Like a lot of cult genre films, the original Planet of the Apes doesn’t get taken as seriously as maybe it should. Unlike arguably all of its sequels, the first Apes movie is special, and you feel like you’re watching something totally unique from the first scene. To me, the filmmakers did their best to honor the source material, but also realized a lot of the novel simply wouldn’t work as a movie. Instead, it looks like everyone decided not to make an exclusively political film, but instead combine that social commentary with an hour and half long version of a Twilight Zone episode. (Rod Serling co-wrote the screenplay after all!) And the result was a great movie that feels just as daring and new now as it must have in 1968.
Right from the onset of the film, Charlton Heston’s Col. George Taylor is not your average whitebread U.S. Space Explorer. Smoking a little cigar in his spaceship, Taylor records a ship’s log in which he bemoans the behavior of humanity over the years. Taylor is a humorously cynical guy who knows humans are pretty much the worst thing ever, and as a result; he’s gone out into space with an ulterior motive of finding something better. Taylor’s spaceship is a sleeper ship with its entire crewmember in suspended animation except for him. Soon, he puts himself under too, and the story really gets going.
The ship crashes onto what seems to be an alien world. After the disaster, all but Taylor and two other crew members are alive. They’ve determined that not only are they on another planet, but have also traveled thousands of years in the future. Taylor doesn’t seem to have a big problem with this and almost immediately starts chiding his colleagues for feeling any emotional pangs in relation to their friends and family back on Earth. He takes out his little cigar and essentially starts telling them to get over it. He also mocks one of the other guys when he plants a small American flag in the soil. Taylor knows the idea of claiming another planet for your country is absurd and has a really good laugh. Being made in 1968, this movie came out BEFORE the moon landing and was basically making fun of the jingoism of claiming other worlds for any specific country. The fact that the flag is really tiny drives this point home. Pretty risky stuff for a movie of its time!
Having three astronauts set out to explore the surface of the mysterious planet is actually very similar to the beginning of the novel. Indeed, the basic structure of the plot, in terms of how things unfold and how things change in the story are extremely similar to the novel, which feels sort of shocking when one considers the major changes made to the basic premise. After taking a naked dip in a pond (Heston’s naked butt!) our astronauts have their clothes stolen by the wild humans who reside on this planet. As in the novel, these humans lack speech and run around like wild animals. Soon a platoon of aggressive, clothed gun-toting gorillas show up and starts slaughtering the wild humans. One of Taylor’s companions is killed while the other is captured but taken somewhere separate from Taylor. Once in captivity, Taylor attracts the attention of female chimpanzee scientist Zira(Kim Hunter) who begins calling him “bright eyes” a reference to both the bright blue color of Heston’s eyes but also to the spark of individuality she sees there.
The “bright eyes” motif is actually one of the changes from the book to the film that I truly love. This single line of sentimentality strengthens the bond between Taylor and Zira. In the novel, the tenderness between Zira and Ulysse was there and the film not only does it justice, it improves on that tenderness.
The plot proceeds similar to the novel with Taylor eventually drawing a diagram on a paper to indicate to Zira he is truly intelligent. With the help of her fiancé Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) Taylor eventually convinces the other apes that he is intelligent. Still, chaos ensues as evidence starts to surface that the intelligent apes might have evolved from humans like Taylor, a notion the organtan Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) would like to quietly put away. It’s notable here that Planet of the Apes doesn’t really have any villains outright. Certainly Dr. Zaius is repressing information and screwing over Taylor. But he’s not necessarily a bad person, in fact by the end of the film Dr. Zaius seems to pity Taylor and tries to warn him against discovering the terrible truth about the world. Taylor on the other hand becomes fairly violent, proving to the apes that he is indeed and in fact just as dangerous as the non-speaking savage humans. Taylor, in the end, embodies the very qualities he sought to leave behind on this space voyage.
The only aspect of the film that feels a little tacked on is a random adolescent ape named Lucius who is introduced towards the end of the film. Taylor exchanges some pretty corny comments with Lucius like “don’t trust anyone under 30.” This is the only stuff that really dates the film and grounds it in its sixties-ness a little too much. The Lucius character is supposed to be Zira and Cornelius’s nephew, and my suspicion is that the young actor who played Lucius was probably some studio executive’s nephew in real life. Fortunately, Lucius isn’t around for much of the film, allowing the universal poignancy of what is going to outshine any hammy over-the-top topical messages.
The importance of Taylor’s human girlfriend Nova (Linda Harrison) is downplayed somewhat in this version of Apes. She doesn’t become pregnant as in the novel, and most of the apes regard her as something of a nuisance. I imagine it was hard to convey the subtly that existed in the book. Uylsse both desired Nova on a basic animalistic level, but also pitied her for her primitive behavior. He was also a little grossed out by her. In the film, you sort of get the impression that Taylor just thinks she’s hot.
Famously, the film ends with the massive revelation that Taylor has been on Earth the entire time. Even if you know this twist is coming, the revelation that the Statue of Liberty is buried in the sand, and that this Earth was brought about by some kind of atomic fallout is a fantastic one. Taylor, the cynic and self-loathing human being collapses in anguish in the sand and delivers his famous “Damn them, damn them all to hell!” line which never ceases to send a little shiver up my spine. In Taylor’s eyes, in the final moments of the film, contemporary humans of contemporary Earth are cast as the villains. It’s a fantastically dark ending to a complex and interesting movie that could have just been a silly romp about talking monkeys.
Did the ending of Planet of the Apes truly beg for a sequel? Not really. It certainly feels like the point of the story has been achieved. The audience doesn’t really want to know what happens to Taylor, Zira, Cornelius and everybody after this. And yet, there were four more Apes films!
Up next, Beneath the Planet of the Apes brings back ALL the main characters from the first film. But there’s just one question, where is Heston hiding, and who is this guy who looks exactly like him?
Ryan Britt is a staff writer for Tor.com. His favorite character in the films is Zira. Ryan loves Zira.
Planet of the Apes has seemed dated to me for a while because I’d only seen it in the original video transfer. I was too young to see it in the theater, but I did see at least one or two of the sequels in the theater.
Last year I watched it in a new HD transfer and it made a big difference. It’s amazing how “modern” it looked in widescreen with no video graininess (and no commercial breaks). It gave me a new respect for the movie. Of course, that’s true of a lot of movies from the 60’s and 70’s.
The 60’s anti-authoritarian stuff was obvious, but the movie still holds up quite well. Even the makeup is creepily realistic for the most part. It certainly holds its own against CGI and animatronic prosthetics.
Somewhere recently I read someone saying that their initial viewing of Planet of the Apes was colored by the one of the funniest “not getting the point at all” comments from an audience member. As they were leaving the theater, they were behind two older women. One of them said, “I can’t believe those damned apes blew up the Statue of Liberty!”
Taylor’s advice to Lucius was to not trust anyone over 30. I see nothing that’s happened in the past 40 years that invalidates that advice.
@2 cmpalmer
You just made all of our day in the office here!
@3Nomad UK
Yes. You are correct. That was the line.
What always blows my mind when I think about this film is that is was rated ‘G.’ There is no way this subject matter would get a ‘G’ today, but when it was made we accepted that nastiness can be a part fo a child education. (yes I do think fiction is a form of education.)
@5 Bob
And Logan’s Run too! (I think)
This was the first twist ending I ever saw and has stuck with me ever since. I was about 7 and was truly shocked at the ending. For me it set the bar for shock endings which has never really been met (even by Sixth Sense)
I had read the book before seeing this movie. I agree that they kept the main flavor of the story but still it was like seeing something new. Having read the book, I knew that there would be a twist at the end but that ending still managed to impress me. (And then spoofing it was one of the better parts of Space Balls for me.)
Rather than risk getting bumped as spam, I’ll just say go to the Official Lou Wagner Web Site to see something of the man behind Lucius. He’s done a fair amount of work. On the sci-fi side he played at least one Ferengi in Star Trek and he was J-5 in Lost In Space.
Planet of the Apes was a total shocker in the theaters when it came out. I think it still has an impact even today. I had read the book before I saw the movie and was still amazed at it. Some excellent performances, particularly by Kim Hunter, John Gielgud and Chuck Heston.
I do have a few quibbles but thats true of most every film I have ever seen. In some ways it was a very 60’s movie, with nuclear bugaboo being the scary monster.
HELL, yes!
This is a classic movie, and the reveal at the end gets my vote as greatest movie ending of all time. That’s why I thought it was a stupid idea to remake it. There were only two possibilities:
a) You do the same ending, in which case, why bother?
b) You do a different ending, in which case it’s not as good, so why bother?
As for the rest of the canon (Beneath, Escape, Conquest, and Battle), Battle was the only one that really has nothing going for it. It’s just kind of boring.
By the time I got to see it on TV, I already knew that the planet was Earth from the TV series based on the film. Even so the ending still worked brilliantly.
And what with this, Soylent Green and The Omega Man, Heston did some serious anti-establishment stuff in his time but this remains, imho, his finest hour with only his Cardinal Richlieu in The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers rivalling it.
The closest modern equivalent for intelligent political SF film-making would be Moon I suppose.
a-j@11: And what with this, Soylent Green and The Omega Man, Heston did some serious anti-establishment stuff in his time but this remains, imho, his finest hour with only his Cardinal Richlieu in The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers rivalling it
Absolutely. Could not have put it better myself. And five of my favourite films, too!
@11 and 12
Yes! Horray!
I never thought of Charleston Heston as a genre actor but with the films you named you could make a good point for it!
I own the SciFi trifeca of Heston films. (Omega Man, Apes, and Green), he also did a horro film in 1980 called the awakening. (egpytian themed horror, and if you kind of squint The Naked Jungle is a genre film too. Those ants are something else.)
@15bobs
I like this notion of a Heston SF Trilogy. Good call.
Saw this when I was 8 in the theather with my parents. Some good humor which may have passed me at that time such as in Taylor’s hearing, the three judges physical positions; one covering his ears, one covering his eyes and the third…yep. Also “human see, human do! I remember my mother giggled when Taylor asked Zira for a kiss and she told him “…if you weren’t so damned ugly..” I always thought the Statue of Liberty ending was a good nod to the French author.
I was glad to stumble on all these articles on Tor.com. When I was twelve or so, I was the “Apes” equivalent of a Trekkie. I think the original novel by Boulle and the first (1968) Apes movie hold up the best, but watching any of the movies, even the erratic sequels, induces an enjoyable nostalgia. I was also glad that one of the people posting here mentioned the MAD satire “The Planet That Went Ape.”
At the age of 7, my first Ape induction was at a drive-in theater in 1974, when they reeled 4 of the Apes films in one sitting (for some reason, ‘Beneath’ was not shown). I remember the first 3 were ‘Escape,’ ‘Conquest’ & ‘Battle’, which seemed like a blur of monkey business to me. As the finale started, I had trouble keeping my eyelids open, but once Taylor’s ship had splashed down and “the lovely Stewart” sent ice through my veins, I was wide awake and completely taken in. Even at 7, I was aware of how this episode stood out far above the others. Charlton Heston was the first actor I bothered to remember by name. Later, in the mid 1990’s, a friend and I watched it when it was screened for a few nights at a local theater. By this time I had seen it dozens of times on TV. Viewing it again in the theater surrounded by 100 people created an atmosphere in which I felt I was seeing it for the first time. I picked up on so many things that I had never noticed before, thanks to reactions from the audience that gave the film a different color, like some hidden background track that had been uncovered. During Taylor’s trial, the audience started laughing, and I didn’t understand why the last spoken line was so funny – then I saw it for the first time, the ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ sight gag. I couldn’t believe how that had sailed over my head so many times before! Taylor’s whole attitude turned the sci-fi into a dark comedy. I had never realized how much of a cynical egotist Taylor was. It wasn’t science or exploration of the unknown that drove him, but escape from people and a world that held nothing for him. Teasing and deriding Landon from the moment they crash landed was his new mission. Taylor first sees Nova in the corn field, and he’s gotta have her! During the chaos, while apes are hunting humans with rifles, Taylor is preoccupied with snagging Nova, like he’s gonna have his way with her once he finds some bushes to hide in. His only chance at love would come from a gorgeous and half-naked mute woman with the IQ of a corn cob. Quotes like “Lots of love making but no love,” “On this planet it’s easy!” and “She was to be the new Eve, with our hot and eager help, of course,” were so crass and soulless – King Kong seemed more human! What seems funniest to me is how torn up Taylor was when he realized he was home all along (it still sends a chill through me), and the maniacs had blown it all up. Then, a short time later in ‘Beneath,’ he becomes the maniac, and blows it all up again!
Taylor’s last lines in the original 1968 final scene also send shivers up my spine. Almost a decade ago, I showed this film to my junior high English class (all boys) in a Taipei, Taiwan high school. It took two classes. Then they all wrote their reaction (in English) after we were finished. I got some really interesting answers. One guy wrote, “I think that maybe I’m an ape.” Another focused on the famous ending and wrote a page long essay about the environment. Now that’s a good movie!
I need to own this film. I remember watching it all the way through for the very first time when I was around 15~16 in the mid 90s… that ending stuck with me and I remember how much I teared up at that final epic line. Very hard to find movies with lasting impact nowadays. Considering Rod Serling had something to do with it makes sense because quite a few TZ episodes have been burned in my memory as well. “To Serve Man” and especially “Time enough at last” I’ve never been able to forget after seeing.
I think you’re all forgetting that when this film came out it was so original and the sci fi factor was 100%! Talking monkeys that can fight and keep humans as slaves was a superb idea. I was born in 76 so watched it on the telly in the early 80’s and fell in love with the apes! The best one is Battle for the planet of the apes, I know a lot of people found it rubbish but it just has everything a film needs. A good plot, apocalyptic world, wars, hatred and action! Beneath the planet was freaky, that damn sound all the way through the film made me scared lol. But still a great sequel and underrated like many of these films were. Escape from was a little weak but I enjoy it because it mainly brings humour to a loved franchise and yes a cute storyline (no spoilers in case). But Conquest, oh wow! My nightmares came true lol. Apes who take over the world (yes this plot is in the most recent remakes but they gave it a crap title like Dawn of the apes!). Conquest was my favourite for many years until I saw the extended version of Battle of the apes (if you’ve not seen this you need to! Similar to Conquest the extended version it really adds to the film).
Then they made the TV Series and my good lord it was superb! I have seen this numerous times, it was sadly cancelled but the fact apes were on the telly for several weeks in the 80’s (yes I know it was the 70’s but luckily it was repeated when I grew up) just made me want to stay home sunday afternoons! Finally Mark Walhbergs version, has too much of a studio setting on some scenes and typical American dialogue but Marky Mark (yep he was that rapper lol) was a good reason to buy that film. I watched it twice in the cinema, it gave a different meaning to the apes series esp that ending (no spoilers in case). Thus leading me to the recent reboots I am not a great fan of these at all! Forgive me but as a person who grew up loving the originals in that era (well almost) I am fondly in love with these films. The reboots are great CGI and that’s about it. These reboots try too hard to be too much, and the originals were less violent and more family entertainment. Whereas the reboots are more aimed to the hard hitting audience, but it is also aimed at those who have never seen this franchise before. I however might own this films (you have to no matter what!) but I will never rate them above the original films.
So if you’ve never seen them I would watch them tonight! Star Trek The Motion Picture was freaky but POTA is much freakier!
Taylor, the cynic and self-loathing human being collapses in anguish in the sand and delivers his famous “Damn them, damn them all to hell!” In that beach scene on his back it was a body double not Charlton Heston. Notice you only see a quick view of the top of his face and it obliviously if you look carefully a much younger better looking man than Charlton Heston!