Planet of the Apes (1968)

I was saddened to hear of the death of Charlton Heston. He has starred in a few of my favorite movies. I thought I would pay tribute to him, by reviewing a few of my favorites.

I was too young to remember seeing this movie when it first came out, but I enjoyed watching in on television numerous times. The other movies in the series were pretty bad, but this one has stood up to the test of time.

Plot

Taylor (Heston) and his two astronaut buddies wake up from deep space sleep to find that their ship as crashed. They quickly realize that they have landed on a planet where man is mute and apes rule the world. Due to a throat injury, Taylor can not speak right away (all the humans are “dumb”), but after his vocal cords are repaired he causes a big stir among the apes when they find out that he is an intelligent being.

Taylor realizes that one of his buddies has been killed and the other has been given a lobotomy to keep him silent. Many of the apes want Taylor killed or silenced so as not to cause an uproar. There are a few apes that fight to save Taylor. I won’t spoil the ending of the movie, but it is a shocker.

There was a television series that I enjoyed as well that ran in 1974 for 14 episodes. The movie was remade in 2001 with Heston playing a brief role as an ape.

I also enjoyed reading the book by Pierre Boulle. The plot is slightly different, but it is a well written book and very interesting!

If you don’t want to know the ending, don’t watch the following clip - my favorite part!