Dawn of the Planet of
the Apes (2014), sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), is a fictional action movie that begins just
after the apes run into the forest after a standoff with humans on the Golden
Gate Bridge. As the film takes place in year 2026, the apes and the humans live
in separate worlds completely detached from one another until an occurrence in
which the unlikely combination of the two stumble across each other in the
forest.
After the humans return to the city, the two civilizations
search for the proper way of dealing with the newly found society that could
threaten their survival. Consequently, the two societies contemplate many ideas
surrounding issues that are very similar to the issues we, (the viewers), face
today. Throughout the movie there are three main topics that standout.
1.
All
Apes Are Family
Towards the beginning of the film Caesar, (Andy Serkis), the
leader of the apes, signifies the value of family as he talks to Koba, (Toby Kebbler), after Koba saves Caesar and his son from a bear. Caesar also
indicates the importance of family among all apes as he often has the good of
the ape-society in mind.
Without coming across too collectivistic, there is something
to take from the “all apes are family” motto. For example, how do you think
society would change, if as humans, we all chose to love each other simply
because we are all human? Just as there are different types of apes in the
film, there are many different races and cultures in the world. Yet, the
decision made as an individual to accept all collectively is a decision made in
the interest of community. What did hate ever accomplish? What gains were made
through violence? Could the events in Ferguson been avoided if we as a society
agreed to accept others without hesitance?
2.
Understand
The Significance of Life
It is obvious that the significance of life is a primary
issue on Caesar’s mind. While contemplating whether or not to go to war, Caesar
states, “if we go to war, many apes will die.” Seemingly Caesar cares more
about the lives of the apes than the power of their society. Though he is
concerned with the strength of his community Caesar was also weighing the
significance of life and analyzing its potential loss. Caesar understands the
significance of life to a point in which he would rather the humans be an
inconvenience his society but live peacefully, than dominant the world as the
most powerful society and potentially lose several lives in the process.
Unfortunately, some people do not understand the destructive
elements that accommodate the establishment an individual power or popularity.
For example, if I consistently establish and promote myself as the best writer
to other, I can discourage other writers around me. Whether or not I am
actually a better writer than everyone else is not what is important. What
matters is that I use my skills as a writer to give life and not take it away.
All life is significant: physical life, emotional life,
intellectual life, relational life, spiritual life, etc. Through our
communication with others, we can give life or take it away. Our words and
actions affect others in positive and negative ways depending on how we choose
to communicate in different situations. If we are only concerned with our own
life, we will never fully understand the significance of every type of life.
Thus even though we may have an abundance of every type of life, our lack of
understanding of its significance will prevent us to empower others just as
Caesar does towards the end of the film.
3.
Don’t
Generalize
Without giving too much away, inaccurate generalizations are
what becomes one of the main problems between the apes and the humans. The
failure to understand that all apes are not all good and all humans are not all
bad and vice versa is the basis for the majority of the plot. This however is
applicable to many other situations. All people without a college education are
not stupid. All southerners do not have accents. All athletes are not
douchebags. And the list goes on. My point is, many generalizations are
inaccurate and often lead to the taking of life rather than the empowering of
it.
Because of this, I hate generalizations. But it was not
until just recently that I noticed how often I generalize others into groups
that they do not actually fall into. It seems as though our generalizations are
often reflections of our expectations of others. However, these expectations
are not fair and they certainly do not empower others. Instead of expecting
others to act in ways that fit the group we generalize them into, we should
choose to have the same expectations of everyone regardless of what
generalizations and assumptions we automatically create among first
impressions.
In Conclusion…
If you haven’t already, I really
encourage you to see Dawn of the Planet
of the Apes, for yourself. In doing so, I guarantee you will find behavior
that reflects what I write. While it may seem like a romantic plea for peace in
times of violence, these three concepts were just too strong to go unaddressed.
Frankly, I am surprised no one has addressed this already. I hope this has
challenged your perception of the film and can potentially be the lens through
which you make your own critique of a thought-out, action-packed film that puts
viewers in a tug-of-war between their sympathy towards the primates and their
natural instinct to fight for humanity.
Please feel free to contact me if
you have any questions or need any clarification.
