'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' (English)
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow
The image of Charlton Heston crumpled on the seashore before Lady Liberty’s head remains one of Hollywood’s most chilling endings ever. ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ tells us the origins of the upside down universe that Franklin Schaffner, Michael Wilson and Rod Serling first presented in 1968.
Rupert Wyatt’s recent release does channel Charlton Heston, but not in his role as the astronaut George Taylor. It is Heston’s iconic reprisal as Moses that serves as inspiration for the central character of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ — a genetically altered chimp named Caesar.
Born to a pharmaceutical lab chimp named Bright Eyes (after the green tint in her mutated irises), Caesar is blessed with superior intelligence. When Bright Eyes goes berserk and the drug testing program she is in, is shuts down, Will Rodman (James Franco playing second fiddle to primates) adopts Caesar and raises him as his own. Will’s compassion unwittingly makes him the progenitor of the civilization that will eventually reduce George Taylor to his knees.
‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ is, in many ways, a film of sons and their fathers. Will Rodman is not involved in Alzheimer’s research purely for the joy of scientific pursuit. Will yearns to see his father, a music teacher suffering in the throes of the disease, return to his old self. But when combating death, there is no possible result but loss. As Will’s girlfriend Caroline (Freida Pinto) points out, some eventualities just cannot be altered.
Caesar, an adopted son to Will, struggles with his place in human civilisation. “Am I a pet?” he asks Will, who, out of affection and recognition for his higher cognitive abilities, replies in the negative. However, the world at large is less than ready to accept Caesar for who (not what) he is and his constant unrest finding solace only in tall Redwood canopies. It is only on account of conditioning, that he still feels his home is with Will.
When he is taken into custody by animal protection services for bearing down upon a bully who accosts Will’s father, Caesar finds himself in the company of his own species. And his rise from the pack’s neophyte to alpha male, aided of course by his mutation, is a lovely exposition of the qualities that truly make us cognizant beings. Caesar is sent to a veritable prison for chimpanzees, replete with a corruptible warden (Brian Cox once again playing a government servant with dubious morals) and his childishly cruel son who is entrusted with caring for the inmates (Tom Felton, who after the Harry Potter series and this film is in danger of being typecast).
As the new ape on the block, Caesar also becomes the target of the in-house Chimpanzee bully.
Caesar is now completely ensconced in the ‘earn your stripes’ period of his young life, but his recovery is meteoric. His heightened intelligence allows him to develop the leadership qualities that are required for a pioneer – independent thought, turning disadvantages into unique strengths and inspiring a most fundamental of emotions, loyalty.
His transformation from a criminal of the suburbs to the leader of an oppressed clan is thus complete. The apes now have their Moses and he shall lead them into the Redwoods. Slowly but surely we see the formation of ad hoc hierarchical constructs, the synthesis of sacrifice and retaliatory speech. And before we know it we, the audience, are inadvertently rooting against our own kind.
This paradoxical reaction is one of the many successes of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. Despite its leaps of logic and convenient compromises the film succeeds in selling its premise in a wonderfully visual manner. In a rather suggestive moment in the animal shelter Caesar assumes the position of Rodin’s thinking man clearly separating him from his lesser cellmates.
Caesar finally assembles his pack of primates into an army and descends upon the trees of the suburbs of San Francisco inflicting upon them an autumn defoliation on a warm summer morning. The scene with its withering leaves falling in heaps under the weight of the stampeding monkeys, signals the arrival of a ‘fall’.
And even as the title credits roll, the film continues to tell its story of how patient zero propagates a virus. It is these visual flourishes that add depth to what is already an entertaining revitalization of an old classic.