The Review:
Franklin J. Schaffner's, PLANET OF THE APES, is a well produced,
thought provoking Sci-Fi epic.
Charlton Heston (The Omega Man) is the chief astronaut on a deep
space, light speed spaceship, launched in 1972. The other three
members of the expedition are in cryogenic/suspended animation
deep sleep. As Heston prepares to put himself into the deep freeze
for awhile, he takes a moment out to philosophize, "Seen
from here, everything seems different, Time bends, space is ...
boundless. It squashes a man's ego. I feel lonely".
Heston and his fellow astronauts, still in cryogenic sleep aboard
their star ship, crash-land in a lake on an unknown, alien world.
The crash scene, exciting, well paced, and involving, is my favorite
in the film.
After making it to shore in a small life raft, the three surviving
astronauts begin an arduous trek inland. Director of Photography,
Leon Shamroy, delivers striking images of the blue, cloud filled
skies, and rocky, sandstone terrain of the planet.
Before long, Heston and his fellow astronauts encounter a community
where intelligent, talking apes are the rulers, with primitive,
mute humans their subjects. The ape society is divided into three
social strata: Orangutans rule, chimps are scientists and doctors,
and gorillas are the military/police.
Charlton Heston, under Schaffner's confident direction, gives
a more three dimensional performance than usual. Heston's head
astronaut character is a feisty malcontent who left Earth in search
of a better life. At one point, early on in the film, Heston proclaims,
"I can't help thinking somewhere in the universe there has
to be something better than man. Has to be!" Needless to
say, man-hating Heston goes ape when he discovers the true nature
of the planet he's landed on.
Roddy McDowall (Fright Night) and Kim Hunter (Streetcar Named
Desire) offer good support as a human-friendly husband and wife
chimp science team. Their ability to emote so effectively, despite
the heavy makeup, says something about the triumph of art over
artifice.
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