The Evolution ofPlanet of the Apes:Science, Religion, and 1960s Cinema

Abstract

Planet of the Apes confronts and exposes both anti-authoritarian and politically conservative attitudes to religion and its relationship to advances in science in the United States at the end of the 1960s. The film explicitly questions religion and its position within government, scientific advancement, and education while simultaneously existing as an artefact of the Judeo-Christian infused culture of post-war United States and post-censorship Hollywood. This article uses the lens of science and religion to analyze the under-researched Planet of the Apes and the transformation of its scientific narrative throughout the film's production, dissemination, and reception history from novel, to script, to screen.

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“…The changes in the narrative caused primarily by production budget restriction and fears of box office failure led to Planet of the Apes becoming a satirical film about the state of United States at the end of the 1960s. 19 The original source text, Pierre Boulle's La Planéte des Singes (1963) depicts a world where humans had gradually grown dependent on apes, a slave class that rises to a position of power while the humans descend. The scriptwriters for the movie instead focused on Cold War anxieties of nuclear annihilation and connected them to a plot showing an alternate evolutionary pathway where apes evolved instead of humans.…”