War for the Planet of the Apes: A Faceless Doll and a Nameless Girl

Faceless dolls interest me. And faceless is the doll we find in Matt Reeve‘s War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) co-written with Mark Bomback. That a rag doll without facial features is central to the story is an interesting decision on the filmmakers’ part. In the original Planet of the Apes (1968) the doll that is discovered by Dr. Cornelius in the cave near the Forbidden Zone has a face, blonde hair, and speaks: “MA-MA.” Also, in that first film the doll becomes key evidence that humans once spoke. In War the doll’s function is quite different.

 

My own doll collection consists of about a dozen Dominican Muñecas Limé.  They are hand-painted dolls each with a unique dress and skin tones ranging from chocolate color to pale pink, but none have facial features. In their own way, these dolls celebrate the Caribbean’s multi-ethnicity and leave beauty up to the beholder’s imagination. Also, faceless dolls reflect other new world traditions like those of the Amish who strongly believe in equality and in the Biblical prohibition: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” Moreover, among Native Americans, faceless corn husk dolls reflect the legend of a beautiful doll that is punished for her vanity by the Great Spirit who tells her that if “she kept thinking that she was better than everyone else a terrible punishment would come upon her.” 

 

In War, Maurice becomes one of Caesar’s traveling companions and it is Maurice who hands a faceless doll to a girl who the group of apes discovers cowering in a bed. When the girl attempts to speak, she cannot. Also, it is Maurice who saves the girl’s life when he refuses to abandon her. Caesar says,“We cannot take her, Maurice.” To which Maurice signs, “I understand, but I cannot leave her.” Maurice is compassionate plus has the powers of reasoning and language. And that would have been enough to consider him human by the18th century physician, Julien Offray de la Mettrie (1709-1751) who in Man a Machine (L’Homme Machine, 1748)  wrote that apes if taught to speak, “would no longer be a wild man, nor a defective man, but he would be a perfect man, a little gentleman.” Mettrie also asks: “What was man before the invention of words and the knowledge of language?”

 

Other humans and apes might have the power of language in War, but Maurice is the most humane character and acts as a mother to the dis-abled girl, even naming her Nova. In the midst of her own transformative journey, Nova manages to communicate with Maurice to ask him about her new identity: “Me ape?” As the husk doll of Native American tradition, Nova sheds her layers of species-centric vanity. She accepts apes as equals, but do apes accept her? It’s a slow process, fraught with pain, fear, and suspicion, but eventually, Caesar does say: “She is one of us.” Think again of the Dominican faceless dolls, now icons of racial integration, but their production did not start until the 1980s and racial mixing in the Caribbean began over 500 years ago. Unfortunately, concerning issues of race, we are all moving too slowly.

 

Nova’s (d)e-volutionary character becomes as symbolical as a “faceless” doll. Nova is really the only female character in a very male/military-dominated story. And if not face-less, she is name-less and voice-less and has been banished to the margins of the society that still exists. Moreover, she would be summarily exterminated if she were to fall in the hands of the aggressive patriarchal group led by the Colonel who states: “There are times when it is necessary to abandon our humanity to save humanity.”

 

Some have noted that War does not include any scenes where at least two female and named characters are alone on screen and talk about something else other than men. That is, the film does not pass the Bechdel Test. And when Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) was released, Dr. Susan Block pointed out the lack of female characters in that film and noted that if there had been any female bonobos among the ape community they would “soon set the guys straight on all the gratuitous murder and mayhem that ensues.”

 

In spite of the lack of female characters and the mayhem of War for the Planet of the Apes, I found this film to have a feminine side to it. Not only is Maurice mothering to Nova, but the apes as a group are intent on saving their offsprings. Also, Nature appears in all its splendor, at first in the lushness of the forest, then in the snow-covered mountains, and especially in the scene of the tree that blooms with delicate pink flowers in spite of the cold as if to say: “Don’t forget, Nature’s life-giving force is here for you when you are ready.” Also, the natural, calming palette created by DP Michael Seresin evokes Mother Nature’s presence. After all the apes’ journey takes them from the city to nature’s heart symbolized by a valley with a lake. On the contrary, man’s journey has gone totally off nature’s track and does not end well.

 

If you want to go see a film filled with senseless, graphic violence, this is not the one for you. But if you like sci-fi that thoughtfully explores our fears of losing our centrality on the stage of our planet and delves into key issues of humanity, then War for the Planet of the Apes is for you.