Charlton Heston must be rolling over in his grave. The new Apes film cast is monkeying around with political statements.
Set to be released on July 14, War for the Planet of the Apes is the third installment in the rebooted franchise. While some denied any intentional parallels to the Trump era, cast members and The Hollywood Reporter said the film eerily mirrors present day politics.
In Carolyn Giardina’s brief review of the film for the Hollywood Reporter, the implications were strong and clear: This movie is “weirdly resonant of the moment,” according to an unattributed quote in the headline.
GIardina said the film: “features a leader with authoritarian tendencies, a refugee crisis, and a giant border wall (that Mexico is not paying for).” Giardina quoted star Woody Harrelson stating that the parallels were pure coincidence, but she didn’t seem convinced.
In Margaret Sutherlin’s article for Variety, the cast members weighed in on the alleged similarities. Actor Andy Serkis, best known for his depiction of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, told the reporter, “Thematically, this film is about empathy, and the perils of our species if we continue to not be empathetic towards other cultures, other people, other species, and the planet.” Bonus for mentioning all the points on today’s liberal agenda. Even more for giving a shout out to climate change.
Steve Zahn, another member of the cast, said “There are so many parallels it’s unbelievable. Immigrants, building walls, tolerance, fear -- our empathy goes away when we are afraid.”
Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers called Woody Harrelson’s villain “a cross between Marlon Brando’s bald-pated nutjob Kurtz in Apocalypse Now and Donald Trump at his most ‘other’-fearing, wall-building fanatical, hell-bent on ape genocide.” Did the President of the United States ever try to incite a genocide in the same way as a fictional Hollywood villain? It seems like the left is trying to over-fantasize their loss and turn it into the bedtime story guaranteed to give only the most sensitive snowflake nightmares. Stay triggered, my friends.
