Lawgiver

From The Sacred Scrolls

The Lawgiver

Actor	John Huston
Gender	Male
Race	Orangutan
Born
Died
Continuity	Movies
Appearances
First Appearance: Battle for the Planet of the Apes Last Appearance: Battle for the Planet of the Apes

The Lawgiver was mentioned and quoted in the first two Apes movies of the series, but only appeared in the final Apes film, 1973's Battle for the Planet of the Apes, played by actor-director John Huston. In Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes the Lawgiver's writings and quotes formed the basis of the apes' system of laws and customs, particularly with regard to humans, whom the Lawgiver had declared "the devil's spawn", to be shunned and driven out, if not destroyed outright. Statues of the Lawgiver were common around Ape City; when the gorilla army saw a vision of such a statue bleeding, they paniced, showing their regard for this icon.

By the time the Lawgiver appeared at the beginning and end of Battle in a flash-forward to the year 2670, the children he addressed (as he narrated the story of Caesar) were a mix of both humans and apes; the joint society Caesar ultimately promoted appeared to have succeeded, and instead of condemning humans, the Lawgiver had accepted them as his students.

[edit] Notes

Writing the story outline for Battle.. (then named Epic of the Planet of the Apes), John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington were more explicit in their view on the altered timeline than in anything that appeared on-screen: the prologue and epilogue of the movie are set in 2670 A.D.; the Lawgiver is now benevolent towards humans (as opposed to the anti-human fanatic suggested in Planet.. and Beneath..) - "this difference is due to alterations of that historical track which we have seen worked out in previous films...these changes in ape history are due primarily to the influence of Caesar on apes and humans".
The early scripts for Battle suggested that The Lawgiver should resemble Virgil, perhaps to indicate his ancestry.
Malibu Comics' Planet of the Apes comics, revealed that it was Jacob, son of Virgil, who wrote the highly damning passages of the 'Sacred Scrolls'.
Marvel Comics original Apes story Terror On The Planet Of The Apes included a 'first Lawgiver' as head of the city, suggesting there may have been more than just one Lawgiver, thus making it a title of authority in ape society, given to only the holder of one specific and powerful office. MR Comics' Ape Shall Not Kill Ape included a confrontation between two rival Lawgivers - Greybeard and Augustus.

[edit] Trivia

A Lawgiver statue from 'Planet of the Apes'

The character of the Lawgiver, as originally depicted in the first and second movies, was based on Haristas from the original novel - a revered ape from "thousands of years ago" whose dogma is challenged by some of the chimpanzee characters.
There is a strong possibility that Joe Wong's image from early costume tests for Planet of the Apes was used as the model for the Lawgiver statues featured in that movie, which would have been designed around that time.
An earlier draft script for Battle written by Paul Dehn included details of Zeno, an orangutan member of the ape council who holds the balance of power between the chimp faction led by Pan, and the gorilla faction led by Aldo. A conspiracy between Zeno and Aldo ultimately leads to them killing Caesar and becoming joint rulers, Zeno becoming the Lawgiver depicted in Planet and Beneath.
The scenes with the Lawgiver in Battle were originally written (by Dehn) for the final scene of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, where a group of children are being tought about how the armies of gorillas and mutants were all killed and how Taylor brought peace and harmony to all the survivors in the 47 years before his death. The teacher is a chimpanzee and the children are human. One very inquisitive boy is called 'Taylor', after their society's founder. It seems fair to assume that this is where the proposed Hybrid Child character would have appeared - the final evidence of the harmony that has been established. This ending was removed when Charlton Heston and Richard D. Zanuck decided to kill the characters of Taylor, Brent and Nova and have the entire planet destroyed.
The final shot of the statue of Caesar shedding a tear was deliberately vague - the first Corrington outline seemed to suggest it was because of ape and human children fighting, and Dehn, writer of the earlier treatments and of the previous three movies stated that the tear on the statue of Caesar at the end of the film was to tell the audience that Caesar's efforts would ultimately fail.^[1] The released version of the movie, though, could also interpret Caesar's tear as a tear of joy at the human/ape integration that he achieved.