Planet of the Apes (1968 film)

Planet of the Apes
Directed by	Franklin J. Schaffner
Produced by	Mort Abraham Arthur P. Jacobs
Written by	Novel: Pierre Boulle Screenplay: Michael Wilson Rod Serling
Starring	Charlton Heston Roddy McDowall Kim Hunter Maurice Evans James Whitmore James Daly Linda Harrison Brady Johnston
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	February 8, 1968
Running time	112 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,800,000
Followed by	Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 science fiction/thriller film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner loosely based on the novel La planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and veteran Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans. The film was ground-breaking for its make-up techniques by artist John Chambers.^[1] The script was originally written by Rod Serling but had many rewrites before eventually being made.^[2] Changes included character names and a more primitive ape society, instead of the more expensive idea of having futuristic buildings and advanced technology.^[3]

The film was well received by critics and audiences, launching a film franchise,^[4] including four sequels, as well as a short lived television show, animated series, comic books, various merchandising, and eventually a remake in 2001. McDowall had a long-running relationship with the Apes series, appearing in the original series of five films (one only via stock footage from an earlier film), and also in the television series.

Plot

Astronauts Taylor, Landon, and Dodge are in deep hibernation when their spaceship (non-canonically known as Icarus) crash-lands in a lake on an unknown planet in 3978 after a 2006-year voyage at near-light speed (the crew ages only 18 months due to time dilation). The astronauts awaken to find that their fourth companion and only female, Stewart, has died in space due to an air leak and that their ship is sinking. They use an inflatable raft to reach shore. Once there, Dodge performs a soil test and pronounces the soil incapable of sustaining life. Taylor suggests they are on a planet in the constellation of Orion some 320 light years from Earth but admits he is not sure.

The three astronauts set off through the desert, finding first a single plant and then others. They find an oasis at the edge of the desert where they decide to take a swim, ignoring strange 'scarecrows'. While they are swimming, their clothes are stolen. Pursuing the thieves, the astronauts find their clothes in shreds and the perpetrators — a group of mute, primitive humans — contentedly raiding a cornfield. But shortly, the astronauts and other humans are being pursued by gorillas on horseback. Dodge is shot and killed during the pursuit, while Taylor and Landon are captured and taken back to Ape City; Taylor is shot in the throat, but survives due to the surgical efforts of two chimpanzee scientists, Zira and Galen. Upon his recovery, Taylor is put in a cage with a woman, Nova, who was captured on the same hunt. Due to the throat injury, he has temporarily lost his ability to speak.

Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into a strict class system: the gorillas as police, military, and hunters; the orangutans as administrators, politicians and lawyers; and the chimpanzees as intellectuals and scientists. Humans, who cannot talk, are considered feral vermin and are hunted and used for scientific experimentation.

Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius, an archaeologist, take an interest in Taylor because of his lip movements. While Cornelius and Zira are talking to their boss, Dr. Zaius, Taylor writes in the dirt and attempts to call Cornelius and Zira's attention to it, but he becomes frustrated when they do not notice the writing. Zaius sees some letters on the dirt and realizes that Taylor possesses intelligence and hastily erases the letters with his cane. Taylor manages to steal paper and a pencil from Zira and convinces her and Cornelius that he is intelligent.

Zaius orders Taylor to be gelded (emasculated), but he makes an escape. Running through the ape city Taylor discovers the stuffed remains of astronaut Dodge on exhibit in a museum. He is recaptured and while hanging in a net stuns the crowd by speaking, shouting the famous line, "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" He is put on trial to determine his origins (in a parody of the Scopes Monkey trial). During the trial, he is treated like a beast with little or no rights. During the trial Taylor talks about his comrades and explains that one was killed and the other lost. At this point the court is directed to a group of humans that were captured at the same time as Taylor where he sees Landon, who has been lobotomized. Landon isn't seen again but the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes revealed that he was killed.

Later, Taylor is taken to see Dr. Zaius, who threatens to lobotomize him as well if he doesn't tell the "truth" about where he came from. But Cornelius and Zira execute a plan to free Taylor, who insists that Nova also be brought along. They flee to the Forbidden Zone, where, a year earlier, Cornelius had discovered a cave with artifacts of an advanced society. Dr. Zaius, along with a band of gorilla soldiers, manages to find them. After a struggle, Taylor finds a talking human doll in the cave that proves that intelligent humans were on the planet long before the apes gained control. Taylor and Nova are allowed to escape on horseback. Zaius lets them go without further confrontation, knowing that Taylor will find "his destiny." After they leave, Zaius has the soldiers blow up the cave to prevent future research.

Soon after his escape, in the final, iconic scene, Taylor discovers a damaged Statue of Liberty half-buried in the beach. He realizes that he has been on Earth all along, and that humanity must have destroyed its own civilization with war, thereby paving the way for the Planet of the Apes.

Production

In the late 1960s most studios were not convinced that this film was a feasible production. One script that came close to being made was written by Rod Serling, though it was finally rejected for a number of reasons. A prime concern was cost, as the technologically advanced ape society portrayed by Serling's script would have involved expensive sets, props and special effects. Serling's script was rewritten and the ape society made more primitive as way of eliminating many costly sets and special effects. His ending was retained, however, leading to one of the most famous movie endings of all time. The exact location and state of decay of the Statue of Liberty (as seen in the 1998 documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes) changed over several storyboards. One version depicted the statue buried up to its nose in the middle of a jungle while another depicted the statue in pieces.

In order to convince the Fox Studio that a Planet of the Apes film could really be made, the producers shot a brief test scene using early versions of the ape makeup. Charlton Heston appeared as an early version of Taylor (named Thomas, as he was in Rod Serling-penned drafts of the script), Edward G. Robinson appeared as Zaius, while then-unknown actors James Brolin and Linda Harrison played Cornelius and Zira. Harrison, who was the mistress of the head of the studio at the time, would later play Nova in the 1968 film and its first sequel, and have a cameo in the Tim Burton "reimagining" more than 30 years later (as did Heston). This test footage is included on several DVD releases of the film, as well as the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes. Dr. Zaius was originally to have been played by Robinson, but he backed out due to the heavy make-up, and long sessions to apply it, that were required. (Robinson later made his final film, Soylent Green, opposite his one-time Ten Commandments co-star Heston.)

Shooting began on May 21, 1967, and ended on August 10, 1967. Most of the first scenes in the film were shot at Lake Powell and Glen Canyon located in Utah, as well as locations near Page, Arizona. The scenes of the crew paddling away from their crashed ship were shot on Lake Powell. The ape village was constructed and filmed on the Fox Ranch in Malibu Creek State Park, northwest of Los Angeles. The concluding beach scenes, including the remains of the Statue of Liberty, were shot near Point Dume, at the south end of Zuma Beach in Malibu.^[5]

Credits and awards

Academy Awards

It won an honorary Academy Award for John Chambers for his outstanding make-up achievement. It was nominated for Best Costume Design (Morton Haack) and Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical). The score is known for its avant-garde compositional techniques, as well as the use of unusual percussion instruments and extended performance techniques.

Other awards

The movie is on several of the AFI lists but did not make the top 100 movies either time. However, the musical score by Jerry Goldsmith was picked as the 18th best film score in American Cinema according to AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. Also according to the American Film Institute, it contains the 66th best movie line: "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!" The film is also ranked at #59 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list.

In 2001, Planet of the Apes was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Ironically, this was the same year the critically savaged "reimagining" was released.

The surprise ending in the film's final scene frequently makes "best moments in film" and "best endings" lists.

Sequels

Planet of the Apes was followed by four sequels:

• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

and two short-lived television series:

• Planet of the Apes (1974)
• Return to the Planet of the Apes (animated) (1975)

The movie was "reimagined" in 2001; see Planet of the Apes (2001 film).

Marvel Comics produced full comic book adaptations of all the films, a number of original stories in the Apes universe, including Terror On The Planet Of The Apes, Future History Chronicles and others.

Cultural references

• The writers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 made no secret of their admiration for the film; not only did their "riffs" during movies at times feature numerous quotes and references to the film, but during its three seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel, the show introduced the character of Professor Bobo, a talking, bespectacled simian (played by Kevin Murphy) who was similar to the apes of the film. Bobo was different from the film's apes in that, despite being an eminent scientist, he could be extremely foolish at times and often reverted to more typical ape-like behaviors. He was introduced during the show's eighth season, during which the host segments featured an overarching storyline with plots similar to Planet of the Apes and its' sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
• The 1974 Godzilla film, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla features a humanoid-ape race, who builds the title antagonist. The humanoid ape race is a homage to the actual ape race in Planet of the Apes.
• The Simpsons episode 3F15, "A Fish Called Selma", includes a musical parody; veteran actor Troy McClure dates Marge's sister and scores a comeback as Taylor in the stage-musical production "Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want To Get Off!" We see McClure sing with breakdancing orang utans as Dr. Zaius, offers him mental advice while the other apes act confused at the sight of a human capable of talking (and singing). The play eventually concludes with McClure discovering, to his horror, that he was on Earth all along: "Oh my god, I was wrong, it was Earth all along, you've finally made a monkey out of me. I love you Dr. Zaius."
• In "The Simpsons" episode 1F13 "Deep Space Homer" Homer, joining NASA, explains at a news conference that he's relaxed about space travel: "The only danger is if they send us to that terrible planet of the apes. Wait a minute...Statue of Liberty... that was our planet! You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you all to hell!" A number of other Simpsons episodes reference the film series: "I Married Marge", "Rosebud", "Bart of Darkness", "Bart's Girlfriend", "Pygmoelian" (Moe is judged by a soap-opera producer "Cornelius from Planet of the Apes ugly"), "Simpson Tide" (Homer dreams of a "Planet of the Doughnuts"), etc.
• In the "Futurama" episode "Raging Bender" the Planet Express crew tries to agree on a movie. Dr. Zoidberg suggests, "Fellows, fellows, how about a film we can all enjoy? 'Planet of the Clams': It's about an upside-down world where lobster is slave to clam." The lobby poster is a close replica of the 1968 version.
• 2005's Madagascar features a parody in which Alex has his bonfire, roughly shaped like the Statue of Liberty, destroyed and falls to his knees and curses aloud: "You burned it up! Darn you... Darn you all to heck!" to mimic the line "You Blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"
• The climax of the Mel Brooks film Spaceballs parodies Planet of the Apes by having the head and arm of Megamaid land on a planet inhabited by apes. Here, the Apes speak in English accents and find the idea of Spaceballs coming to the planet horrible ("Oh shit! There goes the planet"). The planet here may have been Earth as in the film Spaceballs, Earth is replaced by Planet Druidia.
• A parody is included in Kids Next Door when numbah 4 finds himself on a "planet" of "Rainbow monkeys".
• The 1970's ITV comedy show The Comedians regularly featured a sketch that was a pastiche of the opening lines of the TV show, and features a Maxx Wall like figure in place of an ape.
• Another parody is featured in the episode "The Apes of Wrath" of the channel 4 series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace in which the hospitals staff are turned into apes. In one shot, ape guards walk past that bear more than a passing resemblance to gorilla solders from the film.
• Another parody is featured on the cartoon Time Squad. The episode featured Tuddrussel squashing a fly in the Stone Age and as a result, it evolved into a huge, fire-breathing beast in medieval times. After he blasts it, the Squad is sent to the distant future where the role of Apes is replaced with Flies. Larry even screams the film's famed phrase, as a result of seeing the destroyed Statue of Liberty, and having his Emotion Filter on "Melodramatic".
• Newstopia occasionally features a journalist Pilger Heston (played by Shaun Micallef, parodying Charlton Heston's portrayal of George Taylor). In one dual parody, he reveals to the world that American Electric Power had illegally modified their power plants to burn people, and is then dragged away by two apes wearing hardhats. As an additional non-sequitur, he is dragged past a replica of the Statue of Liberty, inciting him to shout Taylor's final lines from the film before screaming off-camera.
• Crash of the Titans, a game featuring Crash Bandicoot, features a quick joke where Crash weeps at the site of N.Gin's large "Statue of Liberty"-shaped lair as it appears to have sunk into the beach. Perhaps another stab at the film is the fact that the level featuring the gag, and a few subsequent levels, feature Monkeys with exploding heads as common enemies.
• Ape Escape features monkeys trying to overthrow humanity as its main plot line. Ape Escape 2 features the Statue of Liberty being carved into a monkey holding a banana. The third game in the series, Ape Escape 3, features a section of a level called "Planet of the Humans," which essentially was a large television set, so it was particularly unrealistic. A monkey is seen screaming to the Statue of Liberty, Monkey Cam reveals him to be asking, "This is a sequel?".
• Comedian Ray Romano claims that the famous line from the film, "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape" was said to him by his wife on the night of their honeymoon.
• In Beast Machines episode 10, Optimus Primal and the Maximals encounter a bat on Cybertron. Upon catching up with it, Optimus tackles the bat, Nightscream, whose first line is "Take your stinking paws off me, you dirty ape."
• In a third season episode of Malcolm in the Middle entitled "Monkey", Hal says, after capturing the rogue monkey, "Take that, you damn dirty monkey."
• The film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, has a sequence where Jay imagines that monkeys will taking over society, complete with reenactments of the ape hunt scene and the primitive looking buildings.
• In the "Futurama" episode "Future Stock" Calculon, after an ape during an ape fight hits him with a tricycle "Get your damn tricycle off of me you damn dirty ape!"
• In the "Family Guy" episode "I Take Thee, Quagmire" Mayor Adam West, after Peter arranges for the statue of Liberty's foot to be transported to Quagmire's wedding to satisfy his foot fetish "Oh my God...you blew it up! You really did it....Damn you all to hell!"
• In another "Family Guy" episode "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar" Peter, hanging in a net surrounded by hundreds of apes with rifles pointed at him, asks "How many dirty stinkin' apes does it take to screw in a light bulb? (pause) Three! One dirty stinkin' ape to screw in the light bulb, and two dirty stinkin' apes to throw feces at each other! (laughs)"
• There's a parody to the film in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Spongehenge" when SpongeBob returns to Bikini Bottom after building Spongehenge. He finds the half-buried Krusty Krab that was abandoned during his absence, and his reaction represents Taylor during the film's climax.

Deviations from the novel

The film deviated from the original French novel in a number of ways:

• The hero is not a French journalist named Ulysse Mérou, but an American astronaut named Colonel George Taylor.
• The humans wear primitive clothing of animal skins. They were naked in the novel.
• The technology and general settings of the apes' towns are more primitive than in Boulle's original concept. This was a deliberate decision to reduce design and construction costs. Architectural elements were based on observations of ancient cave cities.
• The apes speak perfect 20th century English, while they spoke a wholly different language in the book. Ulysse has to learn it to get acquainted, while in the movie, Taylor has a throat wound which prevents him from speaking at first.
• In the original novel, the Planet of the Apes is located in the solar system of Betelgeuse and is not Earth. However the twist ending of the novel has Ulysse Mérou arriving back to Earth after his space flight to find out that it has taken the exact same evolutionary path and that the Apes are now in control. Although it is a significantly different twist ending, it inspired Rod Serling's unique twist. (Boulle would later go on to say that he wished he had thought of Serling's ending.) In the film, Taylor suggests they may be on a planet in orbit around a star in the constellation of Orion, where Betelgeuse is located.

References

External links

• Planet of the Apes at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet of the Apes at Rotten Tomatoes
• Planet of the Apes at Box Office Mojo
• Planet of the Apes Script
• The Forbidden Zone Large Fan site with information on the films, TV shows, comics, and more.
• Review and analysis of the Apes series
• Cover for short story by John Brunner that looks like the scene from Planet of the Apes
• Another Alex Schomburg cover from 1953 of the same scene