Planet of the Apes: A political film

From what I was able to gather it was not until the film was being made that the producer finally discovered that his film was going to be political. Strangely during the shoot breaks the orangutans hang around only with their 'own kind' as did the chimpanzees and the gorillas. Behind the costumes were people who were otherwise friends with those wearing costumes of another ape. Apparently their behavior was modified by their outward appearances and that said much as far as the politicized movie was concerned. And in the film one can see the parallels between the class system we have and the sociological order that was set.

Before when people made movies with apes the movie was either a comedy or a poorly done Japanese sci-fi. This film had to have the seriousness that would be wanted to show that the apes were in authority and they commanded the astronaut prisoners they captured after their space craft landed. Care was taken so that the prosthetics that were used would be real enough so that the apes would be as expressive as they normally would be; smiles would be registered as such and frowns equally so too. Their hands and fingers would be covered with simian fur and their nails colored brown. One mentions all this because the costuming of the film was proportionately larger than in other movies. Here there were tens of apes all modeled to look real and capable of of convincing the public that they were in command once the humans had destroyed their world in some atomic war.

In order for the masks to work it took good actors to make their expressions possible. An inexperienced actor might not have exaggerated facial expressions well enough. If the chimpanzees kissed as did happen to copy the body language of their human cousins, it has to be realistic. Large name actors were called forth so that there acting would be given credence and the film would be publicized well. Not all of them stayed on like E.G. Robinson who gave up his role because of the unaccommodating facial prosthetics and costume to be worn for hours on end.

About the politics in the film? Since the different apes were each given a different role that later came into conflict among each other one can say that an analogy had been made between their social order and ours. Our class system goes through an upheaval from time time to create a new social order. One may say that the Arab spring, an ongoing process to bring democracy to the countries of autocratic rule in the region is an effort to create a new social order there. Pity that those in power for decades today are so vain as to think that they can hang onto power for ages, just as the gorilla general and the aristocratic orangutans thought their positions should be unquestioned and untouched.