{"id":1195,"date":"2016-07-09T01:29:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T01:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1195"},"modified":"2016-07-09T01:29:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T01:29:03","slug":"planet-of-the-apes-exodus-gods-and-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1195","title":{"rendered":"The Prophet of the Apes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"container page-content\"><p><span class=\"dropcap\">T<\/span><\/p><\/div><p>he closing shot of <em>War for the Planet of the Apes <\/em>is framed like a Biblical Renaissance painting. It\u2019s a Eureka moment for the viewer; the moment you realise that in a film featuring talking chimps, you\u2019ve just watched a surreptitious Biblical allegory.\n\nSince we\u2019ve replaced our prayer beads and holy books with 3D glasses and ticket stubs, religion has had to adapt. Much like parents discovering Facebook and suddenly learning the meaning of \u201clit\u201d, religion\u2019s method of keeping up with the times involved disseminating messages through new mediums, like movies and TV. Even back in the silent-film era, the devout could get front-row seats to features based on The Bible. The 1950s version of <em>The Ten Commandments<\/em> is a landmark hit, and Charlton Heston\u2019s bearded portrayal of Moses lingered on in pop culture as one of the most memorable depictions of Biblical events. If there was a moment of rapture for the holy union of films and faith, this was it.\n\nSometimes, we return to the rapture via the unlikeliest of routes. And sometimes, your messiah is a talking chimpanzee. Which is why my nomination for the finest Biblical film of the new millennium goes to a contender no one expected to even be in the fray \u2013 the recently released <em>War for the Planet of the Apes<\/em>.\n\nYes, a movie about apes, humans, and the common bond they share should draw more deeply from Darwinism than from the text that espouses Creationism, but that is exactly what makes <em>War<\/em> such a special movie. It plays its source material with a straight bat, ignoring the inherent ludicrousness of an armed conflict between humans and scientifically enhanced apes. And then, when it has you hooked to the spectacle of a gorilla firing a rocket launcher, it reels you in with a retelling of a story you know and love.\n\nWhile it may seem far-fetched \u2013 the character of Caesar, the leader of this newly formed community of sentient and soulful apes, is actually an allegory for Moses, the same Charlton Heston character that Christian Bale poorly reprised. Proving you can send a monkey to do a man\u2019s job, Andy Serkis\u2019 portrayal of Caesar is a better introduction to the story of Moses than both the 50-year old <em>The Ten Commandments<\/em>, and the recent flop, <em>Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/em>.\n\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"><p>Though they were considered award-winning at the time, the 1950s-era special effects seen in <em>The Ten Commandments<\/em> seem like props in a school play compared to the arsenal of graphic intervention available to today\u2019s filmmakers<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nYes, <em>The Ten Commandments<\/em> is a classic, and throwing shade its way will probably incite Vatican assassins bearing sharpened crosses to pay me a visit. But seriously, does it hold up as a film today? From 2011\u2019s <em>The Passion of the Christ<\/em> to 2014\u2019s <em>Noah<\/em>, Biblical movies in the 21st century are all about the spectacle. Gigantic sets, cutting-edge CGI, and big-budget action sequences are the tools modern filmmakers use to convey the divine scale of these mythologies and legends.\n\nThough they were considered award-winning at the time, the 1950s-era special effects seen in <em>The Ten Commandments<\/em> seem like props in a school play compared to the arsenal of graphic intervention available to today\u2019s filmmakers. The comparison, though unfair, has to be made, and Charlton Heston\u2019s stellar performance is sadly not enough to lead the film to the Promised Land of Relevance in 2017.\n\n<em>Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/em> seemed poised to remedy that shortcoming, retelling Moses\u2019 story with all the bells and whistles modern filmmaking gimmickry affords. The film was directed by the darling of the critics, Ridley Scott and in a casting coup for the ages, featured the best Batman ever as Moses. But just like the Garden of Eden, there was trouble in paradise. Even before it released, the film drew flak for its whitewashed cast, which was honestly the easiest thing to fix from the \u201950s version.\n\nBearing the cross of cultural insensitivity, the film never stood a chance in theatres. It came under justifiable fire for clunky pacing, poor exposition, and an Australian Pharaoh. <em>Exodus<\/em> became a cautionary tale in how not to make Biblical films for a millennial audience.\n\nEnter Caesar.\n\nThe Moses allegory has been on a slow burn since the first film in the <em>Apes<\/em> trilogy. There were hints of it in Caesar\u2019s origins in <em>Rise<\/em>, and any suspicions you had were confirmed when he compiled his own version of the Ten Commandments for the apes in <em>Dawn<\/em>. In <em>War<\/em>, there is a scene where an enslaved ape is being whipped by his human masters, when Caesar steps up to scream \u201cLEAVE HIM!\u201d In that moment, <em>War<\/em> comes to wholeheartedly embrace its Biblical parallels, firmly establishing its protagonist\u2019s shared motivations with the Hebrew prophet, who repeatedly asked Pharaoh, \u201cLet my people go!\u201d\n\n<em>War<\/em> becomes the best Biblical film of modern times because it tackles the problems faced by the genre astutely. Unlike <em>Exodus<\/em>, there\u2019s no room for race controversy because, well, apes don\u2019t have races. But <em>War<\/em> and both its predecessors also surpass <em>Exodus<\/em> in terms of pacing, special effects, and actor performances.\n\nThat\u2019s one Moses down, one more to go.\n\nBut the real reason why <em>War<\/em> belongs on the same shelf as cinematic classics like <em>The Ten Commandments<\/em> lies in its pioneering nature. It doesn\u2019t set out with a mission to tell a story fraught with heavy-handed religious symbolism. It displays the filmmakers\u2019 deftness in juxtaposing two seemingly irreconcilable concepts (science-fiction and The Bible) to present a unified and significant whole. By employing a tried-and-tested narrative to get over unfamiliar tropes and settings, <em>War<\/em> goes beyond being just a CGI spectacle and resonates deeply with viewers than any film based on talking chimps rightly should.\n\nCan I get an Amen?\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proving you can send a monkey to do a man\u2019s job, War for the Planet of the Apes might be a better Biblical film than The Ten Commandments and the recent flop, Exodus: Gods and Kings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[2019,2020],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-planet-of-the-apes","tag-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - 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