The Planet of the Apes (1968) is a movie about 4 astronauts
that crash on a mysterious planet after several months in space. There are 3
surviving astronauts who think they have travelled 300 light years from earth
(almost 2000 years). The ships chronometer said they left earth in 1972 and
that it is now 3978, which proves that Dr. Hassleins theory of time travel at
light speed is correct. They leave the ship that is sinking and swim to shore.
While on their hunt for civilization, they find a pond and decide to take a
swim. Their clothes get shredded by wild humans. Soon they are hunted by
gorillas on horseback. The planet is ruled by intelligent, civilized apes.
This movie was released as the Cold War, Richard Nixon and
the anti-Vietnam War movement was nearing their high-water marks. This movie is
anti-war and reveals that old values led to no good. The reason the apes came
to overrule the earth and hate the human culture is that the humans have
destroyed themselves in a nuclear apocalypse. The movie reflects on the anxiety
of nuclear annihilation that had been a staple of science fiction books,
television programs, and films since 1950. All of the ideas in planet of the
apes are as relevant today as they were back then. The war on science, the
killing of the brothers to gain their land, this all continues today. The
Planet of the Apes reveals to us a new world where man has been brought low
before a new master race, all because of man’s arrogance and hypocrisy.
