Let me preface this essay with a little story about my expectations going in: I had
absolutely no interest in this movie walking into it. I was really just oversaturated with these
giant tent-pole movies, such as Transformers , Wonder Woman , or even everyone’s beloved
Spiderman: Homecoming (really didn’t care for that one), that have little or no thematic depth to
them. I really thought that thematically complex, deep, emotional blockbusters were a thing of
the past, and the last gasp of air this type of entertainment had was anything with the name
Christopher Nolan attached to it . That was until I saw War for the Planet of the Apes. When I
finished watching this 2 hour and 20 minute FILM, I was left literally speechless (for about 2 or
3 minutes until I started gushing about how magnificent it was). I had just witnessed the first
tent-pole blockbuster since The Dark Knight that I can say with absolute certainty will become a
classic within the upcoming years. However, most of the general audience isn’t recognizing the
sheer depth of this film, looking at it as just a fun, emotionally-fulfilling time at the movies.
While that is certainly true, I want to enlighten everyone just how important this film is to not
only our society right now, but also our society going forward. In order to do that, I have to
discuss spoilers, so if you decide to read this essay, PLEASE see the film before diving any
further. This essay will never compare to the experience you will have watching this film.
******SPOILERS AHEAD*******
Now that you have seen the movie, I must discuss all the various themes going on in this film and why it is important this film tackled them. This is going to be a long essay, but I just have to discuss how much is going on underneath the surface of this film, and just how important this movie is to me.
Now, let’s start diving into this masterpiece.
What’s truly odd about this film even with the main characters of this movie being apes, it is the most human film i’ve seen all year. It offers so much insight into what makes us human, but all of it points back to the film’s main antagonist (and human character): The Colonel. While The Colonel lacks the emotional depth and basic fundamentals of a great antagonist (a personal connection to the protagonist), I believe The Colonel more than makes up for his flaws with the implications he has on the film’s overarching message. The first time we meet The Colonel, after his brief encounter with Caesar in the cave, is when he is standing over Caesar, having captured him and now doing his standard evil villain monologue, rambling about various infamous world leaders. What makes this villain’s monologue stand out from other opening villain monologues this summer is that it directly ties into the film’s message on what makes us human: communication. The Colonel’s main fear is that he fears that the human race will lose its communication skills, and that our history will be lost in translation (as seen by the manically written “HISTORY HISTORY HISTORY” in The Colonel’s quarters). While this could just be the character’s motivation on the surface level, the film takes it a step further and deeply embeds it into its DNA. I found that the lack of true dialog and the heavy reliance of visual storytelling in this film was truly staggering for a summer blockbuster. After thinking about the film for the past three days and seeing it twice in the meantime, I have come to the conclusion that this is because the film itself is scared that we will lose our communication skills. It is scared that one day, our society will crumble and that we will lose all of this knowledge we have built up over the years. With that fear, it makes sure it won’t be lost in translation by making a film that doesn’t rely on spoken dialog, but rather subtitles and immaculately powerful camera angles that properly tell the story visually. This is what a great film does. It has a message it wants to tell, and it molds the film around that particular message, in the end giving the audience an experience that helps them better understand what it means to be human. Now, that is all well and good, but it wouldn’t mean a thing if it wasn’t for this film having an incredible message, and that’s what I will go into next.
As the title says, this movie is about the WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, and while most blockbusters would have just non-stop, adrenaline pumping action, this film doesn’t have a major battle sequence (after the first scene of course) until the last maybe 15-20 minutes. I believe that title isn’t really meant to tell the audience that this movie is about the war that is brewing between the apes and the humans, but rather to tell the audience that it will go into what war means for our society. For example, when the “war” eventually comes, it isn’t greeted with bombastic, grandiose imagery of badass APES VERSUS HUMANS ACTION! No... It is rather sad and, honestly, kind of slow paced. The film paints war as something that nothing good comes out of, and that is further corroborated by the fate of The Colonel. While most movies would decide to kill their main antagonist in a major battle with their protagonist, this movie decides to do the complete opposite, and have The Colonel kill himself. This is a major statement for us as humans and what war really accomplishes for us. This is the filmmaker saying: “ We are really just shooting ourselves fighting these wars.” This message is further elaborated on when the battle eventually ends, and when you think the faceless white army (nice touch ripping away all identity from humanity once it just murdered itself) is about to take over The Colonel’s base, an avalanche wipes out all of the remaining faceless army. This is the filmmaker taking a stand on a very important issue, which is huge considering most studios aren’t concerned with that anymore because they are just focused on getting butts in the seats. Even though some of you may not agree with this message, it’s important that the filmmaker told this message because that’s what filmmaking is all about: getting a reaction out of someone, making them rethink life, and helping them understand what it means to be human.
While the film has an incredible message on the meaning of war, it also manages to have a very serious religious message at the same time. There are many little religious images and ideas throughout the film (Caesar walking through ice cold climate is akin to a soul on a journey through Hell, The Colonel refers to the war as a biblical one, the tree of life at the end, etc), but the main religious statement is told through the film’s main character: Caesar. Caesar is essentially an amalgamation of different religious figures, from Jesus to Moses to whatever religious figure you choose to believe in. He goes through hell to ensure the safety of his followers, he essentially parts the red sea (in this story, it’s an avalanche, but y’know), and he even dies on the metaphorical tree of life. This film portrays him as this holy religious figure not only because it touches everyone at their very core (I believe religion, whether you believe in it or not, touches us all because of our universal fear of death), but also because it provides an example of what humans should strive to be. Throughout the film, the human characters call the apes “savages” and other derogatory terms, but in fact, the most human characters in this film are Caesar’s band of apes. The humans blindly follow a crazed leader in The Colonel, chanting like animals before him in the mornings and caging apes in the evenings, but the apes are different than these “humans.” When their leader Caesar led them down the wrong path and got them all captured, they, literally and figuratively, turned their backs on him. They showed real emotion and doubt, proving they are not savages. This all adds to Caesar’s religious journey into hell, showing just how hard Caesar has to work to get his followers to safety. Caesar gets whipped for his followers, gets strung up on a stake (like Jesus) for his followers, and, in the end, sacrifices himself for his followers, never batting an eye in the process. This is the film showing us how we should be. We need to always think about what’s best for one another, and have that dictate our actions, rather than our own selfish desires. Another example of this is, on a smaller scale, the character Donkey sacrificed himself for Caesar because he knew it was the right thing to do for his species, having seen what the humans are doing not only to apes, but to themselves. Caesar and Donkey died for their fellow apes, yet we go day by day making idiotic choices to think about ourselves before anyone else. Through this religious journey, the film teaches us that we need to stop this if we want to continue on as a species because if we continue our ways now, we will end up like the humans in the film. Again, this is what a great film does. It teaches us what it means to be human. Films don’t just flash grand action scenes on screen and make you laugh for two hours for no purpose whatsoever.
Now, all of this may sound like i’m reading too deep into it, and I very well may be, but this is so important to me even if i’m wrong about most of it. I go to the movies not only to be entertained, but to be educated. I believe movies should be made to enlighten and educate the audience of new ideas and help guide them through this uncertain space we call life. Films should always be made to expand the audience’s minds, and I believe the current film industry, especially blockbusters, is forgetting that. Far too many movies are being made with little or no depth whatsoever, and that really saddens me. That’s what made the classic movies what they are, so why can’t we learn from that and make entertainment that ACTUALLY MATTERS? Out of all the major studio blockbusters i’ve seen this year, War for the Planet of the Apes is the only one that has something to say with its $100 million+ budget. Sure, Spiderman: Homecoming is fun and teaches us that blue-collared human beings can be great, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 teaches us that our true fathers are who impact our lives the most, but these ideas can be and have been translated in films with $5 million budgets. War for the Planet of the Ape s is the only blockbuster in years that uses every penny of its budget to tell a message that requires its monstrous budget (in this case, one about war, history, communication, and religion). Gone are the days of 2001: A Space Odyssey , The Shining or any of these giant studio projects that actually have actual layers to them, requiring huge budgets to tell these expansive ideas about life. While that type of filmmaking is gone for the most part, War for the Planet of the Apes has brought back that style of filmmaking just this one time. I want to thank everyone who molded War for the Planet of the Apes into what it is today, and I really hope it does well because I want this amount of care to go into every blockbuster I see from now on. Us film students need to take notice of what this film does right (and wrong because there definitely are flaws with it) to bring back this style of filmmaking. The style of filmmaking that isn’t just a distraction for 2 hours, but rather challenges the audience and makes them take time to rethink ideas they had before seeing the film. It’s time to stop being lazy, Hollywood. Let’s make something that matters.
