 | | Planet of the Apes ****
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With the new film,
Rise of The Planet of The Apes, currently proving to be such a huge hit in cinemas and Tim Burton's poor remake a distant memory, it's worth revisiting the original
Planet of The Apes and its four sequels. The first film is a classic science fiction gem, born of the same dystopian paranoia that drove the best of the genre throughout the preceding two decades. "It's a mad house!", screams Taylor (Charlton Heston) in the middle of his nightmare and for the viewer, that's exactly what it could be. If it ended for Taylor like it did for Dorothy in
The Wizard of Oz, clicking her red heels to get back home, you wouldn't be surprised that it could all have been a fevered dream. It doesn't end like that though. Even if you haven't seen it, you probably know it already, but if you can go into this film blind to its famous twist, then I envy you a little bit.
If you couldn't manage to avoid the spoilers for 40 years, the film is still worth seeing. It isn't all about the ending, the themes of which are there from the opening scene. It was the moment science-fiction cinema grew up from 1960s silliness into something more tangible and angry. The premise of being stranded on an upside-down planet may be old fashioned Twilight Zone horror (Rod Serling came up with the finale), but the story unfolds with self-loathing intelligence. Although it has dated, the fact that its 40 year old ideas still ring true today might even make it scary.
The atmosphere is still wonderfully effective. Leon Shamroy's photography of the desolate alien world is supported by a suitably inventive and foreboding score from Jerry Goldsmith. The sounds design has always stuck out to me as well, especially during that ending. Although the movie is mainly studio and producer driven, director Franklin J. Schaffner crafted a great film when the odds were it couldn't be made, crippled by a crazy premise. Key to realising it was the characterisation of the apes themselves, which is never sensational. The middle section could even be considered mundane, borderline farcical, but it works because the fascination comes from just how human and domesticated the apes are! The make-up by John Chambers is stunning, even today. He won an Academy Award for his work and it's well deserved because it didn't detract from the actors' performance at all; it is they who are crucial for convincing you enough to take the leap of faith the story needs. Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter (Cornelius and Zira) are charming as the couple who try to help Taylor, while Maurice Evans succeeds in what might be the hardest role as sort-of villain Dr. Zaius. Although adapted from a French novel by Pierre Boule,
Planet of The Apes is worth comparison with Richard Matheson's
I Am Legend (Dr. Zaius isn't evil, he fears what Taylor represents). There have been three failed attempts (including Heston's
The Omega Man) to bring Matheson's story to the screen convincingly, while
Planet of The Apes covers the same ground brilliantly.
This is ultimately Charlton Heston's film. He starts off as an unlikeable, arrogant sod and the story is as much about bringing him down a peg or two as anything else, yet we sympathise with him. He brings great movie star gravitas to the role, growling the dialogue into something iconic (
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"). He had a lot of memorable roles in his long career, but this will surely stand the test of time more than any other. While the apes convince you of the nightmare scenario, Heston is the conscience.
Now at this point, if you don't know the ending, stop reading! I'll just tell you that the sequels vary wildly in quality, but are still worth seeing because they become a saga. Parts three and four are good, but still flawed. At the very least, they make for curious comparisons with the new film, which is in parts a remake of Conquest of the Planet of The Apes. Spoilers may lie ahead and as I said before, I envy those who come to the first film blind, so I hope you've gone away! I mean that in the nicest way possible.
The first sequel,
Beneath The Planet of the Apes, is basically awful for several reasons. The budget was slashed and so the majority of the ape actors are clearly wearing masks. Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans return, but Cornelius is played by David Watson, who is no replacement for Roddy McDowall. James Franciscus is the lead this time and is also no replacement for Charlton Heston (he is in it, but wisely takes a back seat). Franciscus is a second astronaut, stranded on the planet after following Taylor's ship. Initially Cornelius and Zira help him and he finds his way to the underground Forbidden City. The set is fantastic, but it's populated by telepathic humans who worship an unexploded bomb as their God. Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds and sitting through it can be painful. The first film was such a milestone in cinema and science fiction, but this is a horrible step backwards into 1960s heavy handed nonsense, with dreadful actors spouting awful dialogue. It sort of still works as a metaphor about the futility of mankind, but it also dilutes that same message of the first story, which is unforgivable. The ending rewards the most dedicated of viewers and packs a punch, but at a cost.
Beneath the Planet of The Apes was a massive success despite being so awful and the producers must have realised they had made a dreadful mistake by ending it the way they did. And so to get the series back on track, the second sequel,
Escape from the Planet of The Apes, has to start with a laughable premise: that Cornelius, Zira and another ape, Milo, escaped the planet in Taylor's repaired ship and crash landed on 1970s Earth! Even in the context of science-fiction, there is no logic in this at all. This is truly the Star Trek IV of the series though, because if you can look past the premise, it is the best of the sequels and a charming, entertaining film to boot. Roddy McDowall is back and his relationship with Kim Hunter's Zira just as genuine as it ever was. While the 70s vibe has dated very badly and much of the action can't escape the TV movie look, the dialogue is great fun with an infectious story, reflecting the original. And the ending is emotive too. In the last section, it feels like director Don Taylor finds a fifth gear and it takes off with a very powerful scene, again thanks to McDowall's absolute commitment. It is at this point the series stopped being a metaphor and concentrated on the characters instead. It became a saga, with a mythology, and while I don't like that it takes us even further away from the simple horror of the original message, at least
Planet of The Apes contained the seeds so this path can be considered faithful.
In the fourth film,
Conquest of the Planet of The Apes, the gap between the budget and the aspirations of the story had become almost too wide. Fans of the characters will lap up the epic notions of the plot, despite the limitations and it makes for a dark hearted companion for the previous film. It stands for something when an actor of Roddy McDowall's calibre comes back for a third time, playing Caesar, the son of his previous role Cornelius. Caesar has grown up in a circus, keeping his powers of speech hidden. Meanwhile, apes have become the new household pet after a virus wiped out all the dogs and cats (I know, it's another crazy premise, but stick with it!). But the trusting apes are being treated like slaves and the intelligent Caesar orchestrates a revolution. Just as with the previous film, the premise is silly, but where Escape had charm, this has gravitas. I was shocked by the subtlety of McDowall's performance, from struggling with responsibility, quietly pulling together his plan and finally struggling to contain his revenge, this is epic stuff and all from behind a mask! Andy Serkis is simply marvellous in the new film, but Roddy McDowall also recognised the power in that role and didn't wait for cutting edge CGI so he could commit fully to the character. It's just a shame the production as a whole can't quite live up to his performance. It's a film that feels a bit too small, but still, director J. Lee Thompson does well to hide it, letting his lead actor inhabit the role fully and getting the series back to its nightmarish origins with extra violence (scenes previously cut have been added for this release); in some ways it might even be seen as a low-budget forerunner of the wave of adult, deadly serious violent sci-fi that came in the 1980s (
Mad Max,
Robocop,
Terminator, et al). Well worth seeing.
Battle for the Planet of The Apes is the fifth film and while the wheels don't completely come off, they definitely wobble. It fails to convince on several levels, not least that despite the title, the series has never escaped North America. And the size of the cast amounts more to Scuffle for the Planet of The Apes rather than a Battle! With the budget as low as it clearly was, there was no way to realise the ambition of the story that purports to be on a worldwide scale. Once again, the premise is cursed by a lack of logic. It is now about 30-ish years after Conquest and Caesar (still played brilliantly by Roddy McDowall) leads a civilised village of apes. However, his family and friends are at the same levels of intelligence and speech as in the first film, which seems ridiculous to me. Meanwhile, the nuclear war has happened, leaving pockets of human survivors or mutants in the Forbidden City (as well a realised set as in the first sequel), to which Caesar goes in the hope of learning about his past and his destiny. While he is gone, the gorillas make a bid for power. Once again the meat of the plot is actually really good! With a couple of tweaks, it would have made an excellent sequel to the first film, but setting it so soon after
Conquest undermines it. McDowall turns in another excellent performance, but the weak production is impossible to overcome.
The superb first film started a series that is very uneven, cursed by poor decisions in concepts, but largely rescued by the characters' charm and dedication of the actors playing them. Meanwhile the doom laden mythology continues to attract new fans, despite the low budget sequels that cause frustration. The latest film seems to have been a concerted and passionate effort to address that and let this series live up to its potential. I really hope so. Meanwhile, enjoy the series for what it is and marvel at the skills of a cast who kept it alive for so long. You'll likely leave it with bitter-sweet nostalgia about what could have been, which feeds into the well realised
Rise of the Planet of The Apes.
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