Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Maurice Evans
Reviewer: Brett Gallman
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Reviewer's Rating: ***½ (Three and a half Stars)
As George Taylor (Charlton Heston) blasts off into space (and approximately 2000 years into the future), he delivers a monologue about his hopes for the future of the human race--it’s one that includes no war or starvation. However, when he crash lands on a strange planet, he finds that there’s no humans in charge to make war at all, as they’ve been dominated by a civilization of apes in a world that’s been turned upside down. As obvious and heavy-handed as it is at times, the original Apes film is great science fiction due to its thought-provoking exploration of tyranny, fanaticism, and indoctrination. The apes, of course, are just a reflection of us; for example, their rigged courtroom trials certainly resemble the rigged inquisitions of a country that had just escaped the shadow of McCarthyism. In many ways, they are us at our worst, and we’re meant to be aghast at their primitive civilization, all the while realizing it’s not too different from our own at time (many of its themes are unfortunately resonant today).
However, some of the primates are also us at our best; particularly, a couple of scientists named Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), who form a bond with Taylor and dare to defy authority. This relationship and their mutual struggle is the pivotal column that holds the film up, as great drama and suspense drive the narrative between the ponderous bits. Taylor’s arc is an interesting one--he’s sort of an egotistical, abrasive conquistador who is quickly humbled when he’s encaged like an animal. He’s able to slowly regain his swagger and confidence in his own species’s superiority, as he thumbs his nose at these “damn dirty apes.”
And then he’s hit with the staggering truth in the film’s climactic scene, which dashes all the hopes and dreams he’s had for humanity. It’s certainly one of the most spoiled twist endings of all time, one that’s been seared into our cultural consciousness. It’d be easy and obvious to look at Rod Serling’s involvement with the film’s script and call it a big budget Twilight Zone episode; however, that’d also appropriate because it’s a signature Serling twist that re-centers everything and leaves us pondering our past, present, and future.
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