Planet of the Apes (1968 film)

Planet of the Apes (original title in English, Planet of the Apes) is a 1968 American science fiction film based on the novel of the same name by Pierre Boulle and the first in the Planet of the Apes franchise. Franklin J. Schaffner directed the film starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, and James Whitmore. The film tells the story of astronaut Colonel George Taylor , who, along with his crew, crash-landed on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes. The development of this film began in 1960, when Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, developed a first script, which was discarded because being too faithful to the novel implied a large investment in the development of scenarios and special effects. Michael Wilson was commissioned to rewrite Serling's script, and at Schaffner's request it depicted the more primitive ape society to reduce production costs. The success of this feature film led to the production of several sequels and prequels, a series of television canceled in its first season and another cartoon (closer to Pierre Boulle's novel, La planète des singes ) in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2001, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot

In the still-future 1974, four astronauts ― Colonel George Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Stewart (Dianne Stanley, uncredited) are in hibernation when their spaceship lands and crashes in a lake on an unknown planet after an 18-month journey at near-light speeds. Upon awakening, the astronauts discover that due to a loss of air, pilot Stewart's animation team failed, so they find her dead and stuffed. Suddenly alerted that the ship is sinking in the lake, so they rush to escape. Before leaving the ship, Taylor observes that, according to the computer's calculations, the current year is 3978, a phenomenon that was predicted, since while the crew has aged only 18 months, for planet Earth 2006 years have passed (counted from the launch, in 1972) due to the time dilation typical of Einstein's theory of relativity.

The initial scenes of the film were shot at Lake Powell (Arizona).

The three men cross the lake in an inflatable boat. Once on shore, Dodge performs a soil test determining that the planet is incapable of supporting life.

Despite this, the three astronauts set off across a desert landscape under harsh and inexplicable weather conditions. The threatening situation they experience leads to discouragement and collapse in Landon. Taylor responds with irony to the attitude of his partner, whom he sees as the personification of the defects and weaknesses of the human species, which he hates and mocks, not ceasing to think that "somewhere in the universe he has to there is something better than man". Shortly after they discover the first findings of plant life. At the edge of the desert they find an oasis and decide to go swimming to cool off, ignoring the strange scarecrow-like figures. While swimming, their clothes are stolen. They set out in search of the robbers, until they find their clothing torn to shreds and their supplies looted. The robbers are a group of primitive humans who cannot speak and are looting a cornfield.

Suddenly, uniformed men on horseback are running through the cornfield, brandishing firearms, traps, and nets, which they use to capture as many humans as they can and kill those who escape. The uniformed ones turn out to be gorillas. As they flee, Dodge is killed, Landon is knocked unconscious, and Taylor is shot in the throat, rendering him speechless. During the hunt, the gorillas capture a beautiful girl (Linda Harrison). He is then locked in a cage, Zira examines him and Taylor tries to say words but can't due to his injury, and Zira encourages him to speak:

Speak, clear eyes! Come on! Do your purse!

But it's useless.

Humans, including Taylor, are herded into a common outdoor cage. Taylor tries to get the attention of Zira and her boyfriend Cornelius by writing her name on the ground, but they both get caught up in a conversation with Dr. Zaius and ignore him. At that moment, Nova, who was next to Taylor, erases what she has written and he violently pulls her away from her, causing a fight, so they are taken back to her inner cages. Zaius, noticing Taylor's ability, erases the rest of the name with his staff. Inside the laboratory, Zira encourages Taylor to speak again, he takes away his pen and notebook to write her name, surprising Zira, who orders them to take him to his house to study it. There Zira and Cornelius are surprised by Taylor's story, who explains to them with a paper plane how he came to his world by flying, to which Cornelius replies that this is a "scientific impossibility". At that moment, Zaius arrives and replies to Cornelius about his obsession with reaching the forbidden zone again and destroys the paper airplane that Taylor made, ordering the guards to return it to the laboratory.

Back in the laboratory, one of the apes comments that Taylor will be castrated on Zaius's orders and he manages to escape, but as they flee the apes hit him, trapping him with a net. When they are about to pick it up, Taylor manages to speak exclaiming

Get the fuck off me, you fucking disgusting apes!

Thus it causes the surprise of all the apes.

Taylor is transferred back to his cage and there he meets the woman, whom he names Nova and tries to teach her to speak but is immediately brought before the Ape Council and accused by a court led by Zaius. There he tries to prove that there is another man like him who can also speak and that she is Landon's partner, but when they show it to him he realizes that he has been lobotomized to incapacitate him. Taylor reacts furiously cursing Zaius and is returned to his cage. In a last attempt, Zaius takes him to his house asking him to reveal his origin and to declare where the nest of mutants to which, according to him, Taylor belongs is located; but for more explanations that he gives this, Zaius does not give him credit.

Taylor is helped to escape by Cornelius and Zira, taking Nova with them, and they travel to the forbidden zone. There they are overtaken by Zaius, and in a cave, where Cornelius has conducted archaeological excavations, they discover a talking human doll, to which Taylor curses Zaius again in the presence of the guards who discover the place. Taylor takes Zaius hostage and forces the guards to leave the area. As Taylor prepares to leave with Nova, Zaius berates him for the evil of his species. Taylor, however, replies:

You haven't answered me yet, doctor. A planet where the ape evolved from man? There must be an answer.

To which Zaius replies:

Don't look for her, Taylor: You may not like what you find.

Taylor says goodbye to Cornelius and Zira and they thank him for his help in proving that they were right in their scientific postulates. As Taylor and Nova start their march, Zira asks Zaius:

What will you find there, Doctor?

And he answers:

Your destiny.

Statue of Liberty in ruins, art of Alex Schomburg.

Taylor skirts the seashore on horseback with Nova, and soon after, when he looks straight ahead, he discovers the tragic answer to his questions about the origin of that civilization in reverse, exclaiming with hate and regret:

Oh, my God! I'm back! All this time I didn't realize I was in it... I finally got it! You've destroyed it! Damn wars!

Disoriented to see Taylor kneeling on the beach lamenting his discovery, Nova looks up, conveying to the audience an apocalyptic image: the ruined Statue of Liberty half buried between the sea and the rocks. The planet of the apes is actually Earth.

Cast

Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison in a shooting photo.

Cornelius, Dr. Zira and Taylor (Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Charlton Heston).

• Charlton Heston - Colonel George Taylor.
• Roddy McDowall - Cornelius.
• Kim Hunter - Dr. Zira.
• Maurice Evans - Dr. Zaius.
• James Whitmore - The President of the Assembly of Simes.
• James Daly - Dr. Honorious.
• Linda Harrison - Nova.
• Robert Gunner - Astronaut Landon.
• Lou Wagner - Lucius.
• Woodrow Parfrey - Dr. Maximus.
• Jeff Burton - Astronaut Dodge.
• Buck Kartalian - Julius.
• Norman Burton - Hunt Leader.
• Wright King - Dr. Galen.
• Paul Lambert - Minister.

Reception

The film was successful. For this reason it had many sequels.

Acknowledgments

The film was nominated for the Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards in the categories of Best Score and Best Costume Design. It won an honorary award for Quality Makeup (in 1969 there was no such category at the Oscars). Makeup had accounted for 17% of the total budget.

Differences from the novel

As an adaptation, it has several points in common with Pierre Boulle's novel. The main ape characters (Zira, Cornelius and Dr. Zaius) appear, even the human Nova and the plot is similar. In the first version of the script, Rod Serling respected the plot and the characters of the literary work, however, in the following versions details were altered, focusing the story more towards adventure than satire, especially with the participation of Michael Wilson on the rewrite. The most notable differences between the final version and the novel are as follows:

• The Phyllys and Jinn characters and their subtrama that framed the story are suppressed.
• French astronauts Ulysses Merou, Levain and Professor Antelle, are replaced by American astronauts in command of Colonel Taylor (which is a reflection of Ulysses Merou).
• The protagonists of the novel left Earth in the 20th century, while those of the film did it in the centuryXX..
• In the novel, astronauts carry with them a terrific chimpanzee, who dies shortly to land on the planet, murdered by Nova. In the film, however, the fourth member of the crew is a woman who dies from a failure in her hibernation system during the space journey.
• In the novel, the difficulty that the protagonist has in communicating with apes is that they speak a different language, while in the film they use the same English language as the protagonist, but this cannot speak because of a wound they made in the throat during their capture.
• In the novel, apes constitute an advanced society very similar to humans in the first half of the centuryXX., while in the film they recreated a much more primitive society to lower the cost of shooting.
• In the novel, before being feared and considered a scientific heresy, the protagonist becomes a celebrity, as he would later raise the reverse in the sequel Escape from the planet of apes. While in the film, Taylor is treated with fear and aversion since he publicly manifests his ability to speak.
• In the novel, Dr. Zaius is skeptical because of his inability to accept new ideas that move away from the scholastic dogmas established, while in the film it is due to his religious conceptions that break fundamentalism.

The final scene was filmed on a small beach, Zuma Beach, between Malibu and Oxnard in California.

• In the novel, one of the protagonist's companions also survives the hunt but, as he spent too much time in cages, treated as an animal and in contact with primitive humans, he abandons himself and ends up becoming one more. Instead, in the film the apes perform a surgical operation in the brain to annul their will and their ability to speak.
• In the novel, the action takes place on the planet Soror of the Betelgeuse star system, while in the film no, leading to a completely different end.

Aftermath

The saga of Planet of the Apes was continued by four sequels:

• Back to the planet of apes (Beneath the Planet of the Apes1970)
• Escape from the planet of apes (Escape from the Planet of the Apes1971)
• Conquest of the planet of apes (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, 1972)
• Battle for the planet of apes (Battle for the Planet of the Apes1973)

Two television series were also filmed:

• The planet of apes (Planet of the Apes1974)
• Back to the planet of apes (animation) (Return to the Planet of the Apes1975)

In 2001, Tim Burton directed a new version entitled Planet of the Apes with a rereading of the novel from his perspective. The points of greatest difference with the original film are: the mobility of the apes; The main characters from the original film (Zira, Cornelius, Dr. Zaius and Taylor) do not appear and humans can speak. As a curiosity to note that Charlton Heston was briefly involved in the film, but this time playing Zaius, an old ape, the dying father of General Thade (Tim Roth).

In 2011, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (The Planet of the Apes (R)Evolution) premiered in Latin America or The Origin of the Planet of the Apes apes in Spain) by director Rupert Wyatt and with James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow and Andy Serkis in the cast. According to 20th Century Fox, artistically it is a new version of the story and has no relation to the saga, although it does pay homage to the 1968 classic.

On July 11, 2014, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (The Planet of the Apes: Confrontation) premiered in Latin America or The Dawn of the Planet of Apes in Spain) by director Matt Reeves and with Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee, for humans and for apes Andy Serkis (Cesar), Toby Kebbell (Koba), Karin Konoval (Maurice). This is the sequel to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

In 2017 War for the Planet of the Apes was released, the continuation of the saga, in which the actor Woody Harrelson took part.