A Cat of Tindalos

A Cat of Tindalos

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Planet of the Apes

"However, in 1968 came the yardstick against which all other ape-related movies would be measured . . . Planet of the Apes."

"My only niggle is the stereotyping of the apes species. The gorillas as warlike brutes, the duplicitous politician orangs and cute humanist chimps. Anthropological research has shown these analogies couldn’t be further from the truth. The gorilla is a contemplative vegetarian, with a more passive nature than its bulk implies. The orang (my favorite I must say) is so laid back as to be almost horizontal, a cross between a Zen Buddhist and a chilled out, Californian surf dude. I agree with Terry Pratchett’s observation (no stranger to orangs in his Discworld novels) that orangs’ bare a remarkable resemblance to a startled coconut. Ironically, the chimps do have a similarity to humans in that they are cunning and violent and not above using tools to get their way. I recall watching a documentary where a troop of chimps systematically hunted down a small monkey. They then tore it apart and ate it while it was still alive. Talk about nature being red in tooth and claw!"

-Ian Edginton on the 1968 classic film Planet of the Apes (Terra Primate tabletop RPG introduction)


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