Live Life Team
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Director: Franklin J Schaffner
Starring Cast: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter
Astronaut George Taylor (Heston) crash lands on a mysterious planet. He is soon captured by its governing population, a sophisticated society of apes capable of speech and with an elementary grasp of technology. An extravagant version of the novel by Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes rapidly became a sensational smash hit when it was released in 1968. It was the first film to generate extensive merchandising, in addition to producing four direct sequels and spin-off television and cartoon shows. But before the formula died, Planet of the Apes had some very significant points to make about the 1960’s.
In effect holding a mirror up to mankind, the ape civilization is a slightly embellished reflection of our own. Separated into strict classes (gorillas make up the military, orang-utans the intellectuals and chimpanzees the rest), the apes treat the native, speechless humans like lower forms of life. The appearance of Taylor shocks them as much as a talking chimp would astonish present day scientists. Faced with the mysterious arrival, the apes react in a classically human manner and reply with fear, performing a crude brain exploration on Taylor’s shipmate and attempting to do the same to him. The post nuclear holocaust atmosphere also plays on the fears of 1960s America. The film comes to a climax in a famous twist of an ending, an arresting finale to a classic movie of the Sci-Fi genre.
