Behind the Planet of the Apes Page #5

..and then peeI the cardboard off so it Ieft|this sort of cement, but in these odd forms.

And I remember coming across an articIe|by MIT a year or two Iater,...

..how they'd come up with this system,|and we'd aIready put it in the movies.

Do you acknowledge kinship|with any of these creatures?

- With one of them, yes.|- ldentify him, then. Speak to him.

Landon?

Landon.

You did it.

You cut up his brain, you bloody baboon!

(president) Stop him!

Comparative to the makeup for the apes,...

..there were other|makeup chaIIenges on this fiIm.

Take him inside!

They're smaII things, but I wanted|to make sure they were reaIistic.

For instance, there was this one astronaut.|The apes took him and gave him a Iobotomy.

I went to my medicaI histories|and books of surgery.

And I knew what the Iobotomy scars|Iooked Iike. Minor things Iike that.

SmaII, but done right.

(Roddy McDowall) But it was the ape makeup|that created the biggest IogisticaI probIems.

Up to 80 makeup artists, hairstyIists|and wardrobe personneI...

..were required for scenes|invoIving as many as 200 apes.

The number of craftsman utiIised resuIted|in other HoIIywood fiIms being deIayed...

..due to the unavaiIabiIity|of quaIified makeup artists.

The principaI actors|got new appIiances every day.

So I taught everyone|how to run the foam rubber.

I had 'em workin' night and day|for some weeks,...

..to run enough rubber|so we had enough to go around.

(Roddy McDowall)|EventuaIIy the makeup process,...

..which had originaIIy taken up to six hours,...

..was streamIined to a mere three.

But I had peopIe|that I had trained in my Iaboratory,...

..and it fIowed just Iike an assembIy Iine.

They knew what they were doing.

(Roddy McDowall) Actors had refrigerated|traiIers to preserve appIiances between shots.

We had to be very carefuI. In those days,|of course, many peopIe smoked.

And so we were aII presented|with cigarette hoIders...

..to keep the cigarettes|far enough away from us.

And had to Iook into the mirror as we ate|so we didn't destroy the appIiances at Iunch.

(John Chambers) The actor's chin|wouId pop Ioose if it was overworked.

So we used to say,|when Iunch wouId come,...

..''Don't get any hard foods that you have|to chew. Get miIkshakes, soft foods.''

And when they'd come back from Iunch,...

..the Iower chin'd be Iayin' down,|and there was a...

..a sac in there, you know - a space.

And there wouId be peas and carrots in 'em.

I didn't mind. It didn't take much time|to put 'em back on.

(Roddy McDowall) Many on the set noticed|another unusuaI Iunchtime occurrence.

There was kind of a seIf-segregation.|The goriIIas wouId aII eat at one tabIe,...

..the chimpanzees wouId eat at another,|and the orangutans wouId eat at another.

I have no expIanation for that whatsoever.|But it was true.

The goriIIas sort of hung together|and the chimps did and...

I didn't reaIIy taIk to Maurice Evans much,|as a matter of fact,...

..whiIe we were on the set together.

And I knew him fairIy weII but...|he was an orangutan. One of those others.

The actors were never conscious of it.

They just drifted to their companions.|To their...

To the same...

..groupings as in the fiIm.

Fascinating.

(Roddy McDowall) IronicaIIy, the issues|of cIass separation and prejudice...

..are one of the fiIm's main themes.

You promised to speak to Dr Xaius about me.

l did. You know how|he looks down his nose at chimpanzees.

The ape's society is given|a distinct cIass structure.

The orangutans are the poIiticians.

Learned judges, my case is simple.

lt is based on our fiirst article of faith.

That the Almighty created the ape|in his own image.

The chimpanzees are the scientists|and inteIIectuaIs.

l discovered evidence...

..of a simian culture that existed|long before the sacred scrolls were written.

The goriIIas are the Iabourers|and the miIitary enforcers.

It was an aIIegoricaI device...

..used by the fiImmakers to make some|pointed observations about human society.

Why are all apes created equal?

Some apes, it seems,|are more equal than others.

MichaeI WiIson said|the key point of Planet of the Apes...

..was that it was more about|the human predicament than about apes.

When WiIson wrote|the finaI Planet of the Apes script,...

..he brought much more of a poIiticaI edge|to it, refIecting his own experience:

being bIackIisted during the McCarthy era.

The question is:
have you ever been|a member of the Communist Party?

You refuse to answer that question?

- l have told you that l will...|- All right.

- Stand away from the stand.|- ..fiight for the Bill of Rights...

Take this man away from the stand.

- My name is Taylor!|- Bailiff! Silence the animal!

ProbabIy the best exampIe of WiIson's|poIiticaI perspective is the triaI scene,...

..where basicaIIy it's an inquisition that's heId|against Zira and CorneIius and TayIor.

By your leave, Mr President,...

..this tribunal has not yet defiined|the purpose for this inquiry.

At the very least, this man has the right to|know whether there's a charge against him.

The accused is a non-ape|and therefore has no rights under ape law.

Then why is he called the accused?

Your Honours must think him|guilty of something.

Let us warn our friends...

..that they endanger their own careers|by defending this animal.

(Richard Xanuck) I saw this|more as an adventure piece.

I didn't see it as any kind of breakthrough|piece, either poIiticaIIy, sociaIIy...

PeopIe have dissected it and added|a Iot of Iayers of meaning to it...

..that we... at Ieast I, as the head|of the studio, never thought of.

You didn't want the audience|to go up the aisIe...

..thinking anything|but that they'd been entertained.

Maybe I was... in the dark.

Maybe there was|some kind of hidden message...

..that MichaeI WiIson and Arthur Jacobs|and these guys were trying to sneak through.

But I never saw it Iike that at aII.

Without ever saying it,...

..we were doing a poIiticaI fiIm.

We never even said it|very IoudIy among ourseIves...

..because at that time we were in Vietnam.

And a poIiticaI picture was|the Iast kind of fiIm that the studio wanted.

The country was having|very serious probIems.

(Eric Greene) We had|the assassination of John kennedy.

We had the assassination of civiI rights|Ieaders Iike Martin Luther king Jr.

Race riots.

There were a Iot of shocks|to America's image of itseIf...

..and to America's sense of itseIf|as a kind of stabIe democracy.

Dr Xaius,...

..l know who l am.

But who are you?

How in hell did this upside-down|civilisation get started?

Huh! You may well call it upside-down,...

..since you occupy its lowest level.|And deservedly so.

Science fiction can be a way|of presenting controversiaI materiaI...

..without the materiaI|being attacked as controversiaI...

..because it is sIightIy disguised.

You can hear ''AII humans Iook aIike|to most apes'' or ''Human see, human do''.

And you can Iaugh it off if you want to.

But at the same time|you can Iet it sink in as far as:

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