZAIUS: Even in your lies, some truth slips through. That mythical community you're supposed to come from, Fort Wayne.
TAYLOR: What about it?
ZAIUS: A fort! Unconsciously, you chose a name that was belligerent. Where were you nurtured?
By saying this, Taylor's starting to realize that Zaius isn't quite as ignorant as he thought. Instead, he's just closed-minded, which is even more dangerous than just ignorance. Taylor's learned enough on Earth to know that ignorant people are one kind of problem, but closed-minded ones are even more dangerous since they are aware of other possibilities but they refuse to acknowledge them.
TAYLOR: Then you don't believe that prosecutor's charge that I'm a monster created by Dr. Zira?
ZAIUS: Certainly not. Uh, you're a mutant.
Taylor nods. This ape is more like his friends than he thought.
TAYLOR: What's what Zira and Cornelius claim. You're talking heresy, Doctor.
ZAIUS: Hmmph. Of course.
This is a hard character for Taylor to figure out. Zaius has the mind to be a great leader, but he chooses to fall back onto the sacred scrolls as a crutch to defend, no matter how many times he comes face to face with something that debunks them.
TAYLOR: Well, suppose I am a mutant? How can the appearance of one mutant send you into a panic?
ZAIUS: Because you're not unique. There's the one you call Landon.
Zaius should have said, there WAS the one you call Landon since his former crew member's just as good as dead.
TAYLOR: Oh, then you admit...
ZAIUS: I admit that where there's one mutant, there's probably another and another, a whole nest of them. Where is your nest, Taylor? Where are your women?
Until this moment, only Zira and Cornelius had referred to Taylor by name. He had been spoken as in a dismissive way by everyone else, labeled a savage or creature. Now, here was a figure of authority on this planet calling him by name. Taylor takes this as a small victory.
TAYLOR: Thank you. Thank you for calling me Taylor, Dr. Zaius. I know who I am. But who are you, and how in hell did this upside-down civilization get started?
ZAIUS: You may well call it upside down since you occupy its lowest level, and deservedly so.
Zaius walks to his window and looks out at his ape city, this society that has been threatened by the very presence of Taylor.
ZAIUS: Our eastern desert has never been explored because we've always assumed that life cannot exist there. Taylor, save yourself! Tell me, is there another jungle beyond the Forbidden Zone?
TAYLOR: I don't know.
Only for a fleeting moment does Zaius seem like he's open to other possibilities of Taylor's origin, but sadly it looks like that moment has passed.
ZAIUS: If you're trying to protect others of your kind, it'll cost you your identity.
TAYLOR: I'm not protecting anyone! This whole thing is insane! What have I done?
Zaius walks up to Taylor and practically spits in his face as he says his next words.
ZAIUS: You are a menace. A walking pestilence! I do know who you are, Taylor. I'll give you just six hours to make a full confession. After that, I shall use surgery to obtain one. Guards!
The guards come back into the room, and as soon as they're there, Zaius' tone reverts to what it was before. There's no way that Taylor will be referred to by name while there are other apes around.
TAYLOR: All right, you can cut pieces out of me. You've got the power.
ZAIUS: Return this creature to his cage.
The guards drag Taylor out of the office, and Taylor shouts out his final words to Zaius. It's his last attempt to get through to this stubborn primate.
TAYLOR: But you do it out of fear. Remember that! Remember that! Because you're afraid of me! What are you afraid of, Doctor?!
This scene represents exactly how science-fiction can be used to tell stories and expand on characters that would have otherwise hit too close to home. We've been faced with men and women just like Dr. Zaius in the past several decades. These are people that are supposed to be leaders, and are supposed to consider all possibilities that are facing them, but instead they fall back on what has been decided many years ago, when civilization was completely different. Despite the people and technology moving forward, they insist on staying behind. And as we see in the final classic scene, it is the actions of our leaders that are the harbingers of our own destruction.
We don't see something like this in the remake. Sure, the ending in Burton's film is closer to Pierre Boulle's novel, but when Boulle saw the original 1968 film, he went on record saying he wished he came up with Rod Serling's ending. Plus, that ending would have been a lot more effective if the rest of the movie had been handled well.
So much of the social commentary came from the simple setup of man being mute savage beasts and apes being the rulers of the planet. In the remake, the humans are organized, they are intelligent and they speak just as well as the apes. There was balance where there shouldn't have been balance, and if it weren't for Rick Baker's makeup and Tim Roth's incredible performance as Thade, there wouldn't be all that much to recommend about the remake.
This is something that we've seen happen in other remakes lately. Remember the statements about American society that were made in Rollerball and Death Race 2000? In both films, the country was divided among corporations and the more violent the sport, the more the crowds were satisfied. We don't see elements like that in 2002's Rollerball and 2008's Death Race. In fact, we're not seeing many attempts at social commentary in any science-fiction these days.
Fortunately for us, we have the original films to show us how good science-fiction is done.
