In 1968, two memorable science fiction movies were released, each featuring unforgettable images of apes and their place in the evolutionary cycle. One of these films – 2001: A Space Odyssey – has rightfully found its place in the annals of film history as great science fiction that rises above its genre. The other – Planet of the Apes – has also found its rightful place – as an all-time camp classic.
Yes, there are those who say that this is a film that’s much more than camp. They point to the way it uses the reversed roles of humans and apes to comment on 20th century society. It’s true. The social commentary is ladled on in huge doses. But this is shallow stuff that’s as banal as the social views it criticizes.
The story is simple – a space ship that left Earth in 1972 arrives at a distant planet in the constellation Orion 2000 years – and hundreds of light years – later. Its crew has aged only a matter of months due to an unexplained space travel effect. The three crewmembers that survive the crash landing find themselves in a beautiful but desolate and lifeless environment. They trek in search of life, and eventually find it in the form of a backward world where apes talk, ride horses and create mid-19th century level technology, while humans are mute, semi-naked wildlife running about in search of food and trying to dodge the nasty apes. It’s a weird world – these apes have cameras and guns, but the sight of a paper airplane shocks them.
Charlton Heston plays the crew leader – his Taylor is a sarcastic, bullying, unlikeable fellow who becomes the film’s sole focus as his crewmates are made irrelevant by events, and as he fights for freedom. Shot in the throat, he eventually is able to speak and surprise the apes who believe humans aren’t capable. Aided by two sympathetic scientist apes, Taylor makes a run for it. The apes he’s trying to escape are nasty types, driven by fundamentalist religion and rigid laws that define reality in a way that Taylor’s existence contradicts.
Director Franklin J. Schaffner uses sometimes-dizzying camera effects – crazy zooming and hand-held cameras at ground level during chases – to make this world more fantastic and exciting, but viewers will see the Flintstone-like sets as entirely appropriate for the silliness that goes on. The script is similarly colourful but lacking in substance. The apes constantly spew cliché lines (such as “You know what they say, ‘human see, human do.’”) that seem funny at first, but soon have overdone it.
The film is exciting at times, and has an ending that’s spooky if faux-important, although the concluding twist has been ruined by the film’s publicity, which prominently uses the image at the centre of the twist.
2001 and Planet of the Apes both feature apes, but don’t be fooled by that similarity. The former is a complex and challenging work filled with meaning, while the latter is pure shallow, dumb fun.
