In Reply to: Planet of the Apes posted by Corndog71 on August 5, 2001 at 23:42:15:
My wife and I saw this movie twice, the second time in order to take a friend who missed it openning weekend. Second time around an interesting thing occured. That shaky ending became even more painfully obvious, but Tim Burton almost redeemed himself with the movie's bitingly satirical Liberal human vs Conservative ape subtext that isn't readily apparant first time out. Yes siree, it's there throughout the film and not at all subtle once you catch on to it, but it's certainly more obvious with a second screening!Viewed in this light, Tim makes REAL monkeys (so-to-speak) out of hard-nosed Conservatives by analogizing them to the militant and paranoid religion-driven apes. Of course, the "Liberal" apes that help Mark Wahlburg escape are the caring, compassionate and curious ones who don't agree with their societies fascist military culture. In the end, the commanding ape realizes that his loyalties have been misplaced, that the religious myths which have been passed down are all lies, and that both human and ape species must learn to co-exist in peace rather than continue on the path of subjugation, warfare and extermination.
Unfortunately, the tacked on "shaggy-dog" ending intended to one-up (i.e., an impossible task which the Producers and Director should've realized from the outset) the original movie's "Stature of Liberty" climax fails miserably and only provides a continuity faux pas that a blind man could drive a Mack truck through!
So, taking this film's good points along with it's bad, if I were involved in editing this picture for a future re-release, I would probably cut the entire final sequence leaving Mark Wahlburg to ponder his future with either the human female, the ape scientist or both and more accurately retitle it "Planet of the Right-Wing Guerillas" (You don't like that one? Okay, how about "Conservatives in the Mist?" -- grin)
Cheers,
AuPh
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- Yep, I hated that ending too; it almost looked tacked on as an afterthought! :o( - Audiophilander 07:45:26 08/06/01 (33)
- Re: Yep, I hated that ending too; it almost looked tacked on as an afterthought! :o( - caa 16:19:16 08/08/01 (2)
- That's a fairly good appraisal & very perceptive. - Audiophilander 12:08:08 08/09/01 (1)
- Re: That's a fairly good appraisal & very perceptive. - Dissenter 08:51:40 08/18/01 (0)
- "...paranoid religion-driven apes... religious myths...are all lies." - clarkjohnsen 11:02:59 08/06/01 (1)
- Well Clark, that's almost a Roger Ebert class endorsement to SEE the movie, IMHO! :o) - Audiophilander 11:53:16 08/06/01 (0)
- guess Tim was equating the scales - Mart 10:44:20 08/06/01 (27)
- "liberal piety where lies are considered a superior morality to the truth." - daveemac 10:43:13 08/08/01 (0)
- That just shows you how far to the right Conservatives have moved since the original's release! ;^) - Audiophilander 11:46:19 08/06/01 (25)
- Re:"militant gorillas are Conservative" - Mart 12:01:37 08/06/01 (24)
- Re:"militant gorillas are Conservative" - Joey Jo Jo 20:35:56 09/25/01 (0)
- I guess you never heard about World War 2? - Rob Doorack 12:10:52 08/08/01 (6)
- L@@K again, it's in there - Mart 12:30:18 08/08/01 (5)
- I looked, nothing about "right wing totalitarian" governments - Rob Doorack 13:59:49 08/08/01 (4)
- Bwhahahahaha - Mart 14:06:37 08/08/01 (3)
- I'll accept your failure to defend your proposition as admission of error (nt) - Rob Doorack 17:45:59 08/08/01 (2)
- Re: I'll accept your failure to defend your proposition as admission of error (nt) - damonx 20:42:13 09/25/01 (0)
- LOL, I've no doubts you would ... enjoy! - Mart 18:07:07 08/08/01 (0)
- Military power - clarkjohnsen 08:09:22 08/07/01 (15)
- Re: You've got to be kidding... - Libertarian 10:00:12 08/07/01 (14)
- Liberals like to bomb aspirin factories! And occupy Bosnia! Haiti! - clarkjohnsen 13:59:23 08/07/01 (12)
- Re: Liberals like to bomb aspirin factories! And occupy Bosnia! Haiti! - Rich S. 07:52:27 08/08/01 (4)
- I'm with you Rich..hey...Iceland has had it too easy !!!!(nt) - john dem 12:58:30 08/08/01 (3)
- Re: I'm with you Rich..hey...Iceland has had it too easy !!!!(nt) - Rich S. 13:33:12 08/08/01 (2)
- We could invade....but no one would notice. (nt) - john dem 14:15:20 08/08/01 (1)
- Re: We could invade....but no one would notice. (nt) - Thatch_Ear 21:05:29 08/15/01 (0)
- If it weren't for hard-line Conservatives we wouldn't NEED aspirin factories! ;^) NT - Audiophilander 15:34:27 08/07/01 (6)
- of course, the hard-line Liberals would've mandated that prozac would be in the water <nt> - Mart 23:12:48 08/07/01 (5)
- So, my friend, is your glass half full or half empty? - Audiophilander 07:46:47 08/08/01 (4)
- I'm an engineer, which means ... - Mart 09:01:17 08/08/01 (3)
- You must be an extrovert engineer, which means ... - Thatch_Ear 21:12:13 08/15/01 (1)
- I started with art as well ... - Mart 04:20:24 08/16/01 (0)
- Mart, I didn't ask if you deigned Mark Wahlburg's prosthetic for Boogie Nights! ;^) NT - Audiophilander 10:23:58 08/08/01 (0)
- Re: You've got to be kidding... - Rich S. 10:47:01 08/07/01 (0)