Thursday, February 4, 2010

228. Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring: Charlton Heston
Kim Hunter
Maurice Evans

IMDb Rating: 8.0
My Rating: 7.5

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape."






Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and his crew have crash landed in a large body of water on a unknown planet. After testing the atmosphere, Taylor and his surviving crew members escape from the ship and begin paddling a raft in search of sustainable life. After reaching land and finding a few plants spread across the vast desert land, the men stumble onto an oasis. While swimming in the waters of the oasis, the men's clothes are stolen. They chase the culprits and find a large group of neanderthal-looking humans in a large cornfield. Suddenly, apes on horseback storm into the cornfields. Taylor is shot by one of the apes in the throat, and then is taken to the ape's home community.

Upon arrival, Taylor is placed in a cage and soon finds that the apes that have held him captive can speak. The apes also have a society very much like our own, with a system of government and strictly enforced laws. Taylor soon finds that the gunshot to the throat has rendered him mute and his communication through signing and writing is mocked by all the apes, with the exception of ape scientist Zira (Kim Hunter). When Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), the head of the ape community, hears that Taylor is trying to communicate, he orders that Taylor be guilded. Taylor hears this and tries to escape, but is captured. Upon being captured, Taylor finally regains his voice and utters the infamous line, "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape."

The apes then place Taylor on trial to determine his fate. Taylor tells the ape council how one of his crew members was shot during his capture, and is unaware of the status of the other crew member Landon. The apes bring forth all of the captives, and Taylor soon spots Landon. When Taylor walks over to him, he notices that Landon has been lobotomized. Dr. Zaius then holds a private meeting with Taylor, giving him the option of admitting he comes from a forbidden zone. If he does not admit to this, he will face the same fate as Landon. Taylor is then left with the choice of his own sanity or possible slavery for life.

Planet of the Apes is one of the great American a science-fiction classics. It's alternate universe is actually very well structured and believable. Much of their ideals and morals are based off of our society, including one ape's theory that ape evolved from man. The ape costumes and makeup might seem rather dated, but if you remember this film was made over forty years ago, it shouldn't really bother you much. Creating another world that the audience is just supposed to accept can be very difficult, but this film does not have that problem.

The acting is pretty decent in this film. Charlton Heston turns in the films best performance, making you actually feel anger to the race that is discriminating him so much. The rest of the actors are passable.We are on a planet of talking apes, so it's pretty hard to give natural and realistic performances. Although, the actors do a pretty good job of giving the apes enough personality and structure to seem like real individuals. The occasional campy moments such as the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkeys are a guilty treat. When it comes to science fiction films like Planet of the Apes, Oscar caliber performances aren't necessarily required for the film to still be very enjoyable.

Overall, Planet of the Apes does a good job of entertaining it's audience. It's a definitive film for it's genre, with it's original storyline and truly unique take on a parallel society ruled by apes. The performances might not be Academy quality, but they never really takes away from the film. I recommend this movie if you enjoyed films like I Am Legend or John Carpenter's classic Escape from New York.




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