**Warning: Contains Spoilers**
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is an important lesson in conflict masquerading as an entertaining large-scale adventure. On a basic level, the story is about humans Vs apes but many of the themes surrounding war and conflict can be seen in countries around the world today.
As the humans and apes collide in the film, both desperate to protect their own, the different approaches by those on both sides show us just how easily fear and resentment can lead to war – and there are many things we can learn from this intelligent piece of cinema.
At the start of the film, when the humans arrive, a human gets scared and shoots an ape. This single event could easily have led to all-out war, if it wasn’t for the calm and measured leadership of Caesar, the ape in charge of the camp. Despite the panic, fear and need for revenge triggered by this event, he manages to keep the camp together. There’s so much respect for him that even the ape whose son was shot stand by him.
Koba, Caesar’s right-hand ape, is not quite so happy to go along with this fragile peace. Painted out to be the bad guy of the film, Koba is hell-bent on starting a war with the humans, no matter what it costs the ape population. Yet, the lack of compassion found in him is hardly surprising, given all that the humans have done to him over the course of his life.
This more tolerant approach from Caesar means that Koba goes from questioning his leader to flat-out going above his head. This is largely because he sees Caesar working with the humans as a sign of weakness. There is no grey area for Koba. You either care for the apes or the humans. You cannot do both.
Of course, Caesar knows that if he doesn’t help the humans, their desperation will lead to war anyway, so he is working with them in the hope of avoiding a war that will surely damage the apes as much as the humans.
Sticking with your own kind is a theme that runs throughout the film, with the divide clear between the two camps. In one of the most poignant moments of the film, Caesar tells his son, Blue Eyes, that the fighting Koba has started is his own fault, because he put his trust in Koba simply because he was an ape. Acknowledging this to his son is clearly difficult for him but it seems then that he realises just how much your actions define who you are rather than your “kind”.
The issue of judging the collective rather than the individual is one that especially resonates with DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. While many of the apes and humans in the story are seeing only “humans” or “apes”, it takes the small few to see past that and look for the individual.
Fear makes them follow, Blue Eyes tells his father, and the truth of that continues to the end of the film, as humans and apes follow the leader they believe to be the strongest link. On the human side, Gary Oldman is led to desperate measures because he believes the apes are just “animals” who cannot be reasoned with, missing the point entirely that the humans are acting in the exact same way. When Caesar is talking with his son, he also acknowledges that he has realised just how alike the two species truly are and this is shown throughout the film, with many aspects mirrored in both camps, from the family dynamic to the need for a leader in times of crisis.
One of the most tragic elements of the whole film is the idea of blame and forgiveness. One of the human team is quite content to blame the apes for killing off so many of the human population, as though they had any power over the virus which has spread its way across the globe. In his mind, it is their fault the human race is in the state they are and they should be made to pay. Koba, of course cannot forgive the humans because all he has ever learned from them is hatred.
The two human and ape leaders spend the whole film developing a bond of trust between them and it gives the audience hope that a peace will be achieved, that the humans and apes will learn to work together, to respect and understand each other – as they have.
Yet, Caesar is a very smart ape and knows that the point of peace has passed. Humans will not forget, he says, and he will not allow his apes to go back to the caged lives they lead before. The only option left to him – much as it may pain him to do it – is to continue what Koba started.
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is available now to buy digitally and on Blu-ray and DVD.
