Planet Of The Apes (1968)

1968's Planet of the Apes has a running theme of oppression. This theme can tie back to racism or sexism in the US throughout history. But there was a striking difference between the futuristic ape culture and the present human culture. With the apes they had no battles between each other, all practiced one religion and were all equal to each other. With the present human culture we have wars all the time, we have a countless amount of religions and we have an odd social ladder full of superiors and inferiors.

The movie starts with a spaceship and its crew crash landing on a planet "500 Light Years Away From Earth". The men travel through desert and mountainous terrain for three days. They then come across signs of life on this seemingly deserted planet in the form of a waterfall in a rain forest-like area. As they swim around one of the men discover a footprint on the ground. Suddenly, they discover than unknown life forms are stealing their clothes and items they brought with them off the ship. They follow the people into a crop field where they are given clothes and food to eat. Then, these gorillas mounted on horses and they start to capture the humans and bring them back to their little civilization.

During the whole capture scene the main character, George Taylor, gets shot in the neck and needs to be operated on. Because of this he is unable to speak whatsoever. This forces him to not be able to communicate with the apes, who just happen to apeak english. So, they see him as an inferior mute human like all the other humans on the planet.

The rest of the movie is just his journey to escape from the afformentioned "Damned Planet" with his newly aquired girlfriend, Nova. Throughout the movie, Taylor is repeatedly treated as an animal, put in leashes and sprayed with fire hoses.

This confirms my theory about the movie that it shows how humans treat others in the form of differences with inferiors and superiors.