Charlton Heston is the only survivor of a space expedition that has crashed on a planet some millions of light years from earth, and thus some 2,000 years in the future. He stumbles into a rude civilization in which apes rule, while the tribes of speechless humans are treated as wild animals and periodically rounded up for experimentation or extermination. Heston is wounded in the throat during his capture and is rendered mute like the others. Since he demonstrates signs of intelligence, he is singled out for behavioral examination and kept in a cage with a female of the species. The apes argue over whether he actually has brains or is simply aping his betters. When he regains his speech, it upsets everyone's view of life as it should be, as it's written down in the "scrolls" by the "law giver." His chief enemy is an orang-utan played by Maurice Evans. With the help of two enlightened scientific chimpanzees, Kim Hunter and Roddy MacDowell, he manages to escape with his Significant Other, only to discover that he has landed back on earth, whence he came, but that a war has destroyed humankind and left an ecological vacuum that has been filled by the great apes.
Actually, the movie runs along three parallel tracks. One is the unraveling of the mystery of how the apes came to be superior to humans, and the moral behind the puzzle. A second involves the internal dissent among the apes, pitting those who scoff at the idea of man and culture, and those who believe Heston and want to see him saved and set free. The third is a running commentary on Western culture circa 1967, the era of flower power and hippies and rebellious youth and disgruntled, resentful elders clinging to old concepts. I discount the relationship between Heston and the young lady, since she doesn't speak and was in real life the mistress of the producer, Richard Zanuck.
It all may seem a little preachy now, and in some respects incomprehensible to those who don't remember the tumultuous 1960s. The morphed wisecracks are still amusing though. "Don't trust anyone over thirty." Will the youngsters get that? Will they get Maurice Evans' speech before the Council of Three, which alludes twice to the Declaration of Independence and once each to Alexander Pope and George Orwell? Probably not. The apes seem to be getting righter all the time.
There are other instructive evocations of current social dynamics. On Planet Ape, the lighter you are, the better off you are. The buff orang-utans are the aristocratic leaders. The grayish chimpanzees are their middle-class intellectuals and technicians, rather like today's nerds. The black gorillas are the grunts. They do all the wet work. They're the guards and the police force and the flunkies and the shoe-shine boys. An interesting remark by Heston in a commentary on the film: the three simian strata subjected themselves to voluntary segregation. The separate species hung out together, ate lunch together, and though they showed no evident hostility towards the others, they clearly preferred their own kind. Is this movie telling us more than we need or want to know? Shouldn't a sociologist find this as disturbing as Heston finds the wreck of the Statue of Liberty? Except for Charlton Heston, there's no acting worth commenting on. The others are buried in carefully designed make up. They can only project the most rudimentary expressions -- a slight frown, a weak smile -- and their voices could have easily been dubbed. Every actor, down to the extras, underwent this lengthy and elaborate disguise. Later versions of the tale, as the concept became degraded and decadent, saved time and money by giving the lesser performers simple rubber masks.
They probably could have lowered the budget on this initial entry by using cheaper techniques. Few people would have noticed, and, really, the story is determinedly middle-brow, like Rod Serling's simple sermons on the excellent "The Twilight Zone" series. Not particularly subtle or challenging, the story is what might be called "thought provoking." It made scads of money, which accounts for the many sequels and the recent remake. If there's a nickel left to be made out of the franchise we can expect another one any minute.
Yet it's an enjoyable movie -- amusing and, well, though provoking. Nice location shooting and imaginative art direction. See it with the kids. Explain to them that "we hold these truths to be self evident" is from a charter document, that Pope said "the proper study of mankind is man," and that Orwell wrote "some are more equal than others." They'll thank you for it and, with any luck, will climb down from the chandelier.
Actually, the movie runs along three parallel tracks. One is the unraveling of the mystery of how the apes came to be superior to humans, and the moral behind the puzzle. A second involves the internal dissent among the apes, pitting those who scoff at the idea of man and culture, and those who believe Heston and want to see him saved and set free. The third is a running commentary on Western culture circa 1967, the era of flower power and hippies and rebellious youth and disgruntled, resentful elders clinging to old concepts. I discount the relationship between Heston and the young lady, since she doesn't speak and was in real life the mistress of the producer, Richard Zanuck.
It all may seem a little preachy now, and in some respects incomprehensible to those who don't remember the tumultuous 1960s. The morphed wisecracks are still amusing though. "Don't trust anyone over thirty." Will the youngsters get that? Will they get Maurice Evans' speech before the Council of Three, which alludes twice to the Declaration of Independence and once each to Alexander Pope and George Orwell? Probably not. The apes seem to be getting righter all the time.
There are other instructive evocations of current social dynamics. On Planet Ape, the lighter you are, the better off you are. The buff orang-utans are the aristocratic leaders. The grayish chimpanzees are their middle-class intellectuals and technicians, rather like today's nerds. The black gorillas are the grunts. They do all the wet work. They're the guards and the police force and the flunkies and the shoe-shine boys. An interesting remark by Heston in a commentary on the film: the three simian strata subjected themselves to voluntary segregation. The separate species hung out together, ate lunch together, and though they showed no evident hostility towards the others, they clearly preferred their own kind. Is this movie telling us more than we need or want to know? Shouldn't a sociologist find this as disturbing as Heston finds the wreck of the Statue of Liberty? Except for Charlton Heston, there's no acting worth commenting on. The others are buried in carefully designed make up. They can only project the most rudimentary expressions -- a slight frown, a weak smile -- and their voices could have easily been dubbed. Every actor, down to the extras, underwent this lengthy and elaborate disguise. Later versions of the tale, as the concept became degraded and decadent, saved time and money by giving the lesser performers simple rubber masks.
They probably could have lowered the budget on this initial entry by using cheaper techniques. Few people would have noticed, and, really, the story is determinedly middle-brow, like Rod Serling's simple sermons on the excellent "The Twilight Zone" series. Not particularly subtle or challenging, the story is what might be called "thought provoking." It made scads of money, which accounts for the many sequels and the recent remake. If there's a nickel left to be made out of the franchise we can expect another one any minute.
Yet it's an enjoyable movie -- amusing and, well, though provoking. Nice location shooting and imaginative art direction. See it with the kids. Explain to them that "we hold these truths to be self evident" is from a charter document, that Pope said "the proper study of mankind is man," and that Orwell wrote "some are more equal than others." They'll thank you for it and, with any luck, will climb down from the chandelier.