PLANET OF THE APES

US, 2001, 119 minutes, Colour.
Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham- Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, Kerry- Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner, Kris Kristofferson, Charlton Heston.
Directed by Tim Burton.

It is 33 years since Charlton Heston landed on the Planet of the Apes and inaugurated a five film and television series that popularised the idea of showing apes behaving in human ways. This served as a mirror for human behaviour, both good and bad.

This same concept is behind Tim Burton's version of the story. Burton has said that he did not want to do a remake. Rather, he wanted to 'revisit', to 're-imagine' the story.

What Burton is able to use for his re-imagining is a vastly superior technology to that available in the 60s. This includes progress in make-up design and engineering. The actors playing the apes now have more possibilities than merely their voices in creating more subtle characters. Most successful of these is Helena Bonham Carter as Ari, a kind of latter-day human rights campaigner ape who assists the humans in their fight for freedom. David Warner, as her senator father, is also distinctive as is Paul Giamatti doing quite a comic turn as Limbo, a venal slave trader who is forced to accompany the fleeing humans. It is the more serious apes who are hard to distinguish one from the other. They are led by Tim Roth as a power-grabbing, vengeful general. His dying father is played by Charlton Heston himself.

The impact of the original film depended a great deal on the screen presence of Charlton Heston as the marooned space traveller. He is a literally towering figure. In 2001, the hero, Leo Davidson, is much smaller, more ordinary, less certain as he rises to leadership and in the conflict with the apes. He is played by former singer Mark Wahlberg in much more of a lower-key performance.

A major problem with this 'revisit' is that, unlike the original, the astronaut, Leo Davidson, stays less than twenty four hours in the city of the apes before the escape. This means that while we see the slave market for selling humans and a banquet at the senator's house, we feel we have not had enough time to understand this ape civilisation and how it works. It is clearly holding up a mirror to contemporary human behaviour: militarism and human rights, class distinctions and the arrogance of the wealthy chattering classes, treatment of other species. There are discussions whether humans have a soul. But this is quickly left behind for the more spectacular sequences of the flight of the humans and the pursuit of the apes. These include an escape through the apes' encampment of red tents which are soon ablaze as well as a Braveheart-like confrontation and battle.

Another film that comes readily and often to mind which also shows a leader taking a ragtag group to safety through the desert is Mad Max 2. The surprise ending of the original with the planet revealed to be a destroyed Earth cannot be repeated here. There is an alternate which offers a momentary shock.

Planet of the Apes gives its audience something to think about but, with the emphasis on action, it sometimes seems rather slight.

1. Tim Burton intending to revisit and re-imagine the original film? The original in its time? The '60s, society, domination, rebellion? The apes as a mirror of the humans? War, servitude, humiliation of species? The irony of the Statue of Liberty at the end and the Planet of the Apes being America?

2. The new imagination and revisiting? The locations and sets and decor? The apes and their society, city, military tents...? The makeup for the apes? Outer space, time-travel? The battles? The final arriving back to Earth and the revelation about Washington, DC? The musical score and its militaristic tone - with synthesiser style?

3. The title, the focus, the relationship between apes and humans? The mirror images and the commentary on human behaviour? The animal in humans? The dignity in animals? The perceptions of 2001, a message for the beginning of the 21st century?

4. The use of time-travel - its possibility, time dimensions, travelling through space 1000 years in a few moments, seeing the results of initial behaviour, the 1000-year development? The return to the present and the time-warp changes? Alternate worlds?

5. The opening: the ape in the spaceship, Leo training him, the members of the crew, the training regime for the apes? The apes and their capacity for understanding? The cosmic clouds? The storms? Sending Pericles out, losing contact with him, Leo disobeying orders and going by himself, the storm, losing contact with the Oberon, landing on what he thought was Earth - and the indicator of the years passing in the spaceship?

6. The crash landing, the lake, his emerging from the water, the humans and the apes, the pursuit by the apes, the humans in servitude? Leo having to adjust his mentality? The intervention, his being pursued with the humans, the skill of the apes, the round-up, the imprisonment?

7. The presentation of the City of the Apes, the blend of more mediaeval-like civilisation and the lack of technology with the jungle? The homes, manners, the social institutions? The focus on the humans as slaves, the slave market, Limbo and his mirroring the human slave traders? The irony, the humour, his own cowardice? The intervention of Ari and her sympathy for human rights? The parallels with animals rights protesters? The buying of the two humans and taking them to her home?

8. Ari's home, the senator and his position in society? The preparation of the banquet, the humans working in the kitchen? Leo and the humiliation, taking the knife, being dominated by the apes? Serving the banquet? The guests, the chatter at the banquet mirroring high society discussing holiday homes, social situations, snobbery? Thade and his arrival, his behaviour at the slave market, the hostility towards Leo looking at him? Yet his infatuation for Ari? His relationship with the senator? Dominating him?

9. The preparations for the escape, Leo and his leadership, rounding the group up, freeing the slaves, Daena and her father, Karubi, the young boy, the servants? Ari and her assistant Krull going with her? Their taking Limbo? The reaction of the apes in fear in the various rooms as they passed by?

10. The flight into the night, going back to the lake, diving for the equipment, the apes fearing that they would drown because they couldn't swim? Daena and her challenge? Leo showing them the equipment to make a rendezvous with the spaceship? Their going through the jungle, the pursuit by Thade and the apes? Their arriving at the military camp, Leo deciding to move through it at night, taking the horses, burning the tents, Ari falling and his rescuing her, taking her through the water?

11. Thade and his decisions, his hostility towards the humans, ruthless, fascist? His persuading the senator that he should have unlimited power? The pursuit, his reliance on Attar as his friend and henchman? Attar's utter devotion? The pursuit, watching the group go through the river?

12. The group finding the spaceship, the irony of the 1000 years passing? The information from the screen? The solution of the mysteries, the origin of apes' intelligence, Simosa and his wiping out the humans? Setting the ape dynasty in motion? The scene with Thade visiting his father? The explanation of the tradition, the family keeping power, his father's death? His ruthlessness?

13. The setting up of the battle, Leo and the fuel for detonation? The humans hiding behind the spacecraft? The front line, the young boy - and his horse falling on him and his having to be rescued by Leo? The first wave of the apes running and attacking, pursuing Leo, the explosions and their being stunned? The battering of the apes by the humans? Thade and his impatience, sending the next wave in?

14. The timely arrival of Pericles in the spacecraft? Hand in hand with Leo? The reaction of the apes, the reaction of the humans? The possibility of co-existence? Thade pursuing Leo into the spacecraft? The battle between the two, the gun and his father's advising him about weaponry? Thade menacing with the gun, Leo trapping him behind the plate-glass and his firing, his finally cowering in defeat?

15. Leo and his decisions to leave, the affection for Ari? For Daena? His decision to go back home?

16. Ari, the humanitarian, her servant? The leniency of her father? Concerned about slaves, non-violence? An idealist and pacifist? Her helping them to leave, going with them, the fear of water, her being branded with the human symbol? The farewell?

17. Daena, the attraction towards Leo, his leaving her behind?

18. Thade and Attar - power, control, militarism? Attar and his seeing the truth about Thade and his rebelling against him after the confrontation with Krull?

19. The range of characters of the apes and their "aping" humans? The humans and their animal-like behaviour?

20. Leo and his return to Earth, Washington, the Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln as an ape, the parody of the police squads arriving and the police all being apes? The irony of the ending?

21. The film as a contemporary parable about human behaviour, power, inter-species relationships, humans becoming more truly human?