Year: 

1968

Directed by: 

Franklin J. Schaffner

Rated: 

G

Country: 

United States

Runtime: 

1 hr. 52 min.

Production Company: 

APJAC Productions

Written by: 

Pierre Boulle (source novel)

Michael Wilson

Rod Serling

Starring: 

Charlton Heston

Roddy McDowall

Kim Hunter

Maurice Evans

Similar Films: 

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Forbidden Planet

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Planet of the Apes may be the most bitter, bleak, and hopeless film to ever become a smash hit. Our hero George Taylor (Charlton Heston) is captured, beaten, and humiliated by creatures that he considers beneath him. We enter a world where apes are not cute animals in a zoo but the brutal masters of an unknown planet in the far future. Director Franklin J. Schaffner presents this barren and stark world masterfully, vaulting it to a special place in the annals of science-fiction. Planet of the Apes is one of the essential films of the genre; it not only established one of the first modern day sci-fi film franchises, but it is a great film of polemic power.

On the shores of a distant planet, a spaceship from Earth crashes into an ocean. One of its crew having died en-route, the remaining three astronauts soon find themselves at the mercy of a race of advanced, speaking apes. The apes, who seem to have a pathological hatred and fear of humanity, kill one of the astronauts and lobotomize another. The commander, Taylor, is taken into the protection of two chimpanzees: Dr. Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), one an "animal" psychiatrist and the other an archeologist. Cornelius and Zira aid Taylor in escaping from Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), the orangutan minister of science. After a series of humiliations, a kangaroo court appearance, a nighttime escape, and a climactic encounter with Dr. Zaius, Taylor discovers an awful truth of the Planet of the Apes, a truth that adds meaning to the film exponentially.

There are many memorable aspects of this film: the remarkable makeup, the exciting direction, and the wonderful performances. With all of these great qualities, however, it is the script that makes Planet of the Apes the special film that it is. Penned by the incomparable Rod Serling along with Michael Wilson, the blacklisted writer who had written the screenplays for The Bridge on the River Kwai (based on a novel by Pierre Boulle, the author of the novel Monkey Planet, upon which Planet of the Apes is based) and Lawrence of Arabia, the script of this film soars. It is an incredibly literate script, which contains humor, satire, and biting social commentary. There are many lines that could be used as examples. One that epitomizes the attitude and quality of the script comes near the end. Cornelius is reading to Taylor the apes' Sacred Scroll's warning about humans. He reads:

Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him;drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death.

This chilling evaluation of humanity is more than evident in the film's conclusion (which will be discussed in a moment) and is one of the best examples of the mastery of the film's script.

An example of the script's satire occurs during the scene in which Taylor is brought to a hearing to decide his fate. The screenwriters turn this scene into a parody of the Scopes Monkey Trial¹ with a prosecutor thundering on about the evils of the theory of evolution, and "proving" Taylor's inferiority by pointing out that he knows nothing of Ape history and culture. Any time that Taylor tries to speak up, the apes quickly silence him. This level of social commentary and satire contribute to making Planet of the Apes so powerful and culturally relevant. While there a few lines that date the movie (Taylor tells Zira's nephew Lucius (Lou Antonio), "In my world, when I left it, only kids your age wore beards," and "Remember, never trust anyone over thirty"), overall the script is magnificent.

If the makeup in Planet of the Apes had been corny or looked as if it had wandered over from Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), the film would have been hopelessly doomed. Fortunately, the makeup by John Chambers (for which he received an honorary Academy Award), is absolutely convincing. From the first moment that we see the gorillas on horseback mercilessly hunting down primitive humans and then later taking snapshots of themselves standing over human bodies, we know there will be no "cuteness" in the film, but this style is also accomplished largely by the realism of the makeup. It is true that they are smaller than the real apes of today, but this could be explained as the result of thousands of years of evolution. It is a testament to the makeup that it could hold up as completely believable through five films.