Amazon.com video review:
The five films in the Planet of the Apes series are enjoyable as
pure entertainment and yet substantial enough to inspire academic studies like
Planet of the Apes as American
Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture.
Loosely adapted from the novel
by French author Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes was released at the
height of racial and political unrest in America, adding resonance to its story
of a NASA astronaut (Charlton Heston) stranded on a planet where superior apes
dominate inferior human slaves. The film's final image--in which a
horrified Heston realizes the fate of humankind--remains one of the most
indelible in all of science fiction cinema.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) continues the original's
distant future scenario, pitting militant apes against mutant humans
dwelling in the subterranean ruins of New York City. Its phenomenal success
spawned Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), in which simian
scientists Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter, reprising
their roles from Planet) travel backward in time, setting the stage
for the ape supremacy of the first two films. McDowall returned in
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) as Caesar, the son of
Cornelius, leading an ape revolution that bridges the historical gap of the
previous films. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) ended the
five-film cycle with McDowall again playing the chimpanzee leader Caesar,
defeating gorillas and human mutants to establish the hierarchy introduced
in the original film.
The Apes films present a classic what-if scenario that hasn't
lost a bit of its potency. As if to prove its cultural endurance, the cycle
returned to its origins with director Tim Burton's remake of Planet of
the Apes--one of the most eagerly awaited films of 2001. --Jeff
Shannon
Amazon.com Essentials:
Many early science fiction films are now, quite inadvertently
(and in most cases undeservedly), objects of camp attention: we laugh
at the silly makeup, tin-can special effects, and the naive
"high-tech" dialogue. Planet of the Apes is no such film. Its
intelligent script, frightening costuming, and savagely effective
conclusion (which needs no big-budget special effects to augment its
impact) remain both potent and relevant. When Colonel George Taylor
(the fabulous Charlton Heston) crash lands his spacecraft on what
seems to be an unfamiliar planet, he is captured and held prisoner by
a dominant race of hyperrational, articulate apes. However, the ape
community is riven with internal dissention, centered in no small part
on its policy toward humans, who, on this planet, are treated as
mindless animals. Befriended and ultimately assisted by the more
liberal simians, Taylor escapes--only to find a more terrifying
obstacle confronting his return home. Heavy-handed object lessons
abound--the ubiquity of generational warfare, the inflexibility of
dogma, the cruelty of prejudice--and the didactic fingerprints of Rod
Serling are very much in evidence here. But director Franklin
Schaffner has a dark, pop-apocalyptic sci-fi vision all his own, and
time has not dulled the monumental emotional impact of the film's
climactic payoff shot. If you don't know what I'm talking about here,
you owe it to yourself to check out this stone classic, and even if
you do, see it with fresh eyes; and don't be surprised if you get the
chills all over again... and again... and again. --Miles
Bethany
