The Origin of the Apes

For a long time, the original 1968 version of Planet of the Apes has been on my "To See" list. It never could quite make it to the top, because I always felt like there might not really be much for me to see there. The premise is well known, and the ending even more so. And I've seen maybe a hundred people impersonating Charleton Heston's near-Earth-orbit acting, serving up his half-dozen famous lines.

But then, pushing back against all that was the recent release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The new film made me feel like I really should check out the original, particularly when I noticed a few references to the original in it (and had to assume that there were others).

The movie certainly has its share of camp... but no more so than you find in other science fiction stories of the late 1960s. Do these astronauts really believe they've landed on another planet where an entirely different species happens to speak and write English? Do we the audience, once the revelation comes, really believe that an intelligent ape society has sprung up in just 2000 years? Don't ask such questions; just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Admittedly, the ride is pretty enjoyable. Yes, the laughs are unintentional when Heston is beating his fists on the beach or screaming about the "madhouse," but the intentional jokes land the way they should. Ah, monkey humor. I do wish that this ape society would have reacted more realistically to the revelation of a talking human, but that's probably asking for a level of realism that just wasn't in the consciousness of a 1960s science fiction writer. Not a writer for film or television, anyway.

What you do get is some wonderful acting from the various people playing the apes -- particularly from Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter. These actors all have the challenge of working through mostly intractable makeup, but through their fantastic efforts, none of this is half as hokey as it surely could have been. In fact, the least believable character in the movie is Heston's, the astronaut Taylor. Put simply, the guy is a huge jerk. Unbelievably so. He needles and belittles his fellow astronauts every waking moment until he loses his voice. And don't think that experience humbles him in any way, because he's even more arrogant and belligerent in the final act of the film.

The movie makes wonderful use of location shooting. The first act was filmed at Lake Powell in Utah, near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and in parts of California. The final act takes place in a great cliff setting overlooking a beach somewhere on the California coast. Epic, sweeping photography of all these locations must have done wonders for the tourism industry at the time; it all looks gorgeous. I'm not much of an outdoors person, and I'd totally love to go there and see these places for myself.

Also great is the musical score by Jerry Goldsmith. It's a bit bombastic for todays standards, but in the style of those classic Star Trek action cues that are just fun to listen to even today. Savage drums, screaming horns -- a fitting soundscape for a movie filled with apes.

It's not quite right to say that the movie "holds up" now, over 40 years later, because it really is dated in production values, acting style, writing style... you name it. But even with the metaphorical wires showing, the movie is still fun to watch over 40 years later. Overall, I rate it a B-. Not one of my favorite "classics," but a good measure better than most, in my view.