Watched The Planet of the Apes (1968) before address the questions below and made careful note of its plot, its characters and its dialogue:
1. As usual students are welcomed to first give their thoughts on Planet of the Apes (1968) before reading the scholarly texts on it and answer the following prompts: Was this your first time seeing the movie? If so what did you think of it? Did you like it? Why? Did you dislike it? Why? If this was not your first time seeing it when did you first see it? What impression did it have on you then? What impression does it have on you now?
2. Be sure you are familiar with the film's major characters including George Taylor, Zira, Cornelius and Dr. Zaius, Also Lucius and Nova. What do you make of these characters? Who was your favorite? Who did you most identify with? Who is the "hero" (or possibly even heroine) of this movie? Is there one? What about the villain? Most would say Dr. Zaius is the film's villain, but is he really?
3. In the Preface, Greene starts out by explaining why he wrote Planet of the Apes as American Myth. What was his reason? How Greene's are reasons similar to Joshua Bellin's from his book Framing Monsters?
4. In the Preface, what does Greene say about the relationship between movies and politics? How do we usually think about this relationship? How does Greene want us to think about it?
5. The Planet of the Apes films are all based on what?
6. In this book Greene will be discussing the first five Planets of the Apes movies made between 1968 and 1973. In the Introduction, what social issue does Greene say all five Planets of the Apes movies focus on? What distinguishes the last three films in this series from first two?
7. What three questions about the Planet of the Apes films does Greene pose in his introduction? What are his answers for them?
8. What role do apes play in Western science and science-fiction according to Greene? Have you previously encountered any ideas similar to this in our discussions so far this semester? According to Greene - and as we have already discussed - what is the downside of the ape's inherent liminality?
9. Greene notes that while writing this books the question he was most frequently asked was whether or not the filmmakers intended the Planet of the Apes movies to be racial allegories. Why does Greene say this may be the least important question one can ask? What is argument against asking this question?