Planet Of The Apes

Title: Planet Of The Apes (1968) (12)

Year: 1968

Running Time: 112 minutes

Director: Franklin J Schaffner

Cast: Charlton Heston (George Taylor), Roddy McDowAll (Cornelius), Kim Hunter (Zira) Notes: Nominated for two Oscars, won an Honarary Oscar. Won four awards.

Rating: 10

Thoughts:   A crew of astronauts crash land on a planet in the future, where species of apes have assumed different roles, and mankind is enslaved.

The story was no doubt ahead of its time and the film had a huge budget for 1968.

They still had to contain it and changed some of the original story to place the ape civilisation in adobe-type buildings. But they clearly spent plenty on how the apes look, they are amazing for now, let alone the late 1960s.

There's a bit of scene setting required as we first see the astronauts travelling, then they crash land and collide with other people. Then they are captured and the story really gets going.

The leads are all strong, the ape characters in particular combining their quasi-human, side with simian qualities. For clear fantasy it all feels very realistic even with a few continuity errors.

There are a few gaps though. Cornelius is trying to prove the place of man in the ancestry of the apes, but then seems reluctant to accept Taylor has come to them in the way he describes.

This might be some sort of clever quandry between science and religion but it is a weak plot progressor only. But those anomalies aside, this is still a decent film that more or less stands the test of time.

The reveals are well handled - the first time the apes appear, the discovery of old human remains, and then the final reveal that we are actually on earth in the future.

And of course, Taylor probably has one of the best lines in any film with "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape".

This is close to being a classic in any genre and is certainly a sci-fi one.