I went to see Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes at least as much to get out of the house as to see the film itself, how pleasantly surprising for me to almost stumble across one of the best movies of the year so far, an intelligent and often beautifully rendered and imagined humanistic message.
The two-hour movie, directed by Matt Reeves is as much a commentary on men and politics in America as it is a typical summer mega-blockbuster, you find yourself thinking Washington again and again. You can just substitute “left” and “right” and think you’re watching cable news at points. The film has it’s inevitable share of banging and bumping, but it is never gruesome and rarely overdone. The special affects are breathtaking and so is most of the acting. I could not tell for a second where human and make-up began or left off, or if the apes were real at all or just digitally rendered.
Although the film is restrained, it is spooky sometimes, even frightening. I’d be a bit cautious about taking very small kids, but not about children in general, or kids middle-school and up. There were plenty of kids in the theater with me, and they seemed to get it and love it.
The premise is that a growing nation of genetically-evolved apes (former test subjects of humans) led by a wise and articulate leader named Caesar (brilliantly acted by Andy Serkis) find themselves threatened by some human survivors of a devastating virus unleashed first on monkeys a decade earlier.
The world has been devastated, humans are hanging on by a thread. Caesar seeks peace with human beings, he does not want war, but the peace turns out to be fragile, both sides are brought to the brink of a brutal conflict by their own ideological fanatics that will ultimately decide which species prevails.
The problem is familiar to us. There are good men and bad men, good apes and bad apes, there is a self-destructiveness about both species that propels both towards misunderstanding, violence and war. This violence seems to be embedded in both species. Neither species ever really captures the high ground, although Caesar is by far the most profoundly ethical character.
Caesar is a Lincoln-like leader of his people who understands eventually – and reluctantly – that human beings will never leave the apes alone, they will seek them out, dominate them, hunt them and kill them. Only one species can ultimately survive. War seems the inexorable fate of both species, so many more males are drawn to confrontation and rage than peace and communications. In the movie, the women are characters of strength, but in nurturing and healing ways.
Caesar is all about family, not power, he wants nothing more than for the family of apes to be safe and secure co-existing with a powerful species that seems to kill off almost everything it comes into contact with.
The movie has it’s share of explosions, tracer bullets and dust-ups – images of the apes moving through the forest are beautiful and eerie – but it makes time to develop the human and simian and characters, to let us get to know them and their strengths and flaws. And their thinking. Digital technology allows the apes to be as expressive and emotional as human characters, it is really stunning how far the industry has come since the first Apes movies. There is precious little humor or relief in the film, it starts off tense and ends tense. It was not especially violent, given the subject matter.
The strain of humanism in the movie is what most surprised me. Mostly, the humans want to survive, the apes seek secure independence, both of these goals ought to be attainable and are sometimes within reach. But neither humans nor apes can always rise above their better instincts, and the movie offers us a clear and powerful warning about technological hubris, the damage to the earth and our disintegrating political system, and the price of war.
It also reminds me that both “the left” and “the right” are ultimately poisons, closings of the mind, not political philosophies. I think that is sort of the point in some ways. How curious to get that message so well delivered by a sci-fi series about apes and men.
I thought this was a really good movie, done very well, entertaining and timely. I am getting acclimated to the summer blockbuster, several have been very good, the best kind of summer popcorn movies. Tomorrow I’m thinking of seeing “Jersey Boys,” the new Clint Eastwood movie about the 1960’s rock group “The Four Seasons.”
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Personal note, my doctors told me not to see disturbing movies for a month or so after my heart surgery, I dismissed this as foolish and phobic. My heart was fine and strong during the movie, yet I did notice a curious feeling when there was violence or great sadness. My heart felt the movie in a different way, there was a feeling, movement and sensitivity there, there was something to it. It was very cool.