The issues of race are ever present but largely ignored or discussed in “colorblind” terms. In a way, it’s the “post-racial” version of Planet of the Apes in the same way America has experienced this idea of post-racialism. It’s as de-racialized as it can be, choosing to focus more on the scientific aspects of the story, though it is still very much a story of revolution.
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Franco plays a scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease whose first test subject, a chimpanzee named Caesar, experiences unintended and unanticipated side-effects, acquiring human-like intelligence and feelings. The focus of this film is the origin story. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, starring James Franco and Freida Pinto, is the latest addition to this franchise, but serves more as a reboot than a remake or prequel. Once again, issues of race and racism were introduced via monkeys. riots, which were a response the acquittal of the officers responsible for his vicious beating. An orangutan, played by Paul Giamatti, actually says “can’t we all just get along?” in an obvious and not easily digested nod to Rodney King and the phrase he made popular during the 1992 L.A. It also played into the issues of skin-color hierarchy, making lighter apes more intelligent than their darker, more uncivilized counterparts.Ī “re-imagining” of this film was produced in 2001, directed by Tim Burton and starring Mark Wahlberg, and it ran into some of the same issues. Though it was intended to be show support for black people’s fight for human rights, it relies on the racist notion of black people being not being fully human, choosing monkeys of all animals as stand ins for black people. It’s about how power corrupts and can be used unjustly but one isn’t always aware of the injustice until they experience it for themselves. It’s a “what if the shoe was on the other foot?” type scenario where white men experience the type of discrimination usually reserved for black people.Īpes imagined a fictional world 2,000 years in the future where monkeys, gorillas, and other primates take on human features including the sort of racism that the Civil Rights Movement was addressing at the time, only directed at human beings.
#Race of the planet of the apes full movie skin#
The original Planet of the Apes, starring screen legend Charlton Heston, released in 1968, served as sort of a cinematic version of John Howard Griffin’s 1961 book Black Like Me, where Griffin experienced life as a black man by darkening his skin and reported back on his findings. MSNBC: Rise of the Planet of the Apes is chest-thumping fun At times, animals have been used as stand ins for black people and have exhibited all the racial stereotypes and fantasies that are regularly circulated. Take for instance the jive-talking, singing, dancing, lazy, shiftless black crows in the 1941 animated Disney film Dumbo. Even when it’s not necessarily images of actual black people. The ways in which we are portrayed in film is often used as a barometer for the status of race relations in this country. The struggle for accurate portrayal of African-American life is one that continues today. Visit for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES’: DuBois said in his “Criteria of Negro Art” speech: “We can go on the stage we can be just as funny as white Americans wish us to be we can play all the sordid parts that America likes to assign to Negroes but for any thing else there is still small place for us.” Throughout Hollywood’s golden years, black people were relegated to mostly background and service roles, the most famous of which is Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar-winning turn as a Mammy in 1939’s Gone with the Wind.Ĭlick here to view a Grio slideshow of 15 films that hurt black AmericaĪs W.E.B.
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Griffith’s 1915 film Birth of a Nation is notable for its depiction of the Klu Klux Klan as heroes of the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and black men (or rather white men in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually violent toward white women. One of the earliest feature length productions, D.W. Black people have had a contentious relationship with film since the advent of the medium.