Rent Planet of the Apes (1968)

Classic Sci-fi. - Planet of the Apes review by Steve

It is a sign of the increased prestige attached to science fiction in the late sixties that Planet of the Apes was assigned an A list director to what looked like a B film premise. An astronaut (able to traverse time as well as space) lands on a planet with a habitable atmosphere in the distant future, where the great apes are the dominant species (who speak English!) and the humans are mute, unreasoning animals.

Taylor (Charlton Heston) discovers an earth-like environment, but because his instruments are telling him that he is way over the other side of space, he doesn't draw the obvious conclusion... at least until the justly famous ending.

Schaffer brought the advantages of an A budget with him into the project. There is a major star. The visuals are fabulous, particularly in the early location shots in the Utah desert. There is a sophisticated score. While the beautiful colour of the film is bright and without expressionist shadows, the irregular, jagged constructions of the ape city give the film an unsettling, distorted look. Best of all are the superb ape costumes and make-up effects.

For what is essentially an action film there is quite a lot of thematic content in Planet of the Apes. Religious leaders must have blinked at the evidence proving evolution was in progress well before the provenance of the ape scriptures. The schism between the gorillas and chimpanzees allowed for reflection on contemporary American racial conflict. It is a film about social and political realities in 1968, with prejudice, belligerence and superstition ascendent over reason.