If you've never seen the original 1967 "Planet of the Apes" ? and if you formed an opinion of it only from scattered clips and parodies ? you probably think it's goofy, dated, and campy.
Watch the movie. Get past the opening, with the colored lights through the cockpit windows, and the mid-20th century-tech instrument panel. Beyond that short segment, the film has lost none of its power, its message, or its entertainment value. "Planet of the Apes" is a classic.
Charlton Heston plays Taylor, an astronaut disillusioned with the whole human race. After a long journey into deep space, his ship crashes in an alien landscape, where apes are in charge and humans are reduced to a feral existence. Taylor enlists the aid of two open-minded chimp scientists, Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter) to save his own life and defend human rights. Based loosely on the novel by Pierre Boulle, the script by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling uses the juxtaposition of the species to examine our own attitudes about race, evolution, class, and religion. The film resonated with late-sixties audiences and spawned a merchandising blitz.
The studio demanded a sequel. "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" is probably the weakest of the five-film series. Another 20th century Earth astronaut crashes in the wasteland of the Forbidden Zone. He conveniently meets Taylor's female companion. Like all humans in this ape-run world, Nova is mute, but she leads James Franciscus to the last place she saw Taylor. They are captured by a group of mutant and fanatical humans who worship The Bomb and are ready to do anything to defend their underground lair. Producer Arthur P. Jacobs and writer Paul Dehn thought the explosive ending would get them out of making any more "Apes" films.
Wrong. In "Escape from the Planet of the Apes", Cornelius and Zira use Taylor's repaired spacecraft to travel to just-a-little-later-than-present-day Earth. The talking chimps bring stories of a world where apes rule, frightening political leaders, who want to take drastic steps to make sure that never happens.
The fourth film, "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes", finds Cornelius and Zira's son Caesar (McDowall again) frustrated by having to hide his intelligence and angered by the humans' use of apes as slave labor. He leads the captive apes to rebellion, though he dreams of a future where the two species can live and work together.
The final film in the series, "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", takes up a few years later. Caesar runs Ape City, where humans and apes are equals, but hatred still runs deep in some of the former slaves. At the same time, humans struggling to survive in the nearby remains of a large city are ready to seek revenge on the apes. The whole series forms a neat well-thought-out circle that makes you think, while keeping you thoroughly entertained.
The Legacy Collection includes on a sixth disc a two-hour documentary hosted by McDowell. "Behind the Planet of the Apes" talks with the principals in front of and behind the camera who helped bring this monumental series to the screen. The 1967 "Planet of the Apes" offers three commentaries. One features the voices of McDowell, Hunter, Natalie Trendy (she appeared in four "Apes" films and was married to Jacobs), and make-up artist John Chambers. They were not sitting together; in fact, it seems like its just sound pulled from the documentary. For the second commentary, composer Jerry Goldsmith watched the film, and he has some insightful comments, both about the score and the direction of the picture. Finally, a text commentary by film historian Eric Greene offers interesting tidbits, but keeps your finger on the pause button. I'm a fast reader and I still had some trouble keeping up.
The only other extras in the set are the original theatrical trailers for all five films and the recent remake.
Auriette Lindsey
If you've never seen the original 1967 "Planet of the Apes" ? and if you formed an opinion of it only from scattered clips and parodies ? you probably think it's goofy, dated, and campy.
Watch the movie. Get past the opening, with the colored lights through the cockpit windows, and the mid-20th century-tech instrument panel. Beyond that short segment, the film has lost none of its power, its message, or its entertainment value. "Planet of the Apes" is a classic.
Charlton Heston plays Taylor, an astronaut disillusioned with the whole human race. After a long journey into deep space, his ship crashes in an alien landscape, where apes are in charge and humans are reduced to a feral existence. Taylor enlists the aid of two open-minded chimp scientists, Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter) to save his own life and defend human rights. Based loosely on the novel by Pierre Boulle, the script by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling uses the juxtaposition of the species to examine our own attitudes about race, evolution, class, and religion. The film resonated with late-sixties audiences and spawned a merchandising blitz.
The studio demanded a sequel. "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" is probably the weakest of the five-film series. Another 20th century Earth astronaut crashes in the wasteland of the Forbidden Zone. He conveniently meets Taylor's female companion. Like all humans in this ape-run world, Nova is mute, but she leads James Franciscus to the last place she saw Taylor. They are captured by a group of mutant and fanatical humans who worship The Bomb and are ready to do anything to defend their underground lair. Producer Arthur P. Jacobs and writer Paul Dehn thought the explosive ending would get them out of making any more "Apes" films.
Wrong. In "Escape from the Planet of the Apes", Cornelius and Zira use Taylor's repaired spacecraft to travel to just-a-little-later-than-present-day Earth. The talking chimps bring stories of a world where apes rule, frightening political leaders, who want to take drastic steps to make sure that never happens.
The fourth film, "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes", finds Cornelius and Zira's son Caesar (McDowall again) frustrated by having to hide his intelligence and angered by the humans' use of apes as slave labor. He leads the captive apes to rebellion, though he dreams of a future where the two species can live and work together.
The final film in the series, "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", takes up a few years later. Caesar runs Ape City, where humans and apes are equals, but hatred still runs deep in some of the former slaves. At the same time, humans struggling to survive in the nearby remains of a large city are ready to seek revenge on the apes. The whole series forms a neat well-thought-out circle that makes you think, while keeping you thoroughly entertained.
The Legacy Collection includes on a sixth disc a two-hour documentary hosted by McDowell. "Behind the Planet of the Apes" talks with the principals in front of and behind the camera who helped bring this monumental series to the screen. The 1967 "Planet of the Apes" offers three commentaries. One features the voices of McDowell, Hunter, Natalie Trendy (she appeared in four "Apes" films and was married to Jacobs), and make-up artist John Chambers. They were not sitting together; in fact, it seems like its just sound pulled from the documentary. For the second commentary, composer Jerry Goldsmith watched the film, and he has some insightful comments, both about the score and the direction of the picture. Finally, a text commentary by film historian Eric Greene offers interesting tidbits, but keeps your finger on the pause button. I'm a fast reader and I still had some trouble keeping up.
The only other extras in the set are the original theatrical trailers for all five films and the recent remake.
