Planets of Apes

All sorts of planets and all sorts of apes (actually only one planet really). Having borrowed the box set of the original series ages ago, we finally got round to watching them, so here are my thoughts. Needless to say there are some spoilers, but I shouldn't assume that everyone knows about them, because until I saw the original last year I didn't know about the twist at the end! So, grab a banana, here we go.


Planet of the Apes (1968)

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring: Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans

Reasons to watch: Very interesting story, very much a study of human behaviour by placing humans as the dumb animals while the apes are more intelligent. Excellent performance by Charlton Heston as Talyor; despite playing an arrogant character, you can't help but side with him hoping he triumphs against injustice. Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall and Maurice Evans all manage to convey plenty of emotion from under their costumes.

Technically, there is thoughtful use of the camera when telling the story and some beautiful cinematography, particularly near the beginning. The music sometimes has a lot to be desired, Jerry Goldsmith's score is sometimes very random and full of clashing when nothing much is happening. Overall a great film well deserving of its classic status.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

Director: Ted Post

Starring: Charlton Heston, James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans

Reasons to watch: Beats me! Obviously cashing in on the success of the first film, this continues immediately from POTA but then Charlton Heston's character disappears into a rock when he tries to hit it! It is then up to James Franciscus' character who was on a rescue mission from Earth to be chased around by gorillas. After the great story of the first film, this is essentially a chase movie, and as such is not interesting at all. The acting is wooden, the direction is hardly there, and there are some excellent polystyrene New York landmarks underground.

Worst of all is the climax of the film involving some humanoids without faces, who wear rubber masks, can control people with their mind and worship a nuclear bomb! No explanation. Rubbish; utter rubbish. If you ever wanted to see all of the POTA series, I would recommend reading the synopsis for this one on IMDB and skipping the film. The very end is kind of important for the following film, but otherwise forget about it!

Rating: 1 out of 5

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

Director: Don Taylor

Starring: Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Ricardo Montalban

Reasons to watch: Interesting story, great reactions from the humans upon discovering the intelligence of Zira and Cornelius (Kim Hunter's and Roddy McDowall's chimp characters), and again an investigation of human nature but the spotlight directly on modern humanity now. Whereas in POTA the audience is completely behind Taylor, this time it is Zira and Cornelius who have our total support as they try to be accepted by our society (actually specifically by the military and the government - everyone else seems to accept them).

My main criticism would be that the ending is quite rushed, with a run-time of only 98 minutes, another 10 minutes to expand some of the issues towards the end would, I think, have been welcome. However surprised I was that Beneath the Planet of the Apes warranted a follow-up, I was far more surprised by how much I enjoyed "Escape", easily the second best film in the series.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Starring: Roddy McDowall, Ricardo Montalban, Don Murray

Reasons to watch: Before there was Rise of the Planet of the Apes there was Conquest, and it is interesting to watch human society fall apart. Good performances by Roddy McDowall as Caesar, Ricardo Montalban reprising and embellishing his role from "Escape", and Don Murray as Govenor Breck. However, no matter how good the idea for the film is, the execution is very sloppy.

It really didn't make sense that humans, having learned from from Zira and Cornelius in "Escape" that the apes would become the dominant force on the planet, now employ apes to do almost all menial tasks; from cleaning streets to waiting tables, to running errands. Also the behaviour control of the apes was silly. For example, rather than teach a few apes how to mop a floor, one guy would quickly show about 50 and then get annoyed when they didn't do it properly! Great concept, but poorly realised.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Battle for Planet of the Apes (1973)

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Starring: Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins,

Reasons to watch: Another good performance from Roddy McDowall as Caesar, as he tries to keep the peace between the humans who work for them and the gorillas who form the military. Caesar takes a trip into the infected zone to find a recording of his parents and comes across a group of surviving humans. Unfortunately the humans decide that they should follow Caesar back to their village and try to wipe them out. Certainly the best part of the film is the dynamic between the different classes of apes, as Caesar tries to rule in an equal opportunities kind of way. This all goes to pot when he finds out that Aldo, the gorilla leader, has killed his son.

A fairly explosive conclusion to the series, not a classic and some of the action is fairly run-of-the-mill, but a very interesting climax none-the-less.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Tombstone (1993)

Unfortunately I'm writing this so long after I saw the film (about 5 months) that I've forgotten most of it! I do remember that Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) moves out to Tombstone, AZ, having given up being a bad-ass Sheriff; but he can't get away from it all as easy as he hoped. No matter how he tries, he can't keep from antagonising bad guys (of which you would imagine there were quite a few in a place called Tombstone), he makes enemies and there is a chain of events that leads up to a shootout at the OK corral.

The only other thing I can really remember is that Val Kilmer was surprisingly good as the sick and ailing Doc Holliday. Maybe if I watch this again I'll post a better review in the comments below. I do remember it was quite enjoyable though!

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Planet of the Apes is one of those films that everyone has seen; surely? Well not me! So when it was suddenly on Film4 last Sunday I thought that I’d better watch it.

George Taylor (Charlton Heston) is an astronaut, in a spaceship, whose mission is to find new planets. Having gone into hyper-sleep, he and his crew crash-land somewhere new; finally, after 2000 years. Unfortunately one of the crew (the only woman) has died of old age because there was a crack in the cover of her hyper-sleep chamber. The remaining three members of the crew search the planet for signs of life, until they encounter a village of primitive men. They are all then attacked by a more advanced race of apes, and are taken prisoner. However, Taylor is shot in the neck, so for a good while can’t talk; so he can’t prove that he is as intelligent as the apes. Eventually he speaks: “Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty apes!”.

The scientists who are studying Taylor start to believe his story and help him escape. They find a cave of archaeological evidence showing that the apes actually evolved from ancient, more intelligent men. The Orangutans who seem to run this small ape culture follow Taylor and the scientists; they admit that they always knew that they had evolved from men, but have hidden it from the rest of their civilisation. They then decide to dynamite the cave, hiding the evidence for ever, but let Taylor go. He rides off on a horse around the corner and finds the Statue of Liberty half buried. He’s been on Earth all this time!

I was genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed this film. I know it’s a classic and you’re supposed to like it, but I really did. Charlton Heston is very good, his character is the epitome of human arrogance (presumably intentionally), and though I wouldn’t usually route for a character like this; because he is trying to prove that he isn’t lying, you can’t help but side with him. The other members of the cast are also very good - Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans - but it’s harder to appreciate them, because they are covered in hair the whole time!

The scenery, and the panoramas as the astronauts are exploring the planet are beautifully shot, and the inventive camerawork all adds to the enjoyment of the film. The script is also very sharp, particularly in the trial. There are also quite a few inversions of well-known sayings:

Human see, Human do;
Landon asking Taylor to get off his back (get this monkey off my back?);
The three Orangutans at the trial assuming a See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil pose at one point!

Some of these moments are a bit cheesy perhaps, but all add to the enjoyment of the film.

I think some of the things that I didn’t like about it were purely aesthetic due to it being an older film. Dozy things like the fact that the space-ship can obviously cope with the vacuum of space, but as soon as it lands in some water it starts leaking like a colander! I also thought it was very stupid (typical humans) that when they first find life on the new planet in the form of a small plant, the first thing they do is dig it up, so it’ll die! WTF? I’m not sure if this is to demonstrate how uncivilised the humans are compared to the apes (btw, I had no idea that the apes were as advanced as they were; see I really didn’t know anything about this film!), or whether the director had a sudden brain-fart! Actually, one thing I really didn’t like was Gerry Goldsmith’s score; it was all very random, kind of like orchestral jazz! But it wasn’t obtrusive enough to spoil the film, it was only really obvious at a few points.

At the start of the film I was thinking “Mmmm, amazing how much this new planet looks like Arizona!” Of course in retrospect this is perfectly acceptable, since they are on Earth anyway. I really honestly didn’t know about the twist at the end, despite the Statue of Liberty being on the movie poster! Initially I felt a bit disappointed when it was discovered that actually man had been just as evolved as the apes many years ago, almost as if it were saying that men actually were better after all; which I didn’t think was the point of the story. Then of course we discover that they are on Earth, just 2000 years in the future, so actually it makes chronological sense. Still a bit disappointed though; I thought that they could have made more of the idea of mankind losing its way, and so another species was able to evolve and overtake them.

A lot of the issues raised ring true with our society today: refusal to accept things we don’t understand; the arguments between science and religion; the idea of man taking over his environment and being a harbinger of death. This is probably one reason that the film works so well, and is still very good. Though of course, it is just a cool movie in itself anyway.