Dupuis: Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes

The way a person reacts to being enslaved says a lot about a person’s character, to fight or not to fight, that is the question. Davidson fights for his freedom because he knows what freedom feels like. In the dinner scene he feels what it is to have your freedom taken away. The apes say that he has no soul. Thade even opens his mouth to look for Davidson’s soul. But is he really fighting to just switch the enslavement back to the apes? Does he really just want to have the power again? If so then, what does that say about his character? When does one cross the line between civil liberties and just fighting for power? Civil liberties in the eyes of the enslaved are freedom, but slavery in the eyes of the slave holders is power over a lesser being. Davidson admits that his world treats animals terribly, just as bad as the humans are treated, but yet he still wants to go back to that world. He is fighting to get back to the world he knows is just as bad as the one he is trapped in. But he cannot stand how he is treated in this world. To be told you do not have a soul is probably the worst feeling in the world, even though Americans said the same things about African Americans in the 1800s. Davidson fights for his soul which makes his character self-righteous. The scene in which the apes are rounding up the humans after violently captured says a lot about the mind-set of the apes and the humans. Judging by the looks on the humans face they definitely do not just accept this, they fight…only to a certain extent though because they know they cannot win. The apes are vicious to the humans because they are afraid of their potential. The humans multiply too quickly and beat the apes in numbers and fighting spirit. The humans want to fight for their freedom, but the apes are too powerful. The humans are involuntarily submissive to the apes because the generations of oppression. The apes want to be powerful, their treatment of the humans demonstrates that, but the humans also want power. They want to be able to live peacefully away from the apes. But history teaches us that the moment anyone gets power, they abuse it. So again, when does granting civil liberties turn into enslavement of the lower species? When does the switch happen? 

Dupuis: Mars Attacks!

Mars Attacking

The movie Mars Attacks by Tim Burton show the president as just a figure-head that does nothing to help the human race. He rarely appears in most of the scenes in which the Martians are attacking to ensure that he stays safe. Mars Attacks almost portrays the president as a coward. The scene in which he dies opens with him crying in the situation room. Also throughout the movie the president is shown to present no ideas about the aliens. He listens to the scientist and just does what the scientist says; whereas, in other science fiction movies the president is seen as the savior through his courage and wisdom. Jack Nicholson counters acts that view by being a coward that just follows what he is told by the person he deems the smartest. In the opening scene of the movie in which the president is talking with all his advisers he gives the scientist all the power in the scene and the president is just seen as a man sitting behind a desk asking “what should we do?” Burton does this to parody the role of the president by showing that the men Americans are supposed to look up to in times of danger are just as scared as the citizens and really have no idea what to do, so they pass the task on to others.

               Burton also parodies the view of American nationalism through Richie’s family. The family is represents the “normal” red-blooded Americans, rednecks, that are not afraid to fight for their land, or in this case a trailer. The manner in which they die also plays a role in Burton making fun of them. They die by the aliens picking up their trailer and running it into another trailer which is meant to show that just because you pick up a shotgun in the science fiction movie does not mean you going to survive it, like it is shown in most typical science fiction movies. Burton uses these stereotypic roles to poke-fun at what Americans see as a sacred institution that will never fail…unless the Martians take over! 

Dupuis: Ed Wood

Johnny Depp as Ed Wood

I think Burton and Wood have many similarities as directors. They both share a passion for the movies they make; they have close relationships with their mentors; and they stay true to their vision even if no one likes it. The major difference between Burton and Wood is that Wood wants to be a part of the main stream Hollywood which Burton despises. This is ironic because Burton is a success and Wood was not. These two men just represent the difference between having talent and not having talent. They both had the drive; Burton just had the talent to go with that drive.

Burton does have an appreciation for Wood’s movies and as a person despite Wood’s failed movies and despite Burton’s movie Ed Wood was a flop. Wood always stayed true to his vision of the movie he wanted to make, even if they were not popular in his time; he did not let his constant failures to change his movies. Burton admires this aspect of Wood’s films which I think he does because Burton feels that sometimes he has to stray from his original vision for the movie for the sake of his audience or because of the people paying for the movie to be made.

Burton relates to Wood in sense that they both have a vision that they are criticized for, but they both have a deep passion for it. Burton was criticized for his strange vision, but when he brings it to life in his movies, the audience falls in love because they are so relatable and unlike anything else they have seen. I think Wood just was not appreciated in his time because he dealt with issues that were new to the world and not ready to be shown on screen, like cross-dressing and sex changes.

I think Burton used original scenes from Wood’s films to show how much Wood loved his films. By using the original scenes Burton shows that Wood’s films were his life, they were not just a job, which is another thing Burton and Wood have in common. Their films are not just films; the films are their lives.