PLANET OF THE APES(1968)With Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner Reviewed by JB |
Based on Pierre Boulle's novel Monkey Planet, PLANET OF THE APES
features a witty script by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, superb
performances by Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans, and
groundbreaking makeup by John Chambers that is still impressive today.
Strange as it may sound, McDowall,
Hunter and Evans
all manage to project so much of their own humanity from behind the
makeup, they are completely believable as apes. (Compare this casting
to the later BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, which starred
diminutive singer-songwriter Paul Williams and "Sheriff Lobo" Claude
Akins). And long before Marky-Mark Wahlberg, star of the 2000 remake of
this film, there was Chuck Heston, who, after establishing himself as
the King of Biblical Epics (BEN-HUR, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS), went on to
become an icon of futuristic thrillers in the sixties and
seventies. Heston's screen presence brings just the right
amount
of gravity to the film to allow viewers to buy the whole premise.
Several of Heston's lines have become sci-fi classics, thanks
to
Heston's delivery. Who could forget "It's a
madhouse!
A maaaaadhoooussse!!" or "Get yer stinking paws off me, you damned
dirty ape!"? And let us not overlook the lovely Linda
Harrison as
the mute human Nova. Harrison was the favorite pinup gal of
sci-fi geeks everywhere, several years before Princess Leah in a gold
bikini came along.
PLANET OF THE APES
ends with one of the
most iconic movie images of all time, on a par with King Kong on the
Empire State Building or Harold Lloyd hanging from a clock.
If
you haven't seen the film, I won't spoil the ending for you, but beware
- the most recent DVD cover stupidly features this image prominently on
its cover, proving the film's premise - humans are really
dumb.
Followed by four sequels that followed the law of diminishing returns
with uncanny mathematical accuracy. 
- JB
ADD
ANOTHER QUOTE AND MAKE IT A GALLON
"He was a font of simian kindness. The dear
departed once said to me, 'I never met an ape I didn't like.'"
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Copyright © 2008 John V. Brennan, John Larrabee