Going ape over a cult classic
In February 1968 20th Century-Fox released a movie that became
so popular it spawned four sequels, a TV series, a cartoon and a
2001
”
reimagining.
”
The movie was
”
Planet Of The Apes.
”
Going ape over a cult classic
In February 1968 20th Century-Fox released a movie that became so popular it spawned four sequels, a TV series, a cartoon and a 2001 “reimagining.” The movie was “Planet Of The Apes.”
The film starred Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans. Franklin J. Shaffner directed it with a screenplay by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson based on the novel by Pierre Boulle.
Heston plays an astronaut named Taylor who crashes on a planet ruled by apes and tries to escape back to Earth.
Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall are Zira and Cornelius, two apes who risk everything to help him. Maurice Evans is Dr. Zaius, the leader of the planet, who fears Taylor and wants to destroy him.
I’ve read several articles about this movie being a stand-in for race relations or about the gaping plot holes and goofs (Heston smokes a cigar in the rocket ship), but who cares about all of that? It’s just a great action movie.
The scene in which Taylor and his fellow astronauts first encounter the apes is classic. Each scene gets better and better until the surprising climax. It’s a movie that’s hard to forget once you’ve seen it.
Forget about Moses in “The Ten Commandments” or “Ben-Hur;” this is Heston’s best acting job. He is perfect as the cynical astronaut who goes into space to escape mankind. I like it when he first sees the docile humans that populate the planet and he says that in six months he’ll be running things. He doesn’t realize what’s waiting for him.
I remember when channel 7 had the 3:30 movie and they would show “Planet Of The Apes” week. They always split the movie into two parts; even though I had seen it at least a dozen times I always hurried home from school to watch the second part.
The ape makeup by John Chambers won a special academy award.
“Beneath The Planet of The Apes” 1970
In the first sequel most of the first hour is rehash of the original movie with astronaut Brent (James Franciscus) on a rescue mission for Taylor encountering the race of superior apes. Cornelius and Zira befriend him and he even hooks up with Taylor’s girlfriend, Nova.
Things get really cool when he goes underground to the Forbidden City and meets a group of mutant humans who worship the atomic bomb. It’s exciting when the apes go underground and fight the humans. Good action and a great ending make this a worthy sequel to the original one.
David Warner plays Cornelius, making this the only film in the series without Roddy McDowall.
“Escape From The Planet Of The Apes” 1971
Cornelius and Zira manage to fix Taylor’s rocket ship and land in present day Los Angeles. At first the public loves them and they become celebrities, but the U.S. government gets worried when Zira becomes pregnant and a decision is made to exterminate them.
This took the series in a new direction by bringing the apes back to Earth. Most of the film is filled with humor as the apes learn how to live among the humans. The ending is suspenseful as government agents determined to kill them chase the couple through the docks at San Pedro. This is generally regarded as the best of the sequels.
Natalie Trundy, who plays human Dr. Branton, plays ape Lisa in the remaining films.
“Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes” 1972
I don’t like this movie at all. The ape makeup looks cheap along with the sets. Ricardo Montalban give a good performance along with McDowall who now plays Caesar, Cornelius’ and Zira’s grown son.
In the films it’s 1991 and humans have enslaved the apes. They walk them around on leashes and use them as servants. Evil scientists perform experiments on them. Caesar decides to use his intelligence and leads the apes in a revolution against man and seizes power.
The only film in the series not rated G.
“Battle For The Planet Of The Apes” 1973
This is my second favorite of the sequels even though most critics hate it. I guess it’s because I watched it when I was about 10 and really enjoyed it. The apes have taken over the world and have to battle a race of mutant humans for control.
Roddy McDowall returns again as Caesar who is not only at war with the mutants, but also with gorilla General Aldo who wants to overthrow him. This time the budget is pretty low, but good action scenes make up for it.
J. Lee Thompson who also directed the previous movie is the only director to helm two films in the series.
“Planet Of The Apes” 1974
This TV series only lasted 14 episodes. Astronauts Virdon (Ron Harper) and Burke (James Naughton) become stranded in the future where earth is ruled by apes and try to get back to present day. Roddy McDowall plays Galen, an ape who is sympathetic to the astronauts and decides to help them.
The makeup was good, better than the last few films, and each episode was filled with action. I liked it when the astronauts had fistfights with the apes. Mark Lenard stands out as the war-loving ape General Urko.
“Return to the Planet Of The Apes” 1975
This animated series follows the adventures of three astronauts Jeff, Judy and Bill who crash land on a strange planet ruled by intelligent apes.
It’s different from the movies because the apes drive cars and can fly airplanes. Ape City is more advanced than it was in the movies. If I remember correctly it looks like a futuristic metropolis. The animation looks crude by today’s standards, but was pretty good back then. There were only 13 episodes and most of them have titles like River Of Flames and Terror On Ice Mountain.
“Planet Of The Apes” 2001
I was so excited when I heard about this movie and then so disappointed once I actually saw it. It’s by far director Tim Burton’s worst film. Burton doesn’t call this a remake; he calls it a reimagining. I wish that he would have just reimagined it in his head and not committed it to celluloid.
It’s hard to say what went wrong. It has a great cast: Helen Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Paul Giamatti and Michael Clarke Duncan as the apes. Some of the fault might be with the choice of Mark Wahlberg in the Charlton Heston role. Walhberg has become a good actor, but he’s not believable as an astronaut.
The makeup by Rick Baker is excellent. It’s better than the original film. It gives the actors more range of emotion. The actors had to go to monkey school and are more simian-like than Roddy McDowall or Kim Hunter. Bonham Carter is really good.
Unfortunately, the script goes nowhere. There are some exciting battle scenes, but no sense of purpose. This film was made simply to earn a dollar and doesn’t have the passion the first one did. I don’t even think that it had the passion of the TV series.
It’s hard to top the ending of the original movie and Burton tries it here, but it doesn’t have the impact that the first one did.
Maybe the original is just too perfect a movie that no matter how good a remake is it just seems inferior. I’ve seen the 1968 version more than 20 times and for this version once was enough.
All of the films are available on DVD.
