Planet of the Apes (G)
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This 1968 film is loosely based on a 1963 French novel, which I haven't read. The screenplay was cowritten by Michael Wilson (who I never heard of) and Rod Serling, and at one point during the movie I found myself thinking, "Yeah, that looks like something Serling would have written." It's the first film in the franchise, which originally produced four sequels (much later there would be a remake and later still a reboot). I first watched the original five movies on TV over a weekend sometime in the mid-1990s. By the time I rewatched the first movie in 2024 (on the night that the new movie "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" premiered in theaters), I didn't remember anything about the sequels, and what I remembered of the original movie is mostly iconic bits that I'm sure I would have known about even if I'd never seen it before. I also want to say that for many years, I thought that if I ever rewatched it, I'd put my review under "B-movies", because my recollection was of the movie being fairly cheap and cheesy, but maybe that applies more to the sequels. (We'll see, whenever I get around to rewatching them.) Actually, I decided to put my review in "science fiction" just the day before I watched it, and now that I have watched it, I think that was a good decision. It's actually a pretty good movie, on a more serious level than I expected. It has some social themes that I think are a bit heavy-handed, but still effective.

It begins in deep space, which is pretty but not very realistic-looking. An astronaut named George Taylor (Charlton Heston) is recording his final report before going into suspended animation. He and his fellow astronauts (who are already asleep) had departed Earth on a ship that travels at near light speed in 1972, which I think is kind of ridiculously optimistic of the advances in technology. For them, they've been away six months, but on Earth 700 years are supposed to have passed, according to theory. In his report, Taylor wonders if by this time, humanity has overcome some of its problems, like war and starvation. After he goes into suspended animation, apparently another year passes, by which time over 2000 years have passed on Earth. The ship crashes into a lake in the middle of a barren, rocky landscape. Three of the crew awake, but one of them, the only woman onboard, has long-since died due to a problem with her hibernation chamber. The others, including Taylor, Landon, and Dodge, abandon the ship and begin searching the area for signs of life. According to Taylor, the planet they're on is in the Bellatrix system.

After awhile, they find a field of trees and other vegetation, as well as a group of mute, primitive humans. Then the apes (actually gorillas) show up to chase and capture or kill some of the humans. Dodge is killed during the raid (because of course the Black man would die first), and Taylor is captured. What happened to Landon wouldn't be revealed until later, and I'm not going to spoil that. During his capture, Taylor's throat was injured so that he couldn't speak. He finds himself under the care of a chimpanzee scientist named Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), who names him "Bright Eyes". She has a theory that the gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees who are the dominant species on the planet could have evolved from a lower species, like man. But this is heresy, which goes against her society's religion. In fact, any science that contradicts that religion is considered both heretical and absurd. Taylor tries to communicate with Zira (though why he never questions the fact that the apes on this faraway planet all speak English, I have no idea). Of course, as I said, he can't speak, but he tries to communicate by writing. And eventually he does get his voice back. Dr. Zira finds this amazing, though she doesn't believe his story about coming from another planet. Her fiancé, Dr. Cornelius (Roddy McDowall), is an archaeologist who had done some research in an area called the Forbidden Zone, which is where Taylor's ship had crashed, and believes he found evidence of a human civilization that predates the apes' civilization. However, Zira and Cornelius's superior, Dr. Zaius, who is both head scientist and keeper of the faith, refuses to accept such heresy, and puts Taylor on trial. Zira and Cornelius's defense of Taylor gets them in trouble, as well.

Before Taylor's sentence can be carried out, Zira's young nephew, Lucius, breaks him out of his cage, and Taylor, Zira, Cornelius, and Lucius flee to the Forbidden Zone, to find proof that would exonerate them all. They are also accompanied by a native human woman who had been captured at the same time as Taylor, whom he named Nova. I didn't mention her before because she seems to me to be pretty unimportant to the plot. But I guess she's a potential mate for Taylor, which I find disturbing because there's no indication that the humans on this planet are anything more than animals. Anyway, Dr. Zaius and a bunch of gorillas pursue them, and despite Zaius saying that he'd accept proof of Zira and Cornelius's theories, I thought it was pretty obvious that he wouldn't. And I was right. But Taylor and Nova manage to get away from Zaius's forces, and go off on their own to search for... whatever. A place to live without apes, I guess. What Taylor finds is pretty iconic, one of the best-known parts of the movie, so that I would expect even most people who haven't seen the movie would know about. But I'm still not going to spoil it.

So, I guess there's not much more to say about the plot. There's a theme of racism, because gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees seem to be in different castes, with orangutans in charge. And there's a one-off line about Dr. Zaius looking down on chimpanzees. But that theme isn't deeply explored in the movie, unless you also count apes' attitudes about humans... though to be fair, with the native humans of this planet, that attitude could be justified. That's more about animal cruelty than racism. A much more important theme is the dangers of basing science on religion, and rejecting any science that contradicts that religion. Which is definitely a real problem here and now. And there's another theme I can't really talk about without spoiling the end of the movie. But anyway... like I said, it's a good movie. Even without any of the social themes, it was a decent story. I also thought the ape costumes were fairly decent, for the time the movie was made. They didn't always completely work for me, but there were moments I found the faces surprisingly emotive. And I really liked Dr. Zira as a character. And I guess that's all I can think to say.