And they are amazing, especially for the time. During the ape craze, you couldn't turn on the television or read a magazine without some mention of them. I remember as much excitement and curiosity being generated by the ape costumes in this movie as the special effects in Star Wars generated only a few years later. And much does this movie have to thank him for. The movie ending was the invention of the screenwriter, that master story-with-a-twist-ending-teller, and creator of the Twilight Zone Rod Sterling. The truth is revealed in a completely different and less plausible way. That famous scene on the beach where the horror of it all sinks into Taylor, is missing from the book. Most significantly, the endings are different.
#PLANET OF THE APES FULL MOVIE 1968 SERIES#
In fact, the book is actually a combination of the first movie in the series and the fourth Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Pardon the pun, but I went ape over this movie.Īs Patrick mentioned, the movie was based on a book, but although the main thrust of the plots are similar, they differ greatly in the details. I wasn't born in time to see it in the theater, but as a child they showed it frequently on television. It had a defining effect on me and probably accounts at least in part for my love of Science Fiction. I owned several of the dolls (this was before they were called action figures), the cardboard playset, coloring books, comic books, and of course, the lunchbox. Planet of the Apes is the first movie I can remember that made me a devoted fan. Now that the Tim Burton remake is set to hit theaters in 2001, it is the perfect time to view this wonderful film, whether you've seen it a dozen times or never, it won't disappoint. Planet of the Apes is a fascinating concept that is well executed. Schaffner does a terrific job setting the mood, without the use of modern special effects via computer graphics he makes us believe we are on another planet simply by how his shots are executed this is helped out immensely by Jerry Goldsmith's eerie and haunting score. He alone knows the secret knowledge buried underground in the forbidden zone, a secret that leads to the famous and shocking final scene in this sci-fi classic.ĭirector Franklin J. Zaius, the wise orangutan leader of Ape City.
Maurice Evans gives the best performance in the movie as Dr. Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter are completely unrecognizable as the pair of chimpanzee scientists who befriend the human Taylor, and assist him in his escape. John Chambers was, in fact, given an honorary Academy Award for his work creating the life-like masks which took as long as four hours to apply.
The ape make-up is amazing and holds up well more than thirty years after its release. The apes are divided into three distinct categories, the orangutan's who are the political and spiritual leaders, the gorilla's who are the hunter's and make up the military, and finally the chimpanzees who are peaceful and intellectual. What's more the apes hunt man for sport and perform experimental surgery on them, much as humans have done to animals in our culture. They soon discover that on this planet humans are as ignorant as dumb animals and apes have the power of speech and the ability to reason. During the early to mid seventies it was THE movie franchise, not to be eclipsed until a little movie called Star Wars was released a few years later.įor those who don't already know, this is the story of a group of astronauts, led by Taylor (Charlton Heston), who travel nearly two thousand years into the future and find themselves stranded on a mysterious and unknown planet. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes spawned four sequels, a primetime television series, a Saturday morning cartoon series, a comic book, action figures, a board game and many other items aimed at children. In 1968 the movie going public was introduced to one of the greatest and most original sagas in science fiction history. Charlton Heston faces the horrible truth as Taylor in Planet of the Apes.
0 kommentar(er)
