 |
| Planet of the Apes |
Mark Wahlberg came to the new land in a spacecraft, but when he finally reaches the wrecked ship again, the apes do not know what to think. They have never seen such a thing before, since they rely on simple horses to transport them around. They are also disturbed when Wahlberg's character pulls out firearms. They are afraid of the deadly weapon and destroy it as to not allow him the upperhand against all of the apes in the territory. The apes are generally very weary of all technology Davidson presents, since they have never seen such things before. They rely on the land and natural resources and have not advanced into such a state of technological advance and industrialism. Their mindsets are also not as open as the humans. In many ways, they are timid. For example, Ari is terrified of water and just the sight of it makes her scream.
Even more scientific bounds are displayed to the apes when Davidson finds his crewmates' wrecked ship with limited video footage of what had occurred before the plane crash. The apes don't have such technology and were astounded. However, Davidson too was shocked, but for different reasons. The apes told him that the ship had been wrecked for thousands of years, but he remembers the crash as if it were just three days ago.
Primitivism and science are repeatedly conflicting in this film, but together they create a duality. It is similar to the duality created by the species of both humans and apes existing together in this story.
Kathleen, the duality you talk about between science and primitivism is an interesting one, and it is a very important one in this film, since Davidson ends up using his technology to get the upper hand against the apes toward the end of the film. You're definitely right in saying that the apes are afraid of Davidson's weapons and that they are timid when it comes to new technology. I think that it is more than that, though. Yes, they are much less advanced than Davidson's humans are, but when they see his weapons and technology, they are not just scared, they think that these things are dangerous and will do more harm than good. Perhaps they were on to something here, especially in the case of his gun. Maybe it is not just that they do not want to use technology but that they think, in the long run, it would be too harmful to use.
ReplyDelete- Ashley Lay