Planet of the Apes (1968)
by Robbo
Posted on 21 April 2021
Rating -
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and loosely based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle.
Written by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, it stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison.
The film follows the main protagonist, Taylor played by Charlton Heston, the leader of an astronaut crew which crashes on a strange planet in the distant future.
The three surviving crew members travel through desolate wasteland, coming across eerie scarecrow-like figures and a freshwater lake with lush vegetation. While swimming, the men’s clothes are stolen and shredded by primitive mute humans.
Soon after, armed gorillas raid a cornfield where the humans are gathering food. Taylor is shot in the throat as he and the others are captured. Taylor is taken to Ape City where he is horrified to learn that apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech whereas humans have devolved into mute creatures wearing animal skins. Two chimpanzees, animal psychologist Zira and surgeon Galen, save Taylor’s life, though his throat injury renders him temporarily mute.
Taylor is placed with a captive female, whom he later names Nova. He observes an advanced society of talking apes with a strict caste system: gorillas are the military force and laborers; orangutans oversee government and religion; and intellectual chimpanzees are mostly scientists and doctors.
Taylor convinces Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius that he is intelligent as they are and escapes but is soon recaptured revealing in the process he can speak, which alarms the apes.
With help from Zira’s nephew Lucius, Zira and Cornelius free Taylor and Nova and take them to the Forbidden Zone, a taboo region outside Ape City where Taylor’s ship crashed.
Taylor wants to search for answers, and he and Nova are allowed to leave, riding into the distance along the shoreline.
On the surface, Planet of the Apes seems to be just another scifi, action, adventure film but it is more than that.
The premise is simple, a world turned on it’s head where Apes are the dominant species and humans have devolved but it is so much more.
Planet of the Apes contains some subtle black humour and deals with some of the political issues of the time such as inequality and environmental concerns.
Planet of the Apes provides maximum entertainment topped with a sobering prediction of the future of human folly and transcends all age and social groupings with multiple levels of appeal.
This is definitely on my top 100 films to see before you die.
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