2024-07-28 16:19:34
The year is 3978. Taylor and two other astronauts wake up from deep hibernation and find that their spaceship has crash-landed in the ocean. One of the female crew members has already died. They barely manage to escape with only the clothes on their backs and find themselves on another planet with a similar environment to Earth. While exploring the desert, Taylor and his crew discover primitive people and are soon chased by apes riding horses and shooting guns. On that planet, humans are an uncivilized race that cannot speak properly, and the apes are an evolved race that has acquired language and technology. One of the astronauts is shot and killed, and Taylor and the others are taken to the ape city. There, Taylor’s partner is forcibly brain-surgered into a vegetative state, and Taylor is treated as a special human with some intelligence by Dr. Zira. Taylor discovers that this strange ape society has a strict hierarchy. Gorillas act as police, soldiers, and hunters, orangutans as administrators, politicians, and lawyers, and finally chimpanzees as intellectuals and scientists. The gorillas try to kill Taylor, fearing that he will destroy the foundation of ape society and lead a revolution, but chimpanzees Zira and Cornelius help Taylor escape. With their help, Taylor manages to escape, but is eventually caught by the gorillas and brought back. Eventually, Taylor is put on trial, and Zira and Cornelius, with the help of their cousin Lucius, take Taylor to the restricted area outside the ape city. Cornelius says that he found relics of a previous civilization in the restricted area. There, Taylor learns a surprising fact. This planet, now ruled by apes, was originally ruled by humans with advanced technology. However, at some point, the positions of humans and apes were switched. However, while walking along the beach, Taylor discovers something even more shocking. He sees the Statue of Liberty half-submerged in the sea.
◆ subject:
It is true that the desire for space exploration gives hope that humans will be able to travel to other planets in the distant future, but this film shockingly depicts themes of anxiety about the future and reflection on human civilization. Humans have developed science and technology to the extreme and have become the masters of the Earth and the lords of all things, but it contains a universal theme that excessive technological development may actually lead to the destruction of humanity. After the end of the Cold War due to the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, the threat of nuclear war on Earth seemed to have disappeared, but instead, the existing main conflicts have disappeared and an era of more universal threats has arrived in which any country can launch nuclear weapons. Furthermore, the Earth is already showing signs of destruction due to environmental disasters rather than nuclear weapons. Therefore, the validity of the idea that intelligent humans will eventually bring about the destruction of the Earth is very high, both in the past and present. Furthermore, it expresses the idea that if humans, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, lose their status as the lords of all things, it is impossible to know what kind of life form will take their place. In this film, apes, the most similar to humans, are chosen as the most likely candidate, but there are many other possibilities. Even for modern people living in a highly developed scientific and technological civilization, this film will be an immortal masterpiece that stimulates curiosity and anxiety.
◆ Points to note:
It is no exaggeration to say that this film is one of the most interesting films released in the 1960s. Above all, the premise that monkeys rule over humans like livestock or pets is creepy and shocking. In fact, this film received critical acclaim and was selected as the best film of 1968. However, this film, which stands out for its novel imagination, only won the Academy Award for Makeup that year. It is also interesting that this film was released a few months before this one. Both films deal with the same question: ‘What will become of humanity?’ Tim Burton’s remake is actually somewhat disappointing compared to the novelty of the original. There were also claims that the depiction of apes in this film was racist. This is because a blond, educated orangutan is depicted as a nobleman, a dark-haired, gentle chimpanzee is depicted as a scientist, and a dark-skinned, incompetent gorilla is depicted as a police officer. Even so, it is undoubtedly a good film. When this film was released in Japan, it was released under the title ‘Planet of the Apes’, but in Korea, the title was borrowed and the word ‘planet’ was replaced with ‘planet’, and it was introduced as ‘Escape from the Planet of the Apes’.
◆ Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Franklin Schaffner, a famous director of the film and. He was born in Tokyo, Japan on May 30, 1920, studied law at Columbia University, and worked in a Broadway theater company. He started filming his first film in 1961, but he was unable to complete it, and after many twists and turns, he ended up taking over the film (1963) after the producer died. Schaffner succeeded in achieving worldwide success with (1968), which caused a lot of buzz among movie fans as soon as it was released due to its interesting subject matter of monkeys dominating humans, realistic monkey makeup, and special effects. After that, he won the Oscar for Best Director in 1971 for (1970), and his representative work, (1973), was loved by Korean movie fans as a work that showed sharp insight into human isolation. After making his next film (1977), he had trouble with casting issues, but he continued to make films and made (1981) and the musical film (1982) in the early 1980s. Director Franklin Schaffner was a master director who knew how to get the best performances from actors, and he left his mark in film history as a director with a great talent for creating grand narrative films.
EBS1’s ‘Sunday Cinema’, a program that shows carefully selected classic films, airs every Sunday at 1:20 PM.
Reporter Kim Kyung-eun Photo = EBS Sunday Cinema
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2024-07-28 16:19:34