Damn you all to hell !
In the year 1968, two movies came out that changed modern day science-fiction films forever – Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey has been the most celebrated out of the two (and my all-time favourite movie), but Planet Of The Apes stands on its own ground and has become a classic that is universally acclaimed. The original Planet Of The Apes is still far superior to any of the sequels and remakes that has been subsequently made.
Planet Of The Apes is based on a 1963 French novel, La planete des singes, by Pierre Boulle, most famous as the author of La pont de la riviere Kwai (1952), which became the 1957 film The Bridge On The River Kwai.
Rod Serling did the first drafts of the screenplay, simplifying the plot by fitting it into the mold of his Twilight Zone TV series and introducing an anti-nuclear war theme not present in the Boulle novel. Because of budget constraints the modern ape civilization had to be reduced to a less technological one, something more reminiscent of ancient Greece. In fact, after Michael Wilson was brought in to do the final script drafts what emerged was a political allegory more akin to an Aesop fable than a Voltairian satire.
Charlton Heston was the perfect choice to play the arrogant and dislikable American astronaut George Taylor, where he, and his doomed colleagues, find themselves stranded on a distant planet where it seems to be inhospitable with no life. However, after travelling throughout the place they discover that man’s role as the superior life form has been reversed with the apes.
As simians, Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter, as Cornelius and Zira, and Maurice Evans, as Dr. Zaius, enjoy some of the best performances on the screen, bringing the then-innovative makeup design of John Chambers to life under the intelligent and stylish direction of Franklin J. Schaffner. Also excellent is veteran cinematographer Leon Shamroy’s Panavision lensing, which makes great use of remote areas of southern Utah around Lake Powell to suggest an alien world, and Jerry Goldsmith’s avant-garde musical score, which has become a landmark, cannot be emphasised more for contributing to the eerie mood of the movie. Rarely has a movie score so fit like hand-in-glove than this one.
Once Hestons’ character, Taylor, is captured by the apes his mere existence throws the existing order of ape society into disorder. Their sacred texts do not allow for the evolution of ape from man, and they often speak of man being brutish, untamable beasts. Taylor, who would have agreed with Dr. Zaius in the beginning if talking about humanity as a whole, must fight the idea that he is of that same race, prone to the same violence. He always wanted to be apart from humanity, giving him the reason for his deep space adventure in the beginning, but faced with the reality that he’s being judged for humanity’s failings and he’s going to pay for them, he has to fight back and stick up for the humanity he ran from.
So, Taylor has made his defense of humanity at an archaeological site that showed ancient humanity’s advances over ape, and he walks away still confident of his race’s superiority. Dr. Zaius immediately has the site destroyed, confident of his own beliefs in humanity’s faults and that Taylor would find the truth of humanity’s history out there beyond the Forbidden Zone.
Of course the ending is justly famous where Taylor promptly discovers his destiny, and the truth. Man is indeed the harbinger of death, and by the megaton. The final image is laden with symbolism, and the scene is a visual scream.
Today, the film’s makeup may pale in comparison to the performance capture of the recent reboot movies but in terms of performances, script, wit and audacity, the original film towers over them all.
The film was a box office smash in 1968, but if ever there was a movie that was more a victim of its own success it’s this one. Four sequels, two TV series, numerous novelizations and comic book adventures, a lamentable remake in 2001 and a reboot in 2011 have been spawned by its popularity, most of which has been so inferior in quality to have tarnished the reputation of this classy, intelligent and superbly made science fiction landmark film.
Planet Of The Apes really has stood the test of time, and it’s not because it has some memorable quotes or a great twist ending. It’s well anchored by a great central character and journey, elevated by Charlton Heston giving a surprisingly committed performance whilst dressed in rags. It explores its themes of racism, class structure, animal abuse, tribalism, genocide and religion with intelligence and irony whilst treating its character’s path with surprising cynicism and cruelty, one of the traits of 60s and 70s science fiction that I find quite appealing. It’s a movie classic for all-time.
Enjoy.
and the tease for next weeks post . . . One flew East . . . One flew West !
Cuckoo’s Nest
After reading, I’ve been persuaded.
My father loved this film and I couldn’t understand why.
I never saw it because, having seen the TV series, I thought I couldn’t suspend my disbelief…talking apes?
Then one Saturday afternoon it came on TV and I was engrossed.
Good movie making.
That last scene with Chuck discovering a battle scarred Lady Liberty was epic.
I’m glad you mentioned the score, Wolfman. It was just…different, and fitted the jarring storyline perfectly.
I remember when it first appeared in the cinemas. No one was allowed to speak of the ending until all had seen it. We were much more considerate in those days. It was always…just wait till you see the end! You won’t believe it!
Good times.
As for next week, I was thinking about insomnia and long distance romance and brief encounters at the Empire State Building, but that’s probably too much of a chick flick for you. 😀
Mel’s version.
And launched a thousand memes! Excellent review Wolfman.
These days the movie seems cliched, but only because the movie spawned all the cliches. I think it was a superb translation of a classic golden-age style science fiction story to film. Hitherto scifi movies were sort of cathedral-like, thinking of The Day the Earth Stood Still and of course 2001, or schlockish like The Blob. Planet of the Apes was gritty. The ancient Greece thing really worked for me.
Have a couple of Pierre Boulle paperbacks in English around somewhere, but a long time since I read them.
I have to say a successor to this movie would be the whole Stargate series, from the first movie onwards through multiple variations and seasons. The humans-meet-aliens-and-both-sides-can’t-cope thing is really good, and gave us literally hundreds of fine stories in that series.
Thanks Wolfie. I first watched it at the Murray Barracks Sergeants Mess in Port Moresby back in the early ’70s. Loved it as a kid, and still love it.
The internet has pretty well killed off surprise endings . . . mores the pity.
Nope it’s not An Affair To Remember.
With the flying east and west, I thought it might be Sleepless in Seattle. A better than usual offering in the vast genre of chick flicks.
And…it does reference An Affair to Remember. The bemused guys make the scene. And when are you reviewing The Dirty Dozen? 😀
I actually preferred Sleepless In Seattle to An Affair To Remember.
Duc de Normandie was on the money.
The Dirty Dozen . . . I’ll add it to my list – won’t be for at least a couple of months as I’ve got the next 2 months planned out.
I thought the Simians’ caste system was an interesting concept, expanded as it was in the TV series and later films (and I didn’t think the Tim burton remake was all that bad).
The Gorillas being the thugs and soldiery, the chimps the inner party, the Orang-Utans the clerisy and the humans being the (literal) untouchables – see (Tim Roth’s) Thade’s reversal of Taylor’s legendary quote in the original.
Thanks again for the reminder, Wolfie, I’ll have to go and watch the original again, which I’ve not seen since I was about ten.
As a kid watching POTA for the first time it scared the crap out of me. Looking back it must have been the theme music. Lots of brutal drum banging and then suspense.
Loved how Anchorman paid tribute to this movie in the fight scene between competing news teams. V funny. Stay classy.