I wasn't feeling great over the weekend and didn't have the energy to do much. While zoning out on the couch, I saw an advertisement for the upcoming film Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
This is the fourth chapter of the rebooted classic film series. If you haven't seen any of the preceding three installments, I highly recommend them.
I was skeptical of these films when they first came out. It felt like yet another cynical cash-grab reboot of a classic franchise. Still, I gave the first movie a chance and was pleasantly surprised. For reasons I couldn't fully articulate at the time, I found the story genuinely captivating. I was no less impressed by the following two films in the franchise.
I decided to rewatch the first three entries to keep the story fresh in my mind ahead of the new release. I tried watching with an eye toward identifying what it was that made these films stand out to me.
The Rise
In the first installment, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, James Franco plays a medical researcher working on novel medications for Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Franco's father is in the advanced stages of the condition, making this effort personal to him. The research team sees promising results with a particular drug combination they’ve been testing on several apes.
The apes experience marked gains in cognitive ability and problem solving skills. Seeing the drug’s potential for treating neurological conditions, Dr. Franco begins to push for testing on human subjects.
Before funding can be secured for human trials, a disastrous outburst from one of the apes in the lab leads to a loss of confidence from investors. The incident is later discovered to be unrelated to the treatment, but the lab is ordered to euthanize the test-subject apes regardless.
Dr. Franco manages to spare the life of an infant chimp, bringing it to live with him at his home. The chimp shows remarkably advanced intelligence and Franco comes to realize that the cognitive benefits of the treatment he administered to the apes are being passed on to their offspring.
In response to the rapidly deteriorating mental faculties of his father, Dr. Franco decides to take a calculated risk. Despite a lack of trials or authorization, he administers the drug to his father. The results are almost instant and border on miraculous. His father's condition stops progressing and even begins to improve.
The pharmaceutical company eventually agrees to fund further research of the Alzheimer’s drug. As Dr. Franco is working on the formula, the reality of harboring an adult ape in his home becomes unavoidable. Caesar has a public incident with an aggressive neighbor and a judge orders that he must be surrendered to an ape sanctuary.
The human caretakers at the sanctuary are abusive toward Caesar and his fellow apes. Caesar recognizes the potential strength and independence of the apes, but is frustrated by their (comparative) lack of intelligence. Caesar eventually discovers a way out of the sanctuary and sneaks back to Dr. Franco’s house, where the unapproved treatment is being stored for his father’s use.
Caesar returns to the sanctuary and administers the drug to the apes.
Having awakened a new intelligence in the apes, Caesar leads them out of the sanctuary.
They fight their way through a crowded city and police blockades and manage to escape to the woods on the outskirts of the city.
While all of this unfolds, an unforeseen side effect of human exposure to the experimental Alzheimer’s treatment begins to present itself. The same compound that has been so beneficial for the apes is causing catastrophic flu-like symptoms in humans. The film ends with the implication that the ‘Simian Flu’ is going to wreak havoc on the global population.
The Dawn
The next film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes follows the group of liberated apes as they attempt to build their own society in the woods north of San Francisco. The human population has been nearly wiped out by the Simian Flu brought on by Dr. Franco’s treatment.
The apes now contend with the intrusions and aggression of the surviving human population. Caesar at first makes attempts to cooperate with the humans. While these efforts are initially tolerated, several apes that remember the cruelty of their time as lab animals begin to resent Caesar for showing compassion to the humans. The tension between all parties builds and a violent conflict erupts. A war between the apes and humans begins.
The War
The third film, War for the Planet of the Apes picks up a few years into the war between ape and man. A human militia attacks the ape colony, killing many of the apes including Caesar's family. It becomes clear to Caesar that the outpost they’ve established for themselves is no longer safe. It is time to seek out a new home for the apes.
Caesar sends the other apes of the colony on their way to a new location, while he and his trusted lieutenants head out to find the human militia responsible for the attack. Along the way, they encounter an orphaned human child and take her into their care. Her compassion and gentle demeanor serve as a reminder to the apes that all humans are not their enemies. They eventually find the camp of the militia that conducted the raid. Shockingly, the militia has managed to capture the apes of Caesar's colony as they tried to escape.
The rest of the film is part prison-break and part battle of wills between Caesar and the colonel leading the militia. As you might imagine, Caesar and his apes eventually manage to avoid total disaster and make their way to freedom. An ape exodus of sorts leads them to a promising and remote environment, free from human interference.
The Absurdity
If you haven't seen any of these films, this might all sound completely ridiculous. That’s because it is completely ridiculous. I think that's why I liked these movies so much. The entire premise, along with everything that happens throughout the story, is absolutely absurd. The absurdity of the premise isn’t what stands out about these films, though. After all, we see films with fantastic and surreal plot elements on a regular basis. What stands out about the Planet of the Apes films is the lack of even a shred of ironic detachment, self-awareness, or acknowledgement of the goofiness of the whole production.
These films are ridiculous, implausible, and in many respects nonsensical. They're also wildly entertaining and visually impressive, but most strikingly, they are remarkably sincere. The amount of (paradoxical) humanity displayed in these characters and their relationships with each other throughout the story is incredible.
These films tell a story that is fundamentally silly:
A novel drug creates super-smart apes that band together to wage a war against human oppressors whose population has been devastated by the same drug. The war is filled with political intrigue, betrayals, and incredible displays of both compassion and cruelty. The leader of the apes ultimately rejects the cruelty and malice that began the terrible conflict and leads his fellow apes to a promised land of safety and abundance.
The Admirable
At no time in any of these movies do the filmmakers wink at the camera. They don't have any of the characters point out how stupid any of this is. No one makes snarky comments about the absurd nature of their predicament. The films do not flinch as they allow the story to unravel with total sincerity. The filmmakers never lean on self-deprecation as a hedge against possible embarrassment. They do not indulge in the temptation to seek the viewer's validation by calling attention to the inherent silliness of the story they're telling.
These films go all-in on the story they want to tell. The writers and producers pushed all of their chips out onto the table and bet everything on an idea they believed would work.
It did.
I love that they took that gamble and just went for it. That attitude and belief in the value of the story comes through on the screen.
This is the pitch they had to make:
"Yes, we're making a Shakespearean drama with talking apes."
"Yes, we're going to have Gary Oldman play the tortured leader of a band of survivors, Desperately trying to move past the tragedies of his past. We are also going to have him do battle with gun-toting orangutans on horseback."
"Yes, We're going to get Woody Harrelson to play our militia colonel. He's going to deliver what may be his finest performance as he explores the nature of mercy, love, and sacrifice in war. He'll be exchanging that dialogue with a computer generated chimpanzee."
"Yes, we're going to make the death of a CGI gorilla more tragic and affecting than anything you've seen on screen in years."
"Yes we're going to ultimately make this a modern retelling of the story of Exodus. We think the best way to do that is by replacing every character with super-intelligent talking apes."
"We're going to do all of that with a completely straight face and it's going to be awesome."
And it was awesome, they delivered on everything and stuck the landing.
By refusing to acknowledge the total absurdity underlying the story, the films are able to earnestly explore universal themes and truths about the human condition. The trials and hardships that the apes endure mirror those in our own world. These computer generated apes are transformed into characters which explore the depths of goodness and evil in humanity. That is a difficult task for writers to accomplish with human characters. These movies accomplish it with talking gorillas.
The Alternative
These films show us that even when a story has a fundamentally dumb premise, if it is written with heart and sincerity, it can convey something powerful and win an audience over.
Too often we see film studios miss the mark wildly when producing a new chapter for a classic film franchise. They start by asking questions that immediately lead them astray:
“Why should our story be good or fun when it could be… Important?”
“Why write something interesting when we can just insert lots of gratuitous violence and nihilism?”
“What if we made it more gritty and real? Nothing says “Movie Night” like a lecture about how stupid the ideas of optimism and morality are.”
“How can we fundamentally change every defining trait of these beloved characters to reflect our own views and attitudes?”
“How can we have our dialogue explicitly allude to the original films and characters being wrongheaded, immoral, or bigoted?”
Thinking like this usually results in either lazy fan service or cloying social messaging. The films produced in such an environment are almost universally pointless and forgettable.
The Intent
I don’t know if the next chapter in the series will manage to retain the attitude and vision that made the first three entries so enjoyable. I have hope that it will, though. While rewatching those three films I got the impression that the filmmakers understood some basic truths:
Snark isn't wit.
Being clever isn't half as laudable as being sincere.
Art shouldn't smirk at its audience.
Story is all that matters.
The makers of The Planet of the Apes series have respect for their audience. They make a sincere and honest effort to tell a good story in an interesting way. I think that the root-level good faith behind the whole enterprise is what sets these films apart. I’m looking forward to the next one.
Ray Bradbury said the mark of bad writing was self-consciousness. I think the films work because they are sincere. They go all in on the premise, which is what you must do. To push beyond the fantasy and make it feel real you take it seriously.
I think Christopher Nolan's Batman did the same thing. The premise there is ridiculous too. A normal guy in a rubber suit etc. Yet it worked because they took it seriously.
Compare with the Star Wars sequels. Those films were uncomfortably aware they were films and sought to redeliver Star Wars' greatest hits. Lightsabers, check; Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, check; Palpatine making an appearance, check. They were destroyed by their uncomfortable awareness of what came before and they lacked the writing skill to do anything with it.
Thats where going all in matters. You must take the universe seriously or not at all.
Thank you so much for this commentary. I still remember the shock of Charlton Heston’s discovery at the end of the very first movie. I did not see any of these, but now I will.
I love your descriptions of their pitch.