Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

(This review was originally written in July 2014. It's no longer the summer.)

We're onto the eighth Planet of the Apes film. By this point, one might expect something along the lines of Jason Takes Manhattan, or The Muppets Wizard of Oz. Well, hopefully it's not making too much of a leap to say high-numbered sequels are becoming a lot better than they used to be (although I'm sure stuff like Fast and Furious and a prospective 6th and 7th Die Hard films shall trample on my argument.) But this and X-Men: Days of Future Past prove there can be originality, great acting and CGI, and interesting themes to consider and frankly pure entertainment, even as the 7th/8th instalment in each franchise.

There's lots of ideas squashed together here. You have the utopian ape society of trees, in San Francisco of all places, where apes are beginning to learn human concepts, evoking Battle; the beginnings of fire and revolution, with apes as cavalry on horseback, evoking Conquest. There's a little bit of everything here, but I think overall it makes for a more complex version of the 'prequel/sequels' of the 1970s (which rely on the conceit of a future which arises through time travel.) The soundtrack places us right in the mindset of 1968's Planet, with the familiar beat reused here to show the decrepit state of modern human civilisation.

What's great about this film is that there are shades to both ape and man, that there is no uniformity in revolution and ideas; man and ape are not as apart as we think they are. To put it another way, this is an A-Level version of History compared to a GCSE version of History. Caesar favours cohabitance, with a 'line in the sand' between the trees and SF, so as to not incite war and death; other apes would rather prove supremacy by claiming the human areas. We see man as militaristic, but we also see through our protagonists (who unwittingly spark further revolution) that humanity is also caring and wants to provide help; all they are asking for is power so they can live in peace. The revolution which erupts comes from misunderstanding and conflicting needs, and the manipulation of a pro-war, rather than pacifistic, ape.

I definitely get the sense of the idea that war is eternal and inevitable; quite a Marxist idea, sure. Humanity is built on conflict and, by extension, the apes are inherently built on humanity. They begin to resemble early humanity, building tribal communities who communicate not by word (only leaders do so) but by sign language. I was impressed with X-Men: First Class that we were given 7 minutes of subtitled German, and Fox's Dawn impresses me with subtitled ape. It's that step towards realism which I love. It's preposterous for a species to learn the OED in a decade, but non-verbal communication makes perfect sense. In a heartwarming scene the teenage son, Alex, reads the graphic novel Black Hole to an ape, showing the importance of semiotics to learning culture; in another scene they flick through his misplaced sketch book. Heck, their community is even built around a hydroelectric dam, one of the plot points of the film. They confiscate guns from humanity but end up falling to warfare themselves; the fights between ape and ape are because of human intervention. Basically, kids, don't use guns, because you'll be fucked if you do. In the end, the hinted intervention of human military wins over and the death of humanity is assured. 

Rise set a good precedent with James Franco (seen here on a video camera, still with minimal battery power in 2021), and this continues that. Honestly though, I wouldn't want to see a sequel. Well, maybe one more. This film adds greater complexity to both the last film and the rest of the franchise, but where would one go from here? I'm sure a sequel is on the cards already, but we know that Planet is the next step. Maybe a film with no human cast at all? A film of war entirely, compared to this film being the inciting event? I'm happy with these two films as my prequels, though. It's great to see the franchise still going strong though, 46 years later.

The friend I saw it with said he'd have preferred to see Transformers: Age of Extinction. I wanted to smack him in the face. Seriously, this is the sequel to see this summer.

Threads (1984)

Not technically a film, and especially with the first half you can tell it's a BBC drama. But with the 1 hour 50 minute length and the cinematography, I figure it's worthy of mention even though it was never a theatrical release (heck, I don't think it would have passed the censors.)

I first heard of this film last year, when a clip was used in the 3-part Cold War documentary last year and there was commentary on the controversy (understandably so) surrounding it. Powerful clips of bodies caught in the middle of a nuclear disaster. Anyway, I eventually found a copy on YouTube, and spent a couple of months not watching it until I went back to the bookmark the other day to find it had been copyright claimed and eventually found it on a really shady website.

So anyway. 

Threads is a terrible viewing experience. It's more upsetting than any horror film out there, and is able to fuck pretty much anyone over.

Films of this nature nowadays tend to go either the patriotic route of "there were good men in 9/11 who fought for your country salute them" (the stories of survival by firefighters in World Trade Center, if I remember the plot synopsis correctly) or the Michael Bay route of "millions of people die but this is fun high-addrenilin action so just have fun watching shit blow up." And people totally didn't die in Man of Steel either.

This film goes a different route, instead sticking to intense realism. Perhaps the most emotional text which appears on screen comes near the end:
"Population levels will have reduced to possibly Medieval levels."

The film's message is the world is fucked. If you're underground in a concrete shelter with a bunch of politicians, it doesn't guarantee immunity. There is no Protect and Survive.

Our protagonist in the first half is a young Sheffieldian man who's engaged to a young woman and has to deal with family drama and what not. It's typical BBC drama fare, but from the background we hear news reports. In the pub, it plays in the background until the bartender switches it over to a Golden Age film before popular demand says these political movements need to be watched. In the first scene where he's trying to get close to the girl in his car, the radio moves from Johnny B. Goode (a motif in the film) over to news reports of Russian politics. Then we see a plane fly overhead. It's so intricately plotted. It's a typical BBC drama just with something out of the ordinary there - the media, which drama tends to silence. Here it's omnipresent and a scene isn't left alone without it. There is the conflict between either ignoring what is happening by shutting off the telly or embracing one's inevitable fate. He eventually vanishes without a trace, and we're left to follow the story in small bits exploring other parts of dead British society. The film doesn't need a protagonist, and it doesn't need heroism. Because both are going to die anyway. 

Each scene is permeated with a computerised display - each character and word given another military click - which gives the date and the political movements of each day. It's a projected future, but one which is so intensely real that you can't escape it. It's purporting to be the definite reality if things come to worst. It's not a mockumentary, because that would be retrospective. It's contemporary, as if we're hearing the radio and watching the news as it happens.

It's harrowing. Every fucking image it gives is harrowing. It doesn't matter in 2014 that the Cold War is long over and that nuclear warfare is not a contemporary concern, despite the fact North Korea is in existence. It's a snapshot of the paranoia of that era, and understood paranoia. Personally I don't believe the Cold War would have developed into actual conflict. What this film lacks is showing the world scene, as it's only concentrated on the UK, but if Russia were to drop the bomb then every sensible nation would turn against them and cue World War III. Would Chernenko and Russia's people be able to live with destroying a fair chunk of a nation? Nope. These are all hypotheticals - the whole film is a hypothetical question - but it's a terribly interesting one at that. Our fears may be alleviated but the idea of an apocalypse on this scale isn't alien. There's human pathos within it.

It's not even survival of the fittest, because we find old men still live (one man refuses to give shelter to the needy in his home, understandably) and children die. It's a different disaster to the Holocaust; it's many ways worse to the Holocaust. The Holocaust saw 11 million dead, but that was at least organised killing. It was a part of the regime to create a supposedly stronger Germany. But from this we see there is no differentiation. The Jews and the gays and the Roma (presumably, we don't see any) all die along with everyday men and women who have no perceived abnormalities of any kind. Millions die without any reason at all. Nothing which can be justified in any way, shape or form. Any. It's not just the dead people but the pollution, the cancer in the air and an entire country assaulted to the point of destruction.

The government are absolute assholes, becoming a militaristic shadow of its former self and literally shooting people, using tear gas, etc. It's depravity. People lack food, and hospitals lack resources. There is no optimism of any kind. The ending offers a small burst of hope, set years after the incident. But not much hope. We find an old television set routed up, a BBC children's programme playing.

"The bones of a chicken", it repeats, with diogram opposite in black and white. Because even with hope it doesn't negate the omnipresence of death.

The film is absolute art, with quick cuts, horrifying shots, moments of silence etc.

This is the ultimate dystopia. 

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If you're looking for supplemental content, there's a Newsnight programme from 1984 available on YouTube discussing this and The 8th Day.