PLANET OF THE APES

 

Before there was Star Wars, there was Planet Of The Apes. Planet Of The Apes is the late-sixties sci-fi classic that was based on the book written by some French guy. The film stars the late Charlton Heston, hamming it up as he usually did in his films, and the late Roddy McDowell as one of the apes. Charlton Heston plays an astronaut who, along with his crew, travels in time and crash lands on what they at first believe is an "alien" planet. However, after having their gear stolen from them by a group of "savage" humans while they're skinny-dipping in a lake, they're shocked to discover a group of apes chasing after them on horseback. (I must say, I was kind of creeped out when I first saw this film when I was a younger and it came to the scene that showed a close-up of the apes on horseback!) Heston's character Taylor is captured after being shot in the throat by one of the apes and gets taken to a research facility headed by a female scientist named Zira--played by the late Kim Hunter--and her fiance Cornelius (played by Roddy). Taylor is at first unable to talk due to his throat wound so Zira and Cornelius believe that he's just like all the other "mute" humans. They find out otherwise when he tries to escape and he utters his by-now-legendary line: "Keep your stinkin' paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" He informs Cornelius and Zira, along with the rather treacherous Dr. Zaius (played by the late Maurice Evans), about how he's a "spaceman" from another planet. Of course, none of the apes want to hear it since his tale and his very existence contradicts their "sacred" scrolls written by great ape Ceaser (he's like a simian version of Moses) that says basically the gods made ape in his own image and such. When Dr. Zaius threatens to execute Taylor, Cornelius and Zira hatch an escape plot to set him free. Aided by Cornelius's nephew, and with a sexy female human named Nova--played by the half-naked Linda Harrison--who gets "paired" with Taylor in tow, they take a trip to the Forbidden Zone where Taylor says he came from and, after they capture Dr. Zaius, they take him into this cave where Cornelius tries to prove his "theory" that a man-like civilization existed years before the so-called sacred scrolls were written. For those few of you who haven't yet watched this flick, I won't spoil the by-now-legendary "shocked" ending for you (though you might be able to figure it out by taking a gander at the movie poster above). The movie, of course, spawned four sequels, a TV show, a cartoon, two cinematic reboots (thus far), and even an album. However, the original 1968 film will always be, at least in my view, the best out of all the films (and I won't say anything about the 2001 "reboot" by noted eccentric movie director Tim Burton, all right?).