Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Caesar X, no sell out?
Ok… So… Ok… How to start? I was sitting in the cinema…
Top tip: this is often a sensible precursor to watching a movie in the cinema. So I was sitting in the cinema and we were most of the way through the first act. Yeah, that’s the moment I worked it out. Hey I’m a bit slow, I’m sure most of you got there way before me. But I worked it out eventually and, when I did it felt like I had made a false start. I worked my way back to the beginning and tried to think about the movie from scratch.
Let me start again. There was a moment in the first act of Rise of the Planet of the Apes when I ran up against my usual semi-conscious habit of ticking off story beats as a movie plays out. Apart from a very weak opening sequence in the jungle, I had been going along quite happily. I was noting smart, professional story development. I was appreciating a well shot, tightly structured piece of mainstream Hollywood exposition. Tick, there’s the premise. Tick, that’s James Franco’s character goal. Tick, there’s our hero’s initial refusal… and then I asked myself – hold on, why is this movie about James Franco?
I mean I’m sure he’s a lovely bloke, but I came to watch a Planet of the Apes movie. I don’t care about James’ subplots. I don’t care that his science is motivated by his father’s Alzheimer’s. I don’t care that he will go on to have a relationship with a cute vet. I don’t care about everything this movie seems to want me to care about. I care about the apes. Let me lay it out: this movie is about the wrong hero. This movie doesn’t have the courage to place its subject at the center of the story. Just as the original Planet of the Apes needs to be led by Charlton Heston’s discovery narrative, so its descendent needed to be led by Caesar’s own discovery of his potential. It ends up being the Schindler’s List of intelligent ape movies – and, let me tell you, that’s not a good thing.
Whenever Rise of the Planet of the Apes does allow us to see the world from the perspective of Caesar, the whole thing comes alive. You can see the spark there, you can see the transgressive potential but most of that potential is diluted by the assumption that an audience will not take a movie without a sympathetic human protagonist. Judging by the little empathic noises directed at Caesar by my fellow audience members last night, I think this assumption is seriously mistaken. Who doesn’t love a little neotenic baby chimp with the potential to overthrow human civilization? I don’t know, have you seen Bambi?
So Rise of the Planet of the Apes ends up being a story about turning a chimpanzee into a white liberal San Franciscan. Indeed Caesar becomes so white, liberal and San Franciscan that, when the revolution finally starts, he tries to keep it bloodless and politically correct. The apes end up sitting politely in Redwood trees in Muir Woods while the gene therapy that made them smart works its way through the human population like a virus. They succeed in escaping from the city, but are denied true agency in the radical transformation of society the humans have brought upon themselves.
One diluted ape
There is so much more one could say about this movie. On its own terms it is beautifully made. The writing is often clever, the technical execution is terrific, the ape performances are really impressive – take a bow Andy Serkis. Taken on its own, the action set piece on the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the best I have seen because it is smart as well as dramatic. It plays to character and to empathy, we care what happens to the apes in a way we never do, can or will with giant space robots.
But, in the end this is a cult film franchise bled mainstream white. It is a safe, well meaning liberal movie scared of its radical black shadow. Caesar is what happens when you take a potential Malcolm X and raise him as a Barack Obama. You get in trouble any way you look at that problem, but you can’t discuss these movies without entering the deeply problematic territory of racial (and species) symbolism. (For those who don’t know the original movie, it was an obvious allegory, which condemned racism by reversing the power relations of white and black.) Rise of the Planet of the Apes recognizes this from the very beginning with a transparent association of its apes with slavery. Let’s just say it would have been nice to have given those slaves more fight.
More of this, please
I wasn’t actually expecting to be as moved as I did from this material but Serkis just really channeled the inner ape within him, and nails this perfect motion-capture performance as Caesar. I also sure as hell hope that he doesn’t get snubbed as well. He already did for LOTR! Good Review!
I just saw this film last night. It’s funny you talk about ticking off beats. I do that as a way to challenge myself to understand how a film is working and where it will go (or thinks it will go). As it started I was like OK here is the scientist main character, the sick father for whom his core motivation comes from…oh here is the sexy zoologist romantic interest. This must be the B-story. However, what was odd was how quick she comes and empty she is as a character and purpose. There was no challenge to James’ character, she never really questions him in his unethical behavior (save a few comments, etc.).
Next thing I know we are in aligned with Cesar, the film actually gets interesting. This follows with some confusion, wait…who’s movie is this? Oh, so Cesar is the A-story and James Franco is B-story? Or hey, is this 2 separate stories competing for screen time and importance? The B-story (apes rising, becoming free from enslavement) always works well when it is there to support and develop the A-story (Scientist guy/Humans coming to terms with the ills of their way). Yet this was not the case really, and honestly, the A-story sucked. it was a weak and empty premise. So we move along because the film keeps going.
The biggest thing to strike me while watching was how anticlimactic the payoff is. The apes “fight” for their freedom, resulting in an engaging overtake of San Francisco. Which I’m sure is no coincidental choice as it’s traditionally considered the most liberal city in America. So what do the apes get after their struggle? What is the payoff for the film? Hanging out across the bay in the Muir Woods? Which is just several miles up from the City. I was so annoyed.
You mean to tell me all the apes wanted was to get out of San Bruno, make their way through San Francisco, and end up in the Muir Woods where they can live out their lives? I’m sorry is this Free Willy or a Planet of the Apes movie? It’s the final shot of the film that speaks volumes.
One thing I learned, the final word said in a film and the final shot of a film is what you leave the audience with as they walk away. It is a reinforcement, clarification, and summation as to what you as a filmmaker are saying to the audience. The takeaway message if you will. In Rise of the Planet of Apes, this final shot is of Cesar at the tallest of the tall trees looking out onto a smoldering San Francisco. He intently looks on in a powerful patient stance. Why? So he and his apes can wait out the end of humanity, for which they had no real involvement.
In essence, the apes have a false fight for freedom. They break out of their imprisonment, wreak a bit of havoc on San Francisco, and make it to the redwoods. Politically they did nothing. They don’t impart any lessons on their masters. They themselves haven’t really learned anything.
The only conclusion is that the humans created their own destruction through the creation of a virus. This is the actual agent of change in the film. Its byproducts are the end of the ruling class by their own devices and the awakening of an enslaved class by means of enlightenment. Ironically, the enlightenment comes from the ruling class and not on the apes own volition.
What is this film’s message? “We” are a greedy faux liberal ruling class that keeps others down so we may flourish. One day this will come to bite us in the ass. Our arrogance will create an agent of change, for which we will have no control once unleashed. This agent of change will empower the enslaved class to realize they are being kept down. The enslaved class will then break their chains and run to the nearest “safe” place. From this position they will watch the ruling class implode and wait for the day that they become the new ruling class.
So what? I guess the real takeaway is neither side has to do anything when it comes to the transformation of society. Technology and science will do it for us. You just need to be on the side that hides it out in the safe place, the neutral zone if you will. A fitting message for today’s apathetic, smartphoned, American culture.
Yup.