Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes- Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner- 1968

Planet of the Apes is another one of those “classic” films whose reputation precedes itself. Everyone knows the title and a little bit about it, but a lot of people haven't watched it. A few one liners, overall aesthetic and of course talking monkeys from outer space seem to be what people remember the most. Released the same year as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes explores a much different thought process on evolutionary possibilities in the future. The journey starts with three time traveling spacemen careened on an unknown earth-like planet in the future with only 3 days supply of food and water. The banter between the time travelers is hysterical, Charlton Heston plays George Taylor an over the top alpha male type and like a big brother karate chopping his way through the dialogue, he seems to belittle his counterparts and push their buttons just because he can. This behavior continues even after the three men are captured by the apes. The roles as they know are reversed, apes have evolved into human-like creatures and humans have devolved into an ape-like being; losing their ability to speak and running around in wild packs. They are seen by the Apes as dirty, stupid animals, this turning of the tables asks the viewer to think about what animal behavior is and are we no more barbaric than the ape? Are we not as irrational as an ape?

 One of the Apes is a female scientist and takes interest in George Taylor who she calls “Bright Eyes”, she believes he is different than the other humans. Bright Eyes can’t speak because he was shot in the throat during his captivity but even silent Bright Eyes (Heston) is a bit of an over actor. The ape civilization has a social pecking order typical to our own; there are workers and overly suppressive authoritative figures. The old and young clash on opinions; this is our own culture disguised as another and thrown back in our face. Bright eyes continues to shake things up and is the unexpected variable throughout the film, with his two companions dead or brain dead, Bright Eyes gets some guidance from 2 ape scientists. Bright Eyes behavior and resistance towards authority leads to his escape and exposing the authoritative Apes as oppressors of knowledge and freedoms.

Planet of the Apes has some very interesting concepts regarding important social behaviors but didn't visually represent the strong content and at times had some poorly executed scenes and dialogue along with some really bad music too. Planet of the Apes definitely has some fun, weird moments and has an interesting way of turning the tables on human social behavior, exposing a reflection of fears of the late 60's, set in a false utopia in the future. Planet of the Apes story delivers unfortunately the rest of the film does not, perhaps it is a better book been a movie.