Monday, October 25, 2010

Burros? Icky? Apes? Candy? Xenophobia?

How does The Planet Of The Apes movie make us contemplate and wrestle with the concept of xenophobia? Does it pertain to the Science Fiction we have read? Use quotations from the movie and text to support your claims.  Please use googledocs to create your notes after each viewing of the movie; post to this blog after the final movie excerpt is shared.

27 comments:

  1. The humans in the movie are constantly treated with disgust and disdain. Taylor sums it up when talking to doctor Zayus. You're afraid of me and you hate me. Why? Because you are a man. The concept of xenophobia is clear in these words, a fear of something unknown, and the wrong conclusions drawn from it. Sadly, none of the apes are willing to change those conclusions.

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  2. Planet of the apes makes me contemplate the concept of xenophobia by making me think about how the apes have taken over and enslaved the humans and hate humans. The monkey’s are scared of the space humans because they are different from the enslaved humans. The Apes master are afraid of change, even if the human were just as smart as the evolved ape. Some of the apes knew that the humans were there before apes and kept it secret to protect themselves from the destructive nature of humans.

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  3. Day 1

    Why does the man feel the need to place an American flag on an unfamiliar planet? What is he doing, claiming it for his country?

    What was the original plan for this trip to be? A test? To achieve a goal?


    Day 2

    It’s weird seeing so many humans running around in loincloths trying to escape from apes. I wonder what’s going through the minds of the humans from the space ship. Why did the apes enslave the humans, anyways? What happened to allow this? I don’t really see the hunting or enslavement of humans as xenophobia. The apes aren’t afraid of the humans, or so I think. They’re slaves, not anything to fear. However I do like that the movie shows a civilized race other than the humans as the dominant race. I also must question why the apes speak English.

    It’s interesting seeing the contrast between a civilized human and an “animal” human. Why don’t the apes notice the man writing in the sand? What is going to happen when Taylor develops the ability to speak again, or when someone notices him writing?

    Ah, the orangutan noticed the writing and scratched it out. I see the xenophobia surfacing. It seems that in these xenophobic communities there are the few people who are willing to accept the fear and to take it into their homes. I find that these people are usually attacked by their society and sometimes even killed.


    Day 3

    I really cannot stand people who blatantly refuse to accept what is laid plainly in front of them. Even were it not fact, it doesn’t need to be dismissed as “heresy” or “contempt of court”. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Is it inevitable that all civilizations will come to a trying time in scientific exploration that will challenge the ruling of the leading faith or belief?

    I like watching old movies; it’s nice to see different dialects coming from different eras. It’s an experience one doesn’t find very much while reading old novels; the language used is the same. But the way people speak - their inflections and their vocabulary - define their era.


    Day 4

    I wonder how these events all played out on our planet. I like that Taylor calls the humans “weak animals”.

    “Disillusioned - you can’t trust the older generation!” - Lucius

    I mostly agree with the apes - they say the humans are a plague to the world. I think this is true, I’m just upset to say it’s so.


    I think the very end of this film is absolutely terrifying; I would never want to think that humans would destroy their own planet in such a way that apes would advance ahead of the humans.

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  4. I think this movie shows how fragile our reality is. Time can change everything and the tables can turn. This movie also conveys that any kind of xenophobiea is unfair to what is being discriminated against. I think any kind of descrimination to a living thing is bad.

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  5. What was the original plan for this trip to be? A test? To achieve a goal?

    It’s interesting seeing the contrast between a civilized human and an “animal” human.

    It seems that in these xenophobic communities there are the few people who are willing to accept the fear and to take it into their homes. I find that these people are usually attacked by their society and sometimes even killed.

    I really cannot stand people who blatantly refuse to accept what is laid plainly in front of them. Even were it not fact, it doesn’t need to be dismissed as “heresy” or “contempt of court”.

    “Disillusioned - you can’t trust the older generation!” - Lucius

    I mostly agree with the apes - they say the humans are a plague to the world. I think this is true, I’m just upset to say it’s so.

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  6. smoking in space

    space=bottomless
    -squashes man’s ego
    men
    -only characters thus far
    -man = marvel of universe?
    -keep neighbors children starving
    2673- year
    light speed
    - bends time & space

    arrive
    -strange planet
    -Utah
    -were they asleep for a long while?
    Stewart
    -dead on arrival
    -only woman = dead
    leakage
    -space ship is sinking

    in the year 3978

    stranded
    -on alien planet
    - no ship
    - no supplies
    lucky this planet has air?

    weren’t programed to land in water

    had enough sleep to last a while

    enough food and water for 3 days
    -they’re on a lake?
    2031 years old - away from earth 2000years
    -times wiped everything they ever knew out

    crazy guy

    political commentary

    looking for food/life

    barren landscape
    -rain/
    -thunderstorm?
    they have limited food & water
    - not limited cigarettes
    found something
    -

    Never met an ape i did not like

    -horse
    fighting with the apes
    -nets (captured like animals)
    are the apes the more civilized intelligent beings?
    -are the humans just outnumbered?
    xenophobia- “take you hands off me you damn dirty ape”

    Nova- found a person
    -”me Tarzan you Jane”
    - trying to teach language to her
    Humans- caged
    Apes- speak English

    “lots of love making no love”
    “that’s why i left there was no one to hold me there”

    women - still treated as objects
    -theme
    Stewart- “most precious cargo they brought along”
    -woman arent a part of the team
    - there for the mens satisfaction
    non-ape
    -no right
    -disposed of “scientific heresy”
    -defending the “animal” (human)
    -wont let animal talk
    all mighty created the ape in his own image
    -these truths are self evident
    -heresy “study man”
    -evolution
    -’’doesn’t know our culture because he cannot think”
    don’t believe hes a space traveler

    bright eyes-name of man

    heresy
    -no one cares about the human
    - humans don’t really care about things they don’t understand
    -fear what they have troubles understanding
    mythical community
    -earth
    -monster
    -mutant
    -admits there are a nest of mutants
    human
    -occupies lowest level of civilization
    -assumed life cannot exist beyond the forbidden zone
    -a walking menace
    -6hrs to make confession or surgery
    all men look alike to most apes

    the woman and man are escaping

    they only have black horses

    man = monogamous
    -on this planet, it’s easy
    -laaammmeee
    cave
    -human artifacts
    “that was different we thought you were inferior”

    man was there first
    -guardian of the terrible secret
    -apes were not there first
    -” beware the beast man for he is the devils pawn “
    let him not breed in numbers for he will make a desert of his land and yours
    he will murder his brother for the land
    -controversy

    ride off on horseback on the beach... cliche

    haha, adam and eve
    -how earth was inhabited by man
    - we pushed the apes into the jungles
    -inhabited the world


    The planet of the apes movie demonstrates xenophobia through the flipping of the role of humans. By this I mean, instead of being the most advanced beings in great numbers the Apes are and they refuse to accept that the humans were there first or that they were even "advanced" beings. In addition, they were disgusted by the humans saying that they were ugly and strange (also depicting xenophobia). Although, the Apes were right in that for the most part, humans are destructive creatures and were also right to be weary of them and their abilities to lay their surroundings to waste and allow their primitive emotions to kill each other over paltry matters.

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  7. * landed on planet
    * stewart all gross and dead and whatnot
    * crash in water
    o must abandon ship
    * super tiny raft
    * ship sinks
    o trapped on planet
    * only enough food for three days.
    * been away from earth for 2000 years
    * random boulders falling
    * first see monkeys when walking above humans
    * “Scarecrows?”
    * inspection of the scarecrows
    * mr trotter does some turning off of the t v screen
    o fun killer
    * humans stole their clothes when they went swimming
    * monkeys appear on horses with guns
    o appear that they rule over humans
    o monkeys attacking and capturing humans
    * monkeys working on the humans that are hurt
    o very intelligent
    * “man has no understanding”
    * gets vocal abilities back
    * escapes
    o caught
    * finds shipmate
    o operated on brain
    * trial and hearing
    * grant a decree
    o Mythical community
    * “youre a mutant”
    * broken out by nephew
    * “all men look alike”
    * we have guns but wont need them.
    * on the beach
    * “on this planet its eeasy”
    * Lucius is sad. “ parents just don’t understand!!!”
    * Cave represents opportunity
    o change
    * Gunfight
    * Humanity’s nature questioned
    * “never trust anyone over thirty”
    * last scene reveals that he is on earth.
    o statue of liberty
    * End.


    This exhibits xenophobia by the absolute treatment and the attitude of the apes toward humans.

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  8. Humans were far more advanced than the Apes, but somewhere in time the humans managed to wipe themselves out possibly through a widespread plague or maybe they became too reliant on technology and it faltered causeing them to die out. To replace the humans, Apes rose up as the top of the food chain. This pertains to the science fiction we have read because it is just like "The Silk and the Song" where at one point humans were on top but somehow they were replaced by another life form.

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  9. The beginning of the film is full of questions and unknown. The men seem to have many more questions than answers. The crew seems to not understand that everything is reversed. Humans are slaves and hunted on this planet. It seems as if the apes are the superior race and that humans have become inferior. We are used to dominating our planet and this is strange and new to us. Humans are called animals and are being treated like science projects by the apes. Apes have a caste system much like us. “The sooner they are exterminated the better” is said by the orangutan Zaeus describing the humans. It seems like the apes are much more dated technologically than earth humans. Apes evolved from man rather than Man evolving from apes. But this idea is seen as heiracy on the ape planet. The apes seem to be afraid of there being smart humans, especially when Taylor claims to be more advanced than the apes. It is a fear of not knowing what will happen. They do not want the change that it would involve. Zaeus seems to make an excuse for every piece of evidence, at this point it almost is denial of the truth because he is so afraid that he is wrong. He does not know what would happen when the truth comes out. Zaeus admits of his fear of the humans because of his knowledge of their culture, and because of his knowledge he decides it should be a fear of the unknown.

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  10. In the move Planet of the Apes, xenophobia is creatively illustrated. Throughout the majority of the film, apes are xenophobic of humans. But at the end of the movie, during the Statue of Liberty scene, I think the general conclusion is that mans xenophobia of man led to their ultimate demise; xenophobia of different races led to an atomic war.

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  11. The ape knew that man had destroyed itself so based of of that past reference he could not think of humans as a superior race. Planet of the apes displays a very accurate definition of xenophobia. The apes did not trust Taylor even though he could talk and had reasoning. They just classified him along with the other humans and would not hear his reasoning.

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  12. The Planet of the Apes is a perfect example of xenophobia. In that world which we eventually learn is our own world shows a seemingly backwards society. The apes are xenophobic of humans just as someone could argue we are to them. A quote from the movie demonstrates this when the man asks to kiss the ape goodbye and she says that he is so ugly. As humans we show xenophobia because we think that apes are ugly and gross with all their hair but to their minds we might be ugly without hair. The seemingly backwards society just goes to show some of our own stereotypes that we have and how in many ways we are narrow minded.

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  13. This movie displays xenaphobia by using Apes to sumbolize humans. Although we do not take our xenophobia to the extreme level that it was taken to in the movie, it is similar the human xenophobia that we have developed. In some cases this movie to encourage people to maintain their xenophobia, especially in the end of the movie when it shows the Staute of Liberty blown up by the apes. The Statue of Liberty is obviously a great symbol of our country's freedom and acheivment and for the director to show it blown to pieces by a foreign invader could encourage the idea for human to always have their guard up and be very defensive.

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  14. Some relevant quotes that relate to xenophobia are:
    “the problem is not where we are, the problem is when we are”; “if it’s true, they’ll have to accept it”; “what are you afraid of doctor?”; “keep em flying. The flags of discontent”; “I’ve terrified you from the start. You scared of me and you hate me.”; “You may not like what you find”; and “Why must knowledge stand still? What about the future? What will he find out there?”

    The men are searching for something more in their lives, so they went to the new planet. There, the humans are being hunted and killed by the apes...instead of it being the other way around. The apes are fascinated by the new humans...similarly to how humans are fascinated by things they don’t know...Xenophobia! The apes are scared of domesticating man. The powerful apes don’t want to accept anything that is different from their society...xenophobia. Now that the apes realize that he can actually talk, they call him a “freak” because he is different. Also, all the women are view purely as sex objects. Similarly to some today, they are completely against thinking/believing that there are other life forms outside of their planet. They cut up Landon’s brain because they knew that he too was “different/unique” and therefore got rid of the evidence because they were scared of what he could do. They are searching for the truth. The two doctor apes are being tried for heresy because they believe what Taylor says...they aren’t xenophobic and are being punished because of that. The head ape consciously denies what he knows is the truth. Is this mocking the religious system? This movie has a very interesting view on mankind - it is very controversial.

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  15. The film Planet of the Apes probably exemplifies xenophobia better than anything else we've viewed so far. The use of small things like the apes calling the humans "beasts" and the human calling the apes things like "bllody baboon" and "damn dirty apes". This shows that each culture feel like the other is inferior and especially from the ape's side, they are afarid of Taylor because they don't understand him and he is completely different from anything they've ever seen, but both cultures are basically the same.
    -Said head chopped off. Use of old human society
    -Higher classes of apes are intolerant
    -All men look alike to apes
    -”your afraid of me! what are you afraid of!”

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  16. In all the stories, as well as Planet of the Apes, the idea that society is secretive and does not react well to change is shown. In the movie especially, the leaders of the ape society knew all along about the true ending of mankind and chose not to tell the society. The apes then blew up the mine that had evidence for the true existance of man because the apes wished not to change their society. Partly this was because everything was going along smoothly, and why fix something that is not broken? The story Muse also showed this because Leo's dad did not react well to the new "race" of slug-human symbiotes. This lack of want for change is due to a sense of xenophbia. We as humans, or just society in general, do not want to venture out into the unknown because we believe the end result could be catastrophic.

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  17. Planet of The Apes makes me contemplate the concept of xenophobia by the way the apes saw the humans," Man has no understanding, they can only be taught a few simple tricks", this quote made me think about the way we think of animals. Another quote " Human see, human do" this is similar to " Monkey see, monkey do", I thought it was interesting that they used that in the movie. In the end the apes were only trying to protect themselves because Cornelious (the "Head Ape") knew the destructive nature of the humans.

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  18. "The Planet of the Apes" shows xenophobia because the humans would have never known that they were going to get taken over by apes but they were.
    Notes:
    -The time on Earth is different than on the space ship
    -The people in the space ship are landing in a place similar to Earth
    -They were able to travel without aging as much as they traveled
    -They are stuck on this planet and think there is no hope
    -They see some scare crows and they don’t see apes following them
    -Apes are following them and a bunch of other humans with guns on horseback
    -The men from the spaceship get tranquilized and probably have xenophobia towards the apes
    -The apes talk like the humans are animals and that they are dirty and gross carrying communicable diseases...ironic
    -One ape says “human see, human do”
    -The apes can talk and think they are superior and the only intelligent being
    -Are there classifications of apes?
    -Was the movie based on political ideas? Social?
    -The apes don’t think humans are smart at all and they laugh at the thought of humans being domesticated
    -The ape is impressed with a paper airplane
    -The apes can’t accept that there is another intelligent being
    -I think that one of the orangutans is smart and actually knows that humans are intelligent
    -The whole time the planet was Earth but it had been taken over by apes

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  19. I think Planet of the Apes has several different underlying meanings, one of them definitley pertains to xenophobia. The author is trying to flip the roles of humans to show how little we know about "master races" as well as how we treat animals today. We think we're superior to all other beings so we treat them with less respect but really we're all equal only humans are more intellectual. But all animals still feel pain and have emotions.

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  20. This film shows the paradigm shift of humanity. It also shows xenophobia in the way that he is so convinced that this world is foreign that he never thought to think of his world in this state, he is destroyed when he makes this discovery. This film is closely linked to Puppet Show, as both pieces show a paradigm shift and causes the reader/ audience to take a reality check and step back from a first person perspective.

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  21. Planet of the Apes shows a lot of xenophobia because ape is afraid of human and human is afraid of ape so it goes both ways. Some of what the apes say for example "man has no understanding," and "I hate you because you are a man!" shows xenophobia at its worst. The apes know what the humans are possible of but they play it off as humans are inferior, and they act all tough to try to scare the humans. Towards the end of the film Taylor becomes less xenophobic towards the women ape doctor and actually says "kiss me doctor." This shows that if you take the time to explore and learn about the unknown and what you are scared of, you might come to the conclusion that it is not that bad. On the other hand the doctor says back to Taylor "but you are so ugly." This shows that the apes still are not fully giving the humans a chance and they are still skeptical of them.

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  22. I was overall unthrilled with Planet of the Apes. I understand the concept that we have seperated ourselves but i feel that that is a natural process that all life will go through, especially with the fifth criteria of life being organization therefore species will naturally group with their own and try to prove dominance through any social means necessary. Even within species.
    I think my favorite concept from the movie was the question, "WHy must knowledge stand still?" I liked that they played on the idea that knowledge can destroy so much. And socio-politically and socio-economically the guidable are the best voters and consumers. Order is maintained through blindness.

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  23. Throughout this movie, the image of humans to the apes take place of our image of apes. The apes are fearfull of Taylor or Bright Eyes as they called him. Especially Zayus. He denied anything that Taylor had to say and any idea that Taylor had. He denied the truth. This shows xenephobia because he and other apes were fearful of Taylor because he was different than the other humans they had seen.

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  24. Planet of the Apes addressed how humans are so destructive that we ended up destroying ourselves in the future and became second, also how we have a fear of the future. The fear of the future idea came from the quote where Taylor says “still can’t accept it? Time has wiped out everything we knew”. Another fear the movie suggests is that humans should we less afraid of creatures (such as the apes) but rather be afraid of ourselves as a race. So it ties into Xenophobia very well.

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  25. Smoking in a spaceship, really? He isn’t steering or anything, does it have auto pilot. Ok enough of being cynical. So the Earth year was 2673 and it looks like they just crashed. That’s very lucky they hit water. “Stewart didn’t age so well”-Mr. Trotter. The year is 3978 upon landing in lake. “It’s a man…capture that creature” “Take your stinkin paws off me you damn dirty ape” There is a lot of tension between the captain and these apes. I don’t blame him. I would hate being treated the way that he was. It’s surprising how the girl in the jail seems to connect to or even care for the captain regardless of how h seems to not value her as an individual. Maybe this is just the fact that she is not intelligent enough to speak. “Cornelius!!” With two exceptions the apes are closed minded. They fear that the man may be as intelligent or more than them. Why are they so threatened by him? The captain is a really good shot. He didn’t even aim when he shot the ape up on the cliff. The statue of liberty was a good ending. I really never saw that coming. It connects to xenophobia through the concept that many fear knowing where we may have truly come from. The message is to always look at all the evidence and to be careful about those who are fearful and quick to dismiss new ideas

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  26. This story is much like others we've read. It displays xenophobia in reverse, where humans are the frightener. This goes a bit farther and discusses brain capacity.

    movie notes:
    - Chimps are lowest in class, interestingly because they are closest to humans genetically
    -Humans can’t talk or reason, seem even dumber than most animals
    -Is this a message to those who experiment on animals?
    -where did his travel mates go? Probably caught in the hunt
    -Everything is reversed: clothes, speech, manners, living
    - Main difference is that humans don’t hate apes or any other animal, why do apes hate us?
    -is he on another planet or in the past/future
    -apes defense is much less than ours (nets and cages)
    -do the apes ever travel to the forbidden land? What is there?
    -He is interested in the girl even though she can’t talk and shows little emotion. Says a lot about love in human society and need for companionship
    -very futuristic with the time travel and archaic at the same time
    -statue of liberty of course to relate to America, this story doesn’t reflect the world

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  27. The film shows signs of xenophibia due to the roles of humans being flipped due to an event that occurred a long time prior to the happenings of the film. When Taylor asked Zayus why he hates him, he says "because you're a man." this demonstrates that Zayus is intimidated by Taylor just because of his species. The inferior are the most feared in the film more than any other species that appears, which in this case are humans.

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