In The Darkrnhy George McCartneyrnThe School of SavageryrnThe 1968 film Planet of the Apes wasrnbased on b’rench novelist Pierre Boulle’srn196^ Swiftian satire. On sereen, thernadaptation beeame a wildly popular and,rnnot coincidcntallv, satirically tamer narratirne.rnThe moie resembles an expandedrnTwilight “Lone episode. That’s not surprising:rnRod Serling worked on thernsereenpla’. Charlton Heston plays an astronautrnwhose roeket takes a wrong turnrnand somehow passes through the spaeetimerneontinuum to crash on Earth in therndistant future. There, he discovers thatrnapes ha e gained control of the planetrnand made humans their slaves. Once established,rnthe conceit of a species-dominancernsvsitch enabled the movie to deplorna series of arch parallels to the “realrnworld” issues of the late 60’s, the kind ofrngroaners that Serling could never resist:rnman’s inhumanit)’ to man, frachous racernrelations, small-minded xenophobia, therndangers ol high-tech weaponry, etc. Allrnof this was allegorized through ape makeup.rnWhere, the film demanded to know,rnwas the line between civilization and savager?rnPlanet of the Apes became a huge success,rnspawning four sequels and a televisionrnserial. Vh ? It’s the Star Trek phenomenon.rnFilms like these inhabit thernsententious end of the sci-fi spectrum.rnThe appeal to Americans’ two basicrnneeds: moral uplift and bargain .savings.rnYou can w atch them for fun and feel edifiedrnat the same fime—an irresistible hvofor-rnone deal.rnI’im Burton’s new Planet of the Apesrnwants to walk the same profitable moralrnline while being self-corrsciously cool.rnThis h ()-traek strateg)’ doesn’t work. Burtonrnironizes iiis narrative until he loses allrncontrol of it. Serling believed in the moralrnpurpose of his project; Burton does not.rnLame as they were, Serling’s anachronisticrnreferences to contemporar)- concernsrnwere meant to surprise us into moral reflection;rnBurton’s merely invite us to indrdgernin superior snickering. Considerrnvhat passes for wit in Burton’s film. Hernhas one sensitive ape—played with simianrndelicacy by Helena Bonham C a r t e r -rnplead for lunnan riglits, only to be re-rnPlanet of the ApesrnProduced and distributed byrn20th Century FoxrnDirected by Tim BurtonrnScreenplay by William Broyles, jr,rnfrom Pierre Boulle’s novelrnGhost WorldrnProduced by Capitol Films, UnitedrnArtists, and John MalkovichrnDirected by Terry ZwigoffrnScreenplay hy Daniel Clowesrnwith Terry ZwigoffrnReleased bv MGM-UArnbuffed with the old racist canard: “I Iov-,”rnlier father asks impatiently, “can you tellrnone from tiie otiier?” Wlien an orangutanrnwho sells humans into slaei” finds himselfrncornered by armed humans, he w him-rn]?crs Rodney King-style, “Can’t we all justrnget along?” Later, a fascist chimp declares,rn”Extremism in the defense of apes is nornvice.” These jokey references make it impossiblernfor the audience to suspend disbeliefrnWlien the film tries to shift into arnrousing adventure mode, we’re left behind.rnNo matter how ferociously staged,rnthe battles between the species leave usrnunmoved. Wdiat can be at stake in a ston’rnthis eamp?rnStill, there are things to enjo’ here.rnBurton’s narrative skills may be w eak, butrnhe knows how to hypnotize us isually.rnThe apes’ tree-house villages look absolutelyrnconvincing. The costumes andrnmakeup are flawless. We may not believernthe story, but it’s difficult to dovd:)trnthat we are in the presence of thinking,rntalking apes. There is only one distractingrnlapse in verisimilitude: Carter wearsrnmascara and lipstick over her ape mask. Irnsuppose this was meant to give her femininernappeal so that we wouldn’t be entirelyrndisconcerted when she makes evesrnat Mark Wahlberg, who plays the Hestonrnrole. No doubt, Peter Singer would approvernof such interspecies romance.rnAs the fascist chimpanzee CeneralrnThade, Tim Roth does hest. He plays hisrnrole as one extended acting exercise, doingrna chimp version of Richard III. As hernsidles stoopingly into their presence, thernother apes cringe, their eyes wideningrnfearfully. He sniffs at them stertorously,rnpawing at their shoulders with ambiguousrnprimate gestures. Does he mean tornpreen the fleas from their fur or to throttlernthem? Roth is menace incarnate.rnWlien he’s on screen, you fullv believe inrnhis danger. He’s the one steel beam,rnhowever twisted, in an otherwise papiermachernconstruction.rnPaul Ciamatti is also exceptional asrnthe orangutan slave trader, and he gets torndeliver the one gennineh’ comic line inrnthe film. As he strikes a deal to sell arnthree-year-old girl to an ape family, hernwarns them to get rid of the pet before itrnreaches puberty: “The one thing yourndon’t want in your house is a humanrnteenager.”rnAs if to prove the monkey right, TerryrnZwigoff, in his ingenious adaptationrnof Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel. GhostrnStory, gives us teenagers in malodorousrnbloom.rnWe first meet the 17-year-old principals,rnEnid (Thora Birch) and Rebeccarn(Scarlett Johannson), at their high-schoolrngraduation, each flaunting a disdainfullyrncurled lip at the proceedings. They practicallyrngag when the valedictorian announcesrnthat “high school is like therntraining wheels for the bicycle of realrnlife.” Unlike this cheerful optimist, thevrndon’t see anything particularly real aheadrnof them. As a result, the’re disaffected,rnsifllcn, aimless, and randomly mischievous.rnIn another, saner age, flieir adolescentrnnihilism would be insufferable —rnand Zwigoff acknowledges this. Herndoesn’t take the conventional route ofrnturning these girls into soulful teens martyredrnby insensitive adults. He insists,rnhowever, that their response to contemporaryrneiflture is not entirely Linwarranted.rnThese girls may not be geniuses, butrnthey’re perceptive enough to recognizernthe emptiness of the life that America hasrnprepared for them. They want out butrnfind themselves arrested in a state ofrnfrozen petulance. They can’t quite figurernout where to go or what to do.rnThe studio thought police must havernbeen asleep at the switch during the makingrnof this bracingly acerbic film.rnZwigoff openly mocks a gamut of contemporaryrnheroes —including pro-abortionrnlobbyists and hypocritical diversit)’rnOCTOBER 2001/55rnrnrn