16 - 22 August 2001
Issue No.547
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 August 2001 Issue No.547 |
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Limelight
There's no business like monkey business
Can you imagine two greater beauties than Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones appearing together in one film America's Sweetheart? Can you further imagine two greater talents than Marlon Brando and Robert de Niro side by side in The Score? Why even Spielberg's dinosaurs have been rounded up for one more frolic in Jurassic Park III? Yet they have all been soundly beaten at the box office and fallen victim to the Mighty Apes.
Thirty-three years ago, the first screen version of Planet of the Apes met with tremendous success, rapidly becoming a cult classic. It was dubbed "an amazing film". The suspense and suspension of belief engendered, was one of its greatest assets, spawning four sequels in four years and two television serials. It seemed that man could not get enough of the apes. That same year Hollywood produced 2001 Space Odyssey, perhaps the better film of the genre, but Planet took a more blatant look at racial bias, while presenting an interesting science fiction film with a great ending.
On planet Earth, man possesses a highly developed brain, distinguishing him from all other primates, but not on Planet of the Apes. There, the roles are reversed, the ape is master, and man the servitor. The reason that such a premise is explored again and again on the screen is simple - it is good business. Monkey business has proved regularly to be good business, given our affinity and attraction to our closest relatives in the animal kingdom.
Planet of the Apes, 1968
The first Planet of the Apes, 1968, based on the 1963 Pierre Boulle novel, was written for the screen by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson, directed by Franklin J Schaffner and produced by a very young Richard Zanuck. It starred no other than Moses himself, Charlton Heston as Leo Davidson, an astronaut whose space ship crash-lands on an alien desolate planet inhabited by apes. They talk, ride horses, and enjoy a 19th century level of technology while man, semi- naked is running wild, scurrying for food and terrorised by the apes.
Befriended by a sympathetic ape, the astronaut pleads his case and is subsequently allowed to leave the planet on horseback. After a long tiring and endless journey he discovers that he had never left planet earth after all! The planet of the apes was his own planet earth. Man himself had brought about its destruction relinquishing his supremacy to an inferior species. The film's ending was a valuable lesson with a daunting message for mankind. It cost $10 million, a staggering amount at the time, four times more than the average film. But it was all worth it to the studio and its very young producer, Richard Zanuck. Today, one-third of a century later, the new version cost ten times as much. Planet of the Apes revisited by director Tim Burton, of Batman fame, re-invents the original premise. The lost astronaut, this time starring Mark Wahlberg, finds himself in a world turned upside down after landing on a strange planet where man is inferior to beast. Again he is befriended by a kindly ape - the delicate beauty, Helena Bonham Carter, totally disguised in an ape suit and make- up that took four hours to fit. Oh yes! Moses is back again in a cameo appearance, this time as a superior alpha ape.
The story parodies Darwin's evolution, with humans as the possible missing link in ape development. While the dog may be man's best friend, and while the cat may be overtaking the dog in popularity as a house pet, the monkey is still man's first cousin.
Most scientists believe apes and humans descended from a common ancestor, and although they are our 'cousins', ape films are not for everyone. Ray Bradbury, well known sci-fi guru, while praising other screen achievements of the genre, such as 2001 Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, described 'The Planet' as "too childish" and "not my cup of tea". "What strikes me as silly about it is that you can't tell one actor from the other". So, if you are a fan of Helena, you are duly warned that the ape disguise is quite thorough!
Many of us confuse apes with monkeys, but the two groups of animals differ in a number of ways. Monkeys are smaller, less intelligent, and have tails. While they both walk on all fours, apes do so in a more upright position. There are 200 species of monkeys, but only four of apes, namely gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and gibbons. Their brains are larger than those of monkeys, and they rank the most intelligent next to humans.
We have used and abused them in all ways possible. We have locked them up in cages in laboratories and zoos. We have dressed them up, ridiculed them, knocked off their teeth with chisel and hammer to better manage them at circuses. When we were not yet confident to go to the moon we sent a monkey instead. We have capitalised on our biological similarities and subjected them to an assortment of medical and surgical experiments, with results that have been life saving to us, only to discard them and allow them to choke to death in unbearable circumstances. In short Planet of the Apes is a soul-cleansing exercise that should be re-titled 'revenge of the apes'.
Since 1932, films based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' (1875 - 1950) beloved fictional character Tarzan the ape man have been popular. 28 films were made to date; 12 starred Olympic gold-medallist, Johnny Weismuller. King Kong the mighty gorilla was produced over 8 times; Godzilla was made and remade 6 times. Chimpanzees have come to the rescue of many a flagging career. Former US President Ronald Reagan was a little known 'B-picture' actor until he co-starred with Bonzo in his biggest success Bedtime for Bonzo. Even Mr Clint Eastwood himself, who's ego seldom permits another worthy co-star, has at a low point in his career, called upon an orangutan for help in Every Which Way but Loose, 1978, which became his most financially successful picture to date, and enjoyed a sequel as well. Cary Grant starred with Marilyn Monroe in Monkey Business (1952), but it was the monkey who walked away with all the laughs.
While the special and visual effects of this remake are being praised and the general picture is spectacular, those alone cannot a great film make. What distinguished the first film was the piercing and poignant commentary on man's destruction of his own planet, but in the new version the message in the end is lost! Lukewarm critiques notwithstanding, every ticket is sold, every seat is filled, as the viewers sit in the dark chewing their gum, popping their corn and gaping at the ape as he uses and abuses his next of kin.
Richard Zanuck, producer of the first Planet of the Apes, now much older and wealthier, has come around once again to fatten his coffers at the expense of the ape. But then, why not? It's all in the family, after all blood runs thicker than water!
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