Planet of the Apes

Franklin J. Schaffner, USA, 1968, 112 minutes

Forget Mark Wahlberg (puh-lease). Cast from your mind the horror that was Helena Bonham Carter in monkey make-up. Eradicate that line from the old dying ape "Damn them, damn them all to hell!"

Wait. Take a look at that old ape --- the rock-breaking jawline, still visible under prosthetics, under 30 years of bad sequels, ageing flesh and gun control controversy, and see the man that made it all possible: Charlton Heston in 1968.

His is a life turned upside down, in a world gone topsy-turvy, for Heston, as Col. George Taylor, has crash-landed on a distant planet where the apes are the most intelligent form of life, and humans are pre-lingual, feral creatures. Captured by the apes, his throat is wounded, causing temporary muteness. He still attracts the attention of Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), who senses his intelligence, but who is as surprised as everyone when Heston recovers and utters the immortal line "Get your stinkin' paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" He is able to strike up a relationship with a female human, Nova (Linda Harrison) but puts the apes that defend his intelligence at risk when they are subjected to a religious heresy trial.

Many will expect the original Planet of the Apes to be a camp, kitsch 1970's movie with much hamming and awful special effects, but give this a chance --- it is a bleak, post-apocalyptic fable with a dark heart of social commentary, fantastic acting and stunning scenery. Some of the ideas explored will have you question your own humanity, and many lines of the script will be classics of all time. Above all, it has the most memorable and frightening ending of anything in the celluloid world.

I honestly believe that Heston, and indeed Hunter, have sullied the good work they did by accepting cameos in the Burton remake of Planet of the Apes. It cannot compare to the brilliance they achieved over a quarter of a century ago, and it once again proves that, all too often, the original is best.

Review by Claire Devlin
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2002