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EspañolPLANET OF THE APES (1968 FILM)
(Redirected from Planet of the Apes (1968 movie))
'''Planet of the Apes''' is a 1968 science fiction film loosely based on the ''Planet of the Apes'' novel by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and veteran Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans. The film was ground breaking for its make-up techniques by artist John Chambers.[1] The script was originally written by Rod Serling but had many rewrites before eventually being made.[2] Changes included the expensive idea of futuristic buildings and advanced technology, using the idea of a more primitive society instead, as well as character names.[3]
The film was well received by critics and audiences, it launched one of film history's first and best-known film franchise,[4] spinning off 4 additional movies, each with a progressively lower budget, as well as a short lived television show and animated series, comic books, and eventually the much anticipated yet less well received remake in 2001. The character of Cornelius was the start of a long running relationship between McDowall and the "Apes" series.
Astronauts Taylor, Landon, and Dodge are in deep hibernation when their spaceship (non-canonically known as ''Icarus'') crash-lands in a lake on an unknown planet in A.D. 3978. The astronauts awaken to find that their fourth companion and only female, Stewart, has died in space and their ship has started to sink. They use the inflatable raft from the ship to safely reach shore. Once on shore, Dodge performs a soil test and pronounces the soil incapable of sustaining life.
The three astronauts set off through the desert, finding first a single plant and then others. They find an oasis at the edge of the desert where they decide to take a swim. While they are swimming, someone steals their clothes. Pursuing the thieves, the astronauts find their clothes in shreds and the perpetrators — a group of mute, primitive humans — contentedly raiding a cornfield. But shortly, the astronauts and other humans are being pursued by gorillas on horseback, hunting down the humans. Dodge is shot and killed during the pursuit, while Taylor and Landon are captured and taken back to Ape City; Taylor is shot in the throat, but survives due to the surgical efforts of two chimpanzee scientists, Zira and Galen. Upon his recovery, Taylor is thrown into a cage with a woman who was captured on the same hunt, the beautiful Nova. Due to the throat injury, he has temporarily lost his voice.
Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into a strict class 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, hunted to rid the fields and orchards from being over ridden, and used for scientific experimentation.
Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius, take an interest in Taylor because of his lip movements, which resemble talking. While Cornelius and Zira are talking to their boss, Dr. Zaius, Taylor writes in the dirt and attempts to call Cornelius and Zira's attention to it, but he becomes frustrated when they do not notice the writing. Zaius sees some letters on the dirt and realizes that Taylor possesses intelligence, but hastily erases the letters with his cane. Taylor manages to steal paper and a pencil from Zira and convinces her and Cornelius that he is intelligent.
Zaius orders Taylor to be castrated and he tries to escape. Running through the ape city Taylor discovers the stuffed remains of Dodge on exhibit in a museum. At the conclusion of his escape attempt and run through the ape city, Taylor is captured and while hanging in net stuns the crowd by speaking, "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" Placed on trial to determine his origins (a parody of the Scopes Monkey trial) Taylor is stripped of his clothing. During the trial, he is treated like the beast that he is in their society, with little or no rights. At one point, the three-member panel of orangutan theologians don't want to deal with the subject of his springing forth naturally. One places his hands over his eyes (see no evil), one over his mouth (speak no evil) and the other over his ears (hear no evil). During the trial Taylor talks about his comrades and explains that one was killed and the other lost. At this point the court is directed to a group of humans that were captured at the same time as Taylor where he discovers the lobotomized Landon.
Later, he is taken to see Dr. Zaius, who threatens to lobotomize him as well if he doesn't tell the "truth" about where he came from. But Cornelius and Zira execute a plan (with the help of Zira's nephew) to free Taylor, who insists that Nova also be brought along. They flee to the Forbidden Zone, where Cornelius (an archaeologist) had, a year earlier, discovered a cave with artifacts of an advanced technology. Dr Zaius, along with a band of gorillas manages to find them. After a struggle Taylor shows them a talking human doll that proves that humans were there long before the apes. After a brief battle, Taylor and Nova are allowed to escape on horseback. Zaius lets them go without further confrontation, knowing that Taylor will find "his destiny."
Soon after his escape, in the final, iconic scene, Taylor discovers the Statue of Liberty half-buried in the beach. He realizes that he's really back on Earth (albeit in the future) and that mankind had destroyed its own civilization, thereby paving the way for the Planet of the Apes.
This scene frequently makes "best moments in film" and "best endings" lists. In the span of a few seconds, it completely changes the conception of the film's foregoing events, many of which are thus revealed to have foreshadowed this conclusion. – The ending is based on the surprise ending of the original novel but with a twist using a device emblematic of scriptwriter Rod Serling. As with many episodes of Serling's own ''Twilight Zone'' series, this final plot twist sees the protagonist's arrogance undone when he is made to realize that it is precisely this characteristically human arrogance that evidently precipitated a catastrophe, assumed to be a nuclear war (a looming fear from the Cold War) that has plunged humans into savagery and allowed supposedly "savage" subhumans, the apes, to become masters of the Earth.
In the late 1960s most studios were not convinced that this film was a feasible production. One script that came close to being made was written by Rod Serling, though it was finally rejected for a number of reasons. A prime concern was cost, as the technologically advanced ape society portrayed by Serling's script would have involved expensive sets, props and special effects. Serling's script was rewritten and the ape society made more primitive as way of eliminating many costly sets and special effects.
In order to convince the Fox Studio that a Planet of the Apes film could really be made, the producers shot a brief test scene using early versions of the ape makeup. Charlton Heston appeared as an early version of Taylor (named Thomas, as he was in Rod Serling-penned drafts of the script), Edward G. Robinson appeared as Zaius, while then-unknown actors James Brolin and Linda Harrison played Cornelius and Zira. Harrison, who was the mistress of the head of the studio at the time, would later play Nova in the final film and its first sequel, and have a cameo in the Tim Burton remake more than 30 years later. This test footage is included on several DVD releases of the film, as well as the 1998 documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes. Dr. Zaius was originally to have been played by Robinson, but he backed out due to the heavy make-up required. (He would later make his final film, ''Soylent Green'', opposite his one-time ''Ten Commandments'' co-star Heston.)
Shooting began on May 21, 1967, and ended on August 10, 1967.
The movie was adapted by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling from the novel ''La planète des singes'' by Pierre Boulle. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.
It won an honorary Academy Award for John Chambers for his outstanding make-up achievement. It was nominated for Best Costume Design (Morton Haack) and Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical). The score is known for its avant-garde compositional techniques, as well as the use of unusual percussion instruments and extended performance techniques.
The movie is on several of the AFI lists but did not make the top 100 movies either time. See AFI_100_Years..._series.
In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
''Planet of the Apes'' was followed by four sequels:
★ ''Beneath the Planet of the Apes'' (1970)
★ ''Escape from the Planet of the Apes'' (1971)
★ ''Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'' (1972)
★ ''Battle for the Planet of the Apes'' (1973)
and two television series:
★ ''Planet of the Apes'' (1974)
★ ''Return to the Planet of the Apes'' (animated) (1975)
The movie was "reimagined" in 2001; see ''Planet of the Apes'' (2001 film).
Marvel Comics produced full comic book adaptations of all the films, plus one original graphic novel-length sequel, ''Terror On The Planet Of The Apes''.
There have been modifications from the original French novel:
★ The hero is not a French journalist named Ulysse Mérou, but an American astronaut named Colonel George Taylor.
★ The humans wear primitive clothing of animal skins, although they were naked in the novel.
★ The technology and general settings of the apes' towns are more primitive than in Boulle's original concept. This was a deliberate decision to reduce design and construction costs. Architectural elements were based on observations of ancient cave cities.
★ The apes speak perfect English, while they spoke a wholly different language in the book. Ulysse has to learn it to get acquainted, while in the movie, Taylor has a throat wound which prevents him from speaking at first.
★ The Planet of the Apes is indeed Earth, although in the original novel it is a different planet that is very similar. Boulle would later go on to say that he wished he had thought of Serling's ending.
1.
2.
3.
4.
★
★ Planet of the Apes Script
'''Planet of the Apes''' is a 1968 science fiction film loosely based on the ''Planet of the Apes'' novel by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and veteran Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans. The film was ground breaking for its make-up techniques by artist John Chambers.[1] The script was originally written by Rod Serling but had many rewrites before eventually being made.[2] Changes included the expensive idea of futuristic buildings and advanced technology, using the idea of a more primitive society instead, as well as character names.[3]
The film was well received by critics and audiences, it launched one of film history's first and best-known film franchise,[4] spinning off 4 additional movies, each with a progressively lower budget, as well as a short lived television show and animated series, comic books, and eventually the much anticipated yet less well received remake in 2001. The character of Cornelius was the start of a long running relationship between McDowall and the "Apes" series.
| Contents |
| Plot |
| Production |
| Credits and awards |
| Academy Awards |
| Other Awards |
| Sequels |
| Modifications from the novel |
| References |
| External links |
Plot
Astronauts Taylor, Landon, and Dodge are in deep hibernation when their spaceship (non-canonically known as ''Icarus'') crash-lands in a lake on an unknown planet in A.D. 3978. The astronauts awaken to find that their fourth companion and only female, Stewart, has died in space and their ship has started to sink. They use the inflatable raft from the ship to safely reach shore. Once on shore, Dodge performs a soil test and pronounces the soil incapable of sustaining life.
The crew abandons their spaceship.
The three astronauts set off through the desert, finding first a single plant and then others. They find an oasis at the edge of the desert where they decide to take a swim. While they are swimming, someone steals their clothes. Pursuing the thieves, the astronauts find their clothes in shreds and the perpetrators — a group of mute, primitive humans — contentedly raiding a cornfield. But shortly, the astronauts and other humans are being pursued by gorillas on horseback, hunting down the humans. Dodge is shot and killed during the pursuit, while Taylor and Landon are captured and taken back to Ape City; Taylor is shot in the throat, but survives due to the surgical efforts of two chimpanzee scientists, Zira and Galen. Upon his recovery, Taylor is thrown into a cage with a woman who was captured on the same hunt, the beautiful Nova. Due to the throat injury, he has temporarily lost his voice.
Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into a strict class 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, hunted to rid the fields and orchards from being over ridden, and used for scientific experimentation.
Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are the dominant species on this world.
Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius, take an interest in Taylor because of his lip movements, which resemble talking. While Cornelius and Zira are talking to their boss, Dr. Zaius, Taylor writes in the dirt and attempts to call Cornelius and Zira's attention to it, but he becomes frustrated when they do not notice the writing. Zaius sees some letters on the dirt and realizes that Taylor possesses intelligence, but hastily erases the letters with his cane. Taylor manages to steal paper and a pencil from Zira and convinces her and Cornelius that he is intelligent.
Taylor and Zaius at the "monkey trial"
Zaius orders Taylor to be castrated and he tries to escape. Running through the ape city Taylor discovers the stuffed remains of Dodge on exhibit in a museum. At the conclusion of his escape attempt and run through the ape city, Taylor is captured and while hanging in net stuns the crowd by speaking, "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" Placed on trial to determine his origins (a parody of the Scopes Monkey trial) Taylor is stripped of his clothing. During the trial, he is treated like the beast that he is in their society, with little or no rights. At one point, the three-member panel of orangutan theologians don't want to deal with the subject of his springing forth naturally. One places his hands over his eyes (see no evil), one over his mouth (speak no evil) and the other over his ears (hear no evil). During the trial Taylor talks about his comrades and explains that one was killed and the other lost. At this point the court is directed to a group of humans that were captured at the same time as Taylor where he discovers the lobotomized Landon.
Later, he is taken to see Dr. Zaius, who threatens to lobotomize him as well if he doesn't tell the "truth" about where he came from. But Cornelius and Zira execute a plan (with the help of Zira's nephew) to free Taylor, who insists that Nova also be brought along. They flee to the Forbidden Zone, where Cornelius (an archaeologist) had, a year earlier, discovered a cave with artifacts of an advanced technology. Dr Zaius, along with a band of gorillas manages to find them. After a struggle Taylor shows them a talking human doll that proves that humans were there long before the apes. After a brief battle, Taylor and Nova are allowed to escape on horseback. Zaius lets them go without further confrontation, knowing that Taylor will find "his destiny."
Taylor learns what planet he is on.
Soon after his escape, in the final, iconic scene, Taylor discovers the Statue of Liberty half-buried in the beach. He realizes that he's really back on Earth (albeit in the future) and that mankind had destroyed its own civilization, thereby paving the way for the Planet of the Apes.
This scene frequently makes "best moments in film" and "best endings" lists. In the span of a few seconds, it completely changes the conception of the film's foregoing events, many of which are thus revealed to have foreshadowed this conclusion. – The ending is based on the surprise ending of the original novel but with a twist using a device emblematic of scriptwriter Rod Serling. As with many episodes of Serling's own ''Twilight Zone'' series, this final plot twist sees the protagonist's arrogance undone when he is made to realize that it is precisely this characteristically human arrogance that evidently precipitated a catastrophe, assumed to be a nuclear war (a looming fear from the Cold War) that has plunged humans into savagery and allowed supposedly "savage" subhumans, the apes, to become masters of the Earth.
Production
In the late 1960s most studios were not convinced that this film was a feasible production. One script that came close to being made was written by Rod Serling, though it was finally rejected for a number of reasons. A prime concern was cost, as the technologically advanced ape society portrayed by Serling's script would have involved expensive sets, props and special effects. Serling's script was rewritten and the ape society made more primitive as way of eliminating many costly sets and special effects.
In order to convince the Fox Studio that a Planet of the Apes film could really be made, the producers shot a brief test scene using early versions of the ape makeup. Charlton Heston appeared as an early version of Taylor (named Thomas, as he was in Rod Serling-penned drafts of the script), Edward G. Robinson appeared as Zaius, while then-unknown actors James Brolin and Linda Harrison played Cornelius and Zira. Harrison, who was the mistress of the head of the studio at the time, would later play Nova in the final film and its first sequel, and have a cameo in the Tim Burton remake more than 30 years later. This test footage is included on several DVD releases of the film, as well as the 1998 documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes. Dr. Zaius was originally to have been played by Robinson, but he backed out due to the heavy make-up required. (He would later make his final film, ''Soylent Green'', opposite his one-time ''Ten Commandments'' co-star Heston.)
Shooting began on May 21, 1967, and ended on August 10, 1967.
Credits and awards
The movie was adapted by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling from the novel ''La planète des singes'' by Pierre Boulle. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.
Academy Awards
| 'Award' | 'Person' | |
| Honorary Award for outstanding achievement in Makeup in the movie | John Chambers | |
| 'Nominations' | ||
| Best Costume Design | Morton Haack | |
| Best Score | Jerry Goldsmith | |
It won an honorary Academy Award for John Chambers for his outstanding make-up achievement. It was nominated for Best Costume Design (Morton Haack) and Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical). The score is known for its avant-garde compositional techniques, as well as the use of unusual percussion instruments and extended performance techniques.
Other Awards
The movie is on several of the AFI lists but did not make the top 100 movies either time. See AFI_100_Years..._series.
In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Sequels
''Planet of the Apes'' was followed by four sequels:
★ ''Beneath the Planet of the Apes'' (1970)
★ ''Escape from the Planet of the Apes'' (1971)
★ ''Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'' (1972)
★ ''Battle for the Planet of the Apes'' (1973)
and two television series:
★ ''Planet of the Apes'' (1974)
★ ''Return to the Planet of the Apes'' (animated) (1975)
The movie was "reimagined" in 2001; see ''Planet of the Apes'' (2001 film).
Marvel Comics produced full comic book adaptations of all the films, plus one original graphic novel-length sequel, ''Terror On The Planet Of The Apes''.
Modifications from the novel
There have been modifications from the original French novel:
★ The hero is not a French journalist named Ulysse Mérou, but an American astronaut named Colonel George Taylor.
★ The humans wear primitive clothing of animal skins, although they were naked in the novel.
★ The technology and general settings of the apes' towns are more primitive than in Boulle's original concept. This was a deliberate decision to reduce design and construction costs. Architectural elements were based on observations of ancient cave cities.
★ The apes speak perfect English, while they spoke a wholly different language in the book. Ulysse has to learn it to get acquainted, while in the movie, Taylor has a throat wound which prevents him from speaking at first.
★ The Planet of the Apes is indeed Earth, although in the original novel it is a different planet that is very similar. Boulle would later go on to say that he wished he had thought of Serling's ending.
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
External links
★
★ Planet of the Apes Script
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