The original ‘Planet of the Apes’ endures
The ending of “Planet of the Apes” really was just the beginning.
One of the most famous climactic scenes in screen history – which won’t be spoiled here, for the benefit of those who still may not know it – caps the original 1968 sci-fi tale inspired by Pierre Boulle’s novel. Turner Classic Movies shows it to start a night of time-travel films
Thursday, April 7, and it still packs a particular punch, as many “Apes” sequels and remakes as came after it.
In no small part, that’s thanks to the script by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson that sends a spaceship and its crew through a time warp thousands of years into the future. With a clear assist from his physical trainer, Charlton Heston stars as team leader Taylor, whose innate cynicism is an asset once he realizes exactly what kind of world he’s landed in.
As the title spells out, talking apes are the rulers while humans are hunted and caged (and sometimes worse). Taylor’s intelligence makes him a rarity to simian leader Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) and scientists Zira and Cornelius (Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall), though they remain suspicious of him – and vice versa, though he finds a comrade in mute beauty Nova (Linda Harrison).
Directed by television veteran Franklin J. Schaffner, who would follow this up with “Patton,” “Planet of the Apes” offers its fair share of social satire. It doesn’t do it in a silly way, however, and that makes its impact and uniqueness even greater. Listen to what some of the apes say, particularly during military rallies, and the role-reversal cleverness of the premise is quite apparent.
While “Planet of the Apes” also boasts a creative and suitable Jerry Goldsmith music score, its most noticed aspect clearly is the innovative makeup that earned John Chambers a special Oscar and turned some very familiar actors into ... well, apes. A special feature on many home-video editions of the picture shows Edward G. Robinson (who ultimately dropped out of the project) testing the “look” of Dr. Zaius, and it’s fascinating to compare that early effort to how the performers finally appeared with the prosthetics. And big kudos to them for dealing with that extensive makeup job day after day during filming.
The first “Planet of the Apes” led directly to four sequels and both live-action and animated TV shows, then the picture was rebooted and set off another series of movies. Those benefited from modern computer graphics, but as slick as they were, they didn’t have the created-bynecessity ingenuity of the effects in the first trip to the “Planet.” And that always will keep it a very special trip, indeed.