480. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Running Time: 112 minutes
Directed By: Franklin J. Schaffner
Written By: Michael Wilson, Rod Serling, from the novel La Planete des singes by Pierre Boulle
Main Cast: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore
Click here to view the trailer

THE TWILIGHT ZONE GONE APE

With every film my personal excitement mounts, as we draw closer and closer to yet another TOP 20 list and another milestone in my journey. Next up for me was "Planet of the Apes" - a film that I had seen a couple of times prior and one that always tends to make me a fan of sci-fi, if only for a short while.

The main character is Taylor (Heston), who along with three other astronauts has engaged in an 18 month exploration in deep space. However, that's 18 months moving at light speed - in actual Earth time they've been away for thousands of years. When they are awakened from a deep, hibernation-like sleep, they find that their spacecraft is about to make a crash landing. Glancing at the control panel of the ship, Taylor notices that the year is 3978 A.D. and judging by his scientific determinations, he feels they've landed on an unknown planet in an entirely different solar system from that of Earth. Taylor, along with his two astronaut cohorts (one of them dies in the spacecraft, due to a crack in her hibernation terminal), abandons the sinking spacecraft and wanders onto the soil of, what is to be their new home planet. After a bit of walking, the three spacemen come across a group of people, all of whom don't speak and resemble cavemen and women. Soon, the sound of galloping horses breaks the peaceful setting and Taylor and crew soon realize an attack is oncoming. An attack indeed, as Taylor and crew can't believe their eyes when they realize they're being chased down by apes, on horseback and wielding shotguns! It seems that on THIS planet, apes rule and humans are the animals!

SPOILER ALERT!

When I was younger - probably somewhere in the vicinity of 17 or 18 - my brother introduced me to "The Twilight Zone". Now, I'm not talking about the 80s version or the crappy 2000s version, but rather, the classic 1950s/1960s version. I think "Planet of the Apes" appeals to me because 1) It's co-written by Rod Serling, creator of "The Twilight Zone" and 2) It's pretty much set up just like an episode of the classic TV show. It provides us with a sci-fi based premise, gives us a decent hook (three astronauts landing on an unknown planet, 2000 years after they're mission has begun) and shocks us a couple of times throughout. However, my one big problem when it comes to "Planet of the Apes" is that it lasts about ninety minutes longer than an episode of "The Twilight Zone" lasted and at times it does tend to drag. Really the points that you need to hit here, aren't many. The entire plot is basically three astronauts traveling through space and crashing in the year 3978 A.D., only to discover that this "mysterious" planet is ruled by apes and that the humans are treated as animals. Tack on the surprise ending, and that's really all the bullet points that this film needs to hit. Everything else is just filler, really. When you start talking about evolutionary theories and having Taylor befriend a couple of the apes and that those apes may or may not stand trial for heresy, you really start to bog down the whole basic plot.

Granted, I realize that you have to have something to fill in the gaps between the bullet points, but it's really a shame, because the bullet points are gold and the filler really didn't do much for me. However, it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be and I think most sci-fi nuts will easily look past (or welcome) all of the stuff that I call filler. I really can't comment too much on the cast, at least positively. Heston was decent, but the rest of the actors were busy transforming into monkeys, so their skills weren't as obvious. One has to wonder if this was originally meant to be simply a vehicle for Heston to run around half-naked and play Tarzan for a couple of hours, but I quickly brushed that notion aside. One also has to wonder about the intentions of the original writers of the story and the point that they were obviously trying to make about they way humans treat animals. I mean, they were trying to make that point weren't they? There were a lot of points in the film where it was seemingly screaming, "See, what if we were the animals, it wouldn't be so fun, would it!?".

When you get right down to it, "Planet of the Apes" is a lot of fun. For the most part it's pretty engaging, but there are a few spots where you just want to get to the ending. Speaking of the ending, it's also a film that once you've seen the ending, the film never has that same shock value again. It's also a film that will get the scientific part of your brain running a little bit and even if you're not a "sci-fi guy", I think this is a film that easily appeals to all types of audiences.

RATING: 7/10 Hey, how 'bout that Linda Harrison huh....huh! For the curious, I'll be starting my four-film salute to Robert Wise sometime next week. I have a few loose ends that I want to tie up first, so expect randomness till then.

MOVIES WATCHED: 358
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 643

December 2, 2011 11:19pm