Power play
History shows that there are two ways to wield power. One is to divide and rule. The other is to join hands and find strength in numbers.
HBO's "Game of Thrones" is a classic example of the divide-and-rule tack. The Emmy-nominated series, due for its second season on Sunday, August 28, 10 p.m., may have been set in a faraway place, at a time when candles still chased darkness away and drawing a sword meant doing the same thing of cowering in fear.
But the story of not one, but many families plotting against each other to claim the throne is as ageless as modern-day senators throwing mud at each other in a game of upmanship.
The story of a brother shamelessly pushing his own sister to marry someone she doesn't love in a brazen attempt to expand his kingdom is as loathsome as a top government official's act of putting a friend in a sensitive post.
"Make him happy," Viserys Targaren (played by Harry Lloyd) orders his scared younger sister Daenerys (newcomer Emilia Clarke). Then, he sends the shaking girl to her hideous-looking lifetime partner Khai Drogo (Jason Momoa) without even a single word of sympathy. The only ace up the guy's sleeve is his menacing army and its promise of immense power.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Power, again, is the buzzword in 20th Century Fox's `Rise of the Planet of the Apes.' But this time, power is used to liberate, not to enslave.
On the surface, the sci-fi film is another fodder for childhood fantasies. You love to coo and cuddle the little chimp Caesar the first time you meet him. But turns out the cuteness factor is just icing on the cake. You find out to your pleasant surprise that to know Ceasar is to love him — and to hate humans who oppress him and his kind.
And that's when you realize with a jolt that "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" pulsates with socio-political commentary. It doesn't preach. It shows — in heart-stopping, gut-wrenching sequences, what true power is all about. And you end up agreeing with Caesar that "alone, one can do nothing, but together, one can do everything," or words to that effect. Humans in whirring helicopters, big guns and speeding police cars be damned.
And surprise, surprise! You end up siding with the apes and condemning many of their human masters when the closing credits start to roll.
The first becomes the last and the last becomes the first. And you don't mind at all. In fact, you end up wanting to do cartwheels in the movie house when you see the supposed masters turning into slaves and the slaves taking commanding their former bosses.
It's a wake-up call for those who think they can get away with murder just because they're smart enough to tinker with test tubes and experiment with chimps.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" shows they cannot. And more importantly, why they should not.
