The Planet of the Apes franchise has lasted more than four decades, and is rebooted in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. But what do the Apes films tell us about humankind?

Cinema has long enjoyed a love affair with apes. In the 1930s, King Kong battled biplanes atop the Empire State Building, while Tarzan teamed up with Cheeta in the jungle.

A chimp caused comic chaos for Cary Grant in Monkey Business, and Clint Eastwood co-starred with Clyde the orangutan in Every Which Way But Loose (and its sequel).

There were also Gorillas in the Mist, Mighty Joe Young, Amy the talking gorilla in Congo, and the man-apes at the start of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But one of the most memorable scenes in simian cinema is the first glimpse of a gorilla on horseback in the 1968 classic, Planet of the Apes.

A gorilla on horseback, in a military uniform is holding a gun.

"The great thing about the Apes mythology is it's all about us and our world," says Rupert Wyatt, director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

"That scene turns the world upside down. It taps into our most primal fears. It introduces the idea of a world where we are not alpha."

Wyatt's origins story - set in present-day San Francisco - comes 10 years after Tim Burton's critically unloved remake of Planet of the Apes, which starred Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Roth.

The Planet of the Apes phenomenon started with Pierre Boulle's original 1963 novel. The 1968 film - starring Charlton Heston spawned four sequels, as well as a 1970s live-action TV series and a cartoon.

But the Planet of the Apes films weren't just about gun-toting gorillas. As with much science fiction, there was subtext.

"They appear to be about apes, but they are really about people," says Rich Handley, founder of Hasslein Books and author of Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes (2010) and Timeline of the Planet of the Apes (2008).

"They hold a mirror up to us and the mirror has two reflections, neither of which is very flattering.

"In the first film you've got humans who are reduced to mindless savages, and intelligent apes that are literally aping human behaviour and doing just as bad a job of it: they've still got prejudices, religious dogmatism and military paranoia."