Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and based on the novel La planète des singes by Pierre Boulle, which was published in 1963. The film stars Charlton Heston and features Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison. It was released by 20th Century Fox.

The film tells the story of an astronaut crew who crash-land on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. The apes have assumed the role of the dominant species and humans are mute animals wearing animal skins.

Plot Summary

Astronauts Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), Stewart (Dianne Stanley), and Dodge (Jeff Burton) are in deep hibernation when their spaceship crash-lands in a lake on an unknown planet in the year 3978 A.D., after a 2006-year voyage at near-light speed (during which the crew ages only 18 months due to time dilation). The planet has no moon and the clouds at night are luminous. The astronauts awaken to find Stewart’s decomposed body, 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.

The three astronauts set off through the desert, gradually encountering plant life. They find an oasis at the edge of the desert and decide to go swimming, ignoring strange scarecrow-like figures. 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.

Suddenly, gorillas on horseback charge through the cornfield, brandishing firearms, snares, and nets, which they use to capture whatever humans they can and kill those they cannot. While fleeing, Dodge is killed, Landon is bashed in the head and knocked unconscious, and Taylor is shot in the throat. The gorillas take Taylor to “Ape City,” where his life is saved by two chimpanzee scientists,”animal” psychologist Zira (Kim Hunter) and surgeon Galen. Upon awakening, Taylor — now housed in a cage with a girl whom he later calls Nova (Linda Harrison), who was captured on the same hunt — discovers that his throat wound has rendered him temporarily mute.

Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into a strict caste 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 either killed outright, enslaved for manual labor, or used for scientific experimentation.

Review

This was another one of those iconic films that everyone I know but me have seen. I can’t believe I’ve never watched this before!

Fantastic film. Although with it being a classic, I already knew how it ended, so I kind of ruined it for myself! I would have liked to have known how they managed to travel thousands of light years away from Earth and end up right back on it? Surely the statistics of that happening are TRILLIONS to one! It couldn’t have just been a fluke.

I tried to imagine what it would have been like if the roles were reversed and Humans had found an intelligent monkey that could talk. Surely we would make it a celebrity? At worst it would be a spokes person for a Beer company?

I would say that this is a must see and would urge you to watch it!

Rating:

Trailer

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes_(1968_film)