Planet of the Apes

1968

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

Distributor: Fox Movies

Key Elements: Concept – Visuals – Lines – Message

My Review:

It’s no surprise that Rod Sterling helped with this movie. It plays out like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Taylor is a member of a team of astronauts sent on a mission to space – but the reason he accepted the mission was to escape the rest of humanity, disgusted with our destructive ways.

When the spaceship crash-lands on an unknown planet, he finds himself in a nightmare world where the natural order has been reversed. Beasts are in control and are dominating the animalistic humans. In one of the greatest movie endings of all time, Taylor finally realizes that his trip in space has moved him through time, and this upside down world in which he is trapped is his own.

The message of the movie, I think, is that we must be careful about how we live. A distinctive quality of humanity is the ability to discipline ourselves and progress together. But our tendency is to instead be selfish and destructive. If we are not careful, our indulgent, combative habits could cause us to devolve to the point where we’re surpassed by animals.

Trailer:



Quotes:

• According to Dr. Haslein's theory of time, in a vehicle traveling nearly the speed of light, the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it, while we've aged hardly at all. Maybe so. This much is probably true - the men who sent us on this journey are long since dead and gone. You who are reading me now are a different breed - I hope a better one. I leave the 20th century with no regrets. But one more thing - if anybody's listening, that is. Nothing scientific. It's purely personal. But seen from out here everything seems different. Time bends. Space is boundless. It squashes a man's ego. I feel lonely. That's about it. Tell me, though. Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor's children starving?
  I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be.
• Imagine me needing someone. Back on Earth I never did. Oh, there were women. Lots of women. Lots of love-making but no love. You see, that was the kind of world we'd made. So I left, because there was no one to hold me there.
• Some apes, it seems, are more equal than others.
• Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!
• It's a mad house. A mad house.
• The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago.
• You are right, I have always known about man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand and hand with his idiocy. His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a warlike creature who gives battle to everything around him, even himself.
• What will he find out there, doctor?
  - His destiny.
• Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it. …You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
  

Stills: