The Fredösphere

How often do you find choirs in Sci-Fi?  I know of one memorable case, memorable because of its awe-inspiring goofiness and offensiveness.  I'm talking about Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Our intrepid time-traveling humans have found the talking apes of the future hostile and have escaped into the Fobidden Zone.  Therein lies the ruins of a New York City ravaged by a nuclear bomb blast.  Underneath the city, they find a remnant human civilization so advanced they use telepathy (although they seem not to have the whole Lasik eye surgery thing figured out yet).  The humans are hardly more simpatico than the apes; their whole society is organized around a sick worship of an atomic warhead.  It is the culture of death ne plus ultra.  When the apes attack the underground city and begin killing all the humans, the warhead is detonated, poisoning the whole planet and destroying all life.  This ending was proposed by Charlton Heston, in the vain hope that it would prevent any more sequels.  (Three more movies were made, each with a budget smaller than the last, for a total of five.  Ah, the simianity!) Our concern is the bizarre worship service near the end of the movie.  Much of what is present is famiar -- gothic arches, a pipe organ, pews, even the words are almost what you would expect:  "the heavens declare his handiwork ...there is no speach or language where his voice is not heard...Praise him!  Praise him!" but this is a warhead we're talking about:

Glory be to the bomb And to the holy fallout.

This is supposed to be offensive and shocking and full of penetrating social commentary.  One out of three ain't bad, I guess.

The nuclear blast melted the rock, but left the organ console unharmed.

Well, this post is running long, so I'll end here.  We have the background information we need.  Coming soon:  Choir Music of the Future!  And everyone is bald!

Labels: PlanetOfTheApes