Planet of the Apes

 Year:  1968

Director:  Franklin J. Schaffner

Screenplay:  Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, based on the novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

Starring:  Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans, Kim Hunter, James Whitmore, James Daly, Linda Harrison

Running Time:  112 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction

Three astronauts crash-land on a seemingly desolate planet, in the far future.  As they explore, they discover, to their horror, that humans are mute, primitive creatures, and apes have become the dominant species, having developed language, technology and society.  

Based on the 1963 novel by French author Pierre Boulle, this has become one of the most influential science-fiction films ever made.   The film opens with the four astronauts in suspended animation, crashing into a lake.  Stewart, the only woman on the ship, has died due to a leak in her suspended animation capsule. The survivors: macho, cigar-chomping cynic Taylor (Charlton Heston), square-jawed, idealistic patriot Landon (Robert Gunnar) and ambitious scientist  Dodge (Jeff Burton), soon discover that 2978, two thousand years after they set out, and believe that they are on an alien planet.  As they explore they discover a tribe of humans, who are hunted by armed gorillas on horseback.  In the course of which, Dodge is killed, Landon knocked out and Taylor shot in the throat, rendering him temporarily unable to speak.  Taylor is locked in a kind of zoo, where he has to convince the chimpanzee scientists researching him that he is an intelligent being.  The film builds itself up quite slowly, the apes don't appear at all until quite well into the film, with a lot of time being spent on the bickering between the three astronauts.  Early in the film Taylor states that he joined the expedition because he wanted to find "something better than man".  The apes have an organised, fairly placid society (or so it seems), if very hierarchical:  Orang-utans are the leaders, judges, priests and teachers; Gorillas are the military and law enforcement and Chimpanzees are kind of the middle-class.  In the Pierre Boulle novel, the apes have a technologically advanced society, however the filmmakers deemed it easier, and cheaper to have the apes in a more primitive society.  The look of the ape village, and the costume designs are impressive.  However, it is fair that the ape make up (which won an honorary Academy Award for John Chambers for astounding make-up achievement) hasn't aged well and looks slightly comical today at times, and you might question why apes living in the 3978 would speak and write English.  The script was written by Michael Wilson, who worked on Bridge on the River Kwai, another Boulle adaptation, and Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, and it was Serling who came up with the film's iconic conclusion, which is possibly one of the most famous movie endings of all time.  Heston is good at the heroics, snarling lines such as "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"  Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter as sympathetic chimpanzees Cornelius and Zira, and Maurice Evans as orange-utan Doctor Zaius do very well, acting under layers of heavy ape makeup.   The film has plenty of action, and there is some good humour (such as sulky teen chimp Lucius (Lou Wagner) moaning about the older generation, and three orang-utan judges doing the "Three Wise Monkeys", and Zira's reaction when Taylor moves to kiss her, telling him: "But your so ugly!"), however it is also an intelligent film depicting a world where the balance of power has reversed, and where humans are treated by apes, much the same as how humans have treated apes in our own world ("You lead me around on a leash!" Taylor snarls.  "We thought you were inferior" explains Zira).  Linda Harrison plays Nova, one of the mute humans, who the ape scientists want to mate with Taylor, and who eventually forms a mutual attachment with him.  However, she really doesn't have much at all to do.  The film ends with a shocking twist ending, and the final image packs a punch no matter how many times it has been parodied and references in the years since.

Chimpanzee that!:  Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter and Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes

  

"Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle

Year of Publication:  1963
Number of Pages:  200 pages
Genre:  Science-fiction

This French novel has become a modern classic of science-fiction.  In the year 2500, journalist Ulysse Merou joins two scientists on a voyage from Earth to the star Betelgeuse.  Due to the effects of time dilation, the journey takes only two years for the travellers, but approximately 800 years pass in "real time".  Arriving at their destination, the astronauts set down on an Earth-type planet which they dub "Soror".  They also discover human inhabitants, however here the humans are savage and animalistic, lacking even the most rudimentary intelligence.  Instead the apes are the dominant species (namely gorillas, chimpanzees and ourang-outans) and posess an advanced, technological civilization.  What's more, they see humans as little more than a dangerous, if occasionally useful, species to be hunted down for sport and to be experimented upon.  Trapped in a research facility, Ulysse desperately attempts to prove his intelligence to the ape scientists.  However, there is a very real danger that if he is successful the apes will view him as even more of a threat.  A threat to be studied and destroyed.

This is an enjoyable science-fiction adventure story, but also serves as a witty and thought-provoking satire.  The ape civilization is roughly equivalent to human civilization in the early sixties, with the same level of technology.  The book deals with the relationship between humans and animals, for example the humans are at the same level of development as apes are on Earth, and the experiments which strike Ulysse as so barbaric are really no different from the experiments that were carried out on ape subjects at the time the book was written.  It also examines science, society and evolution and the way intelligence can either be developed or degraded.  Boulle was involved with the French Resistance during the Second World War, and there are themes dealing with surrender and collaboration in the novel.  Despite some heavy thematic material, the book is always fast-paced, frequently exciting and often very funny.

The novel was adapted to a hugely successful movie in 1968, starring Charlton Heston (much to the surprise of Boulle himself who regarded the novel as unfilmable).  The 1968 film spawned five sequels, comics, books and a short-lived television series.  In 2001 the book was filmed again, this time with Tim Burton directing, and with much less success.  The 2011 film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, serves as a prequel to the story.  The films are only very loosely based on the novel.  In the novel the apes are much more technologically advance than they are in the films.  Also the satire is toned down quite considerably in favour of science-fiction action thrills.  Another difference, is that in the novel Ulysse, initially at least, tries to be accepted by the ape society, while in the 1968 movie Charlton Heston introduces himself to his primate friends by famously yelling:  "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn, dirty apes!"