“Planet of the Apes” is, an excellent indicator of social norms in the time in which it was produced.  The film is deeply embedded in national fears, American fantasies, and the loss of normality.  Through a science fiction film, viewers are given a vantage point into the world of the 60’s and 70’s – the defined place of women in society, the fear of an upset of American values, an alteration in the unchanging daily nuances that society so heavily relies on.

Perhaps the most direct comparison to be drawn is between the society of apes that has taken control in the film, and the omnipresent American fear of invasion (at the time, the manifested fear of communism).  The entire society is overturned by this new order, so different from their own world.  It is important to note that societal fears of the time were connected less to the idea of an invading people and more to a fear of invading ideas.  The apes are abstract enough to be able to embody this idea, this fear more directly than say, a film about one country invading another.  Strangely, the apes become a more complete reflection of the public’s normative fears.

The film also makes a statement about the place of women in society at the time.  At the start of the film, we are presented with a crew including both men and women.  Quickly however, the woman is killed off, allowing instead her male counterpart to survive and to experience this new world. Nova, the central female character in the novel, is mute and essentially dependent on the men around her for her survival.  To be fair, the human men being kept in captivity are similarly dependent, but even upon her release, Nova must still be subservient to Charlton Heston for the duration of the film.  Even within this new world where all order has seemingly been inverted, women are still expected be dependant on males for their wellbeing and survival.

If, somehow, by the end of the film the viewer did not pick up on the connections between the film and the state of the general American consciousness, the final scene illustrates it perfectly.  As Taylor comes upon the shattered statue of liberty, he is seeing the destruction of all the norms of the American way of life – he is seeing a physical manifestation of the American fear of loss of national identity.

I cannot help but interpret this final scene as an almost deprecating comment on Americans as a whole.  The viewer is asked to consider if an utter upset of the national fantasy of the time would result in a destruction of our innate “Americaness”.  Could America maintain the same level of unity under a different ideal?  Or would our sense of nationality crumble under the pressure this change?  The crumbling state of liberty leads me to believe that the creators of the film held little faith in people’s ability to maintain a sense of “Americaness” with the alteration of a national fantasy.  When ideals change, what was once considered to be a concrete truth can crumble at a touch.