Planet of the Apes

Rating:
Summary: One of the best adventure films of the 60s.
Review: This movie may not be the best in special effects, but there is something about it that makes you like it. Charlton Heston and Roddy Macdowell do really well. The plot is very interesting, and original. The atmosphere the movie brings is unlike anyfilm. The planet is like earth, but very out of this world. See the film. Is a must see for any adventure fan. I highly reccomend this film.

Rating:
Summary: full-screen stinks
Review: A full-screen version of POTA on DVD? WHY? I thought DVD's main selling-point was WIDESCREEN! So now we get a full-screen version... okay ... what's next? Full-screen versions of the sequels? How about the cartoon show? How many ways can you milk an ape? Greed sucks.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome to the Planet of the Apes!
Review: 20th Century Fox released the film previously on DVD by itself and in a box set with the rest of the Apes films plus a bonus DVD of extras. Now, for those who just want the first (and best) film of the series and all of the extras, Fox has released an excellent two-DVD special edition of Planet of the Apes to celebrate its 35th anniversary.

The DVD's extras get off to a shaky start with the two lackluster audio commentaries. The first is by legendary composer, Jerry Goldsmith, and the second by actors Roddy McDowall, Natalie Trundy, Kim Hunter and make-up artist John Chambers. Both commentaries could benefit from some extensive editing. There is way too much dead air that one has to sit through to get to the few interesting tidbits of information. The DVD producers should have edited down these commentaries to only the scenes in the movie that are actually commented on, like with the audio tracks on the Glengarry Glen Ross and The Right Stuff DVDs.

The text commentary by Eric Greene, author of Planet of the Apes as American Myth, redeems things by cramming a ton of interesting factoids on the screen in the form of subtitles. It's scary when the text commentary is better than both audio commentaries combined.

The second DVD contains the bulk of the extra material. The first section, "Exploring the Apes," contains a comprehensive, two-hour documentary entitled, "Behind the Planet of the Apes." Hosted by Roddy McDowall, it takes a look at the entire Apes saga from the films to the cartoon and TV series with an emphasis on the first (and best) film. Fans of the Apes films will be delighted to see all the major players from the films back for new interviews done exclusively for this documentary.

Also included in this section is the make-up test reel with Edward G. Robinson that convinced the 20th Century Fox brass to pony up the money for the film. There is "Roddy McDowall Home Movies" taken while making the first Apes movie that shows the step-by-step application of his ape make-up. There are 19 minutes of dailies and outtakes from the film.

There are also two vintage featurettes from 1968 and 1972 respectively. They are nothing more than superficial promos but are now fascinating time capsules of their times. Finally, there are two brief featurettes that showcase footage of directors Don Taylor and J. Lee Thompson shooting a scene from the Apes films that they worked on. These last two extras feel like unnecessary padding.

The "Publicity" section contains theatrical trailers for all of the Apes films, two glowing reviews for The Planet of the Apes and a collection of movie posters from all around the world.

The "Galleries" section features sketches by costume designer Morton Haack and a small stills gallery.

Finally, the "Ape Phenomenon" offers a brief glimpse into the vast Apes merchandising empire with a gallery of action figures. Also included is a collection of costumes and make-up from the films.

This new two-DVD set does justice to this landmark science fiction film. The transfer is amazing clear and free of any artifacting. The movie also hasn't sounded better with a crystal clear 5.1 surround soundtrack. While the audio commentaries are a let down, the two-hour documentary more than makes up for it. This is well worth picking up if you are a fan of the first film and want all the supplemental materials included in the box set without having to pay the extra money for the inferior sequels.

Rating:
Summary: "20th Century Fox Wants You to Go Ape"
Review: The brainchild of producer Arthur P. Jacobs, 1968's filmic adaptation of Pierre Boulle's novel LA PLANÈTE DES SINGES (PLANET OF THE APES) is a superior mix of action, suspense, and satire that is today deservedly regarded as a science-fiction classic. Franklin Schaffner's dynamic direction is brilliant, and the script by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling (yes, THE Rod Serling) is simultaneously witty and thought-provoking. In the lead (human) role, Charton Heston delivers one of his best and most convincing performances, and accomplished thespians such as Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Maurice Evans give outstanding supporting performances that help make the film's fantastic plot believable. Also contributing to the film's genuine simian aesthetics is Jerry Goldsmith's musical score, the style of which has since been frequently imitated but was at the time so daring and unique that it was almost considered avant-garde.

The plot of PLANET OF THE APES is actually a subtle satirical socio-political allegory that addresses the hotbed of civil-rights and racial-equality issues of the late 1960s (and of today, to a lesser degree). On a broader level, the film's subtext also addresses the injustices of class stratification in modern Western society that tends to be drawn along religions, political, financial, and educational lines. Occasionally the film also touches on other disputatious socio-political issues, such as women's rights or the humane and ethical treatment of animals.

Heston plays George Taylor, an American astronaut who awakens from cryogenic sleep to discover that his spaceship has crash-landed on a world where gorillas, chimps, and orangutans have evolved into the planet's dominant intelligence. In this simian dystopia, orangutan's are the governing members, with ultimate authority over the direction of scientific advancement, the establishment of religious theology, AND the interrelation of the two; the chimpanzees are the scientists and engineers, but they are subjugated by the orangutans; and gorillas, at the bottom of the social ladder, are the soldiers and menial laborers. (The film's primary race-relations satire is obviously allegorized here: The orangutans are light-haired and light-skinned; the chimps are light-skinned but dark-haired; and the gorillas are dark-haired AND dark-skinned.) Much to his dismay, Taylor learns the hard way that apes have supremacy over homo sapiens--who themselves are little more than mute tree-dwelling brutes--and regard them as the most vulgar and reprehensible animals on the planet. Indeed, humans are hunted for sport and used in all manner of vile medical and scientific experiments.

In the late 1960s, some critics claimed that the plot structure for PLANET OF THE APES was really just an embellished rehash of an episode of TV's TWILIGHT ZONE in which astronauts from Earth are kept as exhibits in an alien zoo, and they supported this argument by pointing out that the script was co-written by the TV show's creator, Rod Serling. With the television episode, a situation is created that forces the audience consider the possibility that humans might not be the most advanced life-form in the universe. In PLANET OF THE APES, however, the entire animal kingdom is turned upside-down, with mankind now at the very bottom, so that via allegory and satire, the Western socio-political structure can be dissected and its faults "safely" exposed.

To help the audience suspend their disbelief and thereby give in to the fantasy of the film, stunning simian make-up was designed and engineered by John Chambers. Using a combination of latex appliances, custom wigs, and conventional make-up, Chambers was able to transform actors into convincing apes while still allowing them to maintain articulation with a good portion of their facial muscles. While make-up FX have come a long way since then, his work was innovative and groundbreaking, and many of today's make-up experts--including Rick Baker, who designed the fantastically realistic ape make-up for Tim Burton's 2001 "re-imagining" of PLANET OF THE APES--have said that Chambers' work in this film inspired them to pursue the art of make-up as a career. Chambers went on to win the Oscar for his efforts that year, only the second make-up person to do so, and it was chiefly his work on this film that lead the Academy to establish a permanent make-up category for the awards.

The 2-disc Anniversary DVD from Fox Home Entertainment will make any film lover go ape! It offers a beautiful anamorphic widescreen transfer of the film from an excellently preserved print, as well as TONS of extras. One of those extras is the documentary BEHIND THE PLANET OF THE APES, which itself has been offered for sale at a standard DVD price BUT WITHOUT THE FILM included! Now you get both. The audio feature commentaries are a bit of a let down, as there are long gaps without any commentary at all. However, a text-based commentary by film historian Eric Greene is also included, and it can run simultaneously with one of the audio commentaries and thereby fill in the gaps.

All in all, PLANET OF THE APES is one of the best SF films of the latter 20th century, primarily because of the great acting, top-notch directing, excellent make-up, and an intelligent and socially relevant script. It still plays as well today as it did nearly four decades ago. And the 2-disc Anniversary DVD from Fox is reasonably priced and, with all the cool extras, provides hours of simian-based entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Still is relevant
Review: This movie is a social/political satire of the human race, transferred to a planet of apes. There is a definite class division between the orangutans (top) chimpanzees (middle) and gorillas (bottom). The primitive mute humans are just...well, animals.

Charleton Heston and crew crash land on the planet, and are captured by the apes. Heston befriends a pair of chimpazee scientists who eventually help him escape from captivity.

One detail easily missed is during the trial of the chimpanzees by the orangutans, when the 3 orangutans cover their eyes, ears and mouth in the classic "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" when they are being told things they do not agree with.

Whether you like the movie or not, the ending scene of the movie is one of the best in the history of cinema.

The DVD has numerous extras, but in fact all three commentaries are hugely disappointing as they are quite sparse, and much of it is repeated verbatim in the included and good 2-hr documentary about the movie and all the sequels.

Spectacular scenery, oscar-winning makeup, great score, great story.

Rating:
Summary: The Movie gets 5 stars anyways...
Review: As for the DVD...I question some of the choices that were made by 20th century fox. For anyone who doesn't know the film, "Planet of the Apes" is based off of the Pierre Boulle novel, also author of the acclaimed The Bridge Over the River Kwai. In the film, Taylor (Charlton Heston), the captain of an expedition crew in deep space, is about to set the ship on a direct course home and put himself into hyper sleep. However, as he goes to sleep, something goes terribly wrong and the space ship crash lands on an unknown world 2000 years in the future "give or take a decade". Now, everything that Taylor believes in is about to get tested as his very search for something "better than man" pits him face to face with a planet of apes that DO consider themselves "better than man".

The film also stars the late Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter as the pair of scientist apes that befriend Taylor and help him discover why apes rule this planet and why this intense hatred for man exists.

When released in 1968, (alongside the release of Kubrick's Sci-fi epic 2001) the film was met with huge success (as well as controversy) due to the political and social commentary apparent in the film. And while the film is nigh on 37 years old, those commentaries are as true today as they were in the 60's and 70's. And what really makes the movie stand the test of time, aside from the wonderful performances include the expert direction of Franklin Shaffner, the unconventional score by Mr. Jerry Goldsmith, and the groundbreaking special effects (which still stand the test of time) by John Chambers.

Now to the DVD: The film is presented in digitally remastered 5.1 audio in 2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks rather good. I didn't perceive any color issues or transfer issues the first time I watched it, which is always nice to see. As for the commentaries on the first disk, they are rather useless as commentaries go. Roddy McDowall passed away before this set was released so I assume that his parts of the commentary are recorded from earlier interviews. As for the rest of the voices on that commentary, their insights are few and far between. In essence the track serves more as a 2.0 audio track for the film than a true-blue commentary.

Then there is the "live" (thankfully) music commentary track by Jerry Goldsmith. It gives some insight into the musical choices as well as instrument selections by the acclaimed composer, as well as other small bits of information. On the whole, it's nothing overly amazing. Thankfully, Goldsmiths music speaks for itself.

Finally, there's the text-only commentary by Eric Greene, Author of "Planet of the Apes as American Myth". It's not bad if you're into text commentaries. But at points, it just becomes a nuisance. It makes you wonder why they couldn't have just added another voice commentary that might have actually been worth listening to.

Then we come to disk two...which is chocked full of goodies. The two hour featurette "Behind the Planet of the Apes" - Hosted by the late Roddy McDowall, is a great view into the history of this film and its four lesser sequels. Then there are some also smaller featurettes, including the 1968 original making of. Also included are dailies and outtakes from the original 1968 stock footage (with no audio track) and some of Roddy McDowall's home films shot on 16mm (at least that what I guessed from the camera he was using...it might have been 8mm). Again, these have no audio, but have been filled in with some of the music from the movie. The problem here is that "Behind the Planet of the Apes" has some of this same footage in it, so you're basically seeing the same thing twice.

So, is it worth it to buy this 35th anniversary dvd? By all means yes. This film is a classic by all rights, and it's worth being a part of everyone's DVD collection. And while the commentaries are on the weak side, there's enough here to keep the general DVD enthusiast happy. It really is true what they say...they just don't make films (sci-fi or not) like this anymore.

`Revu

Rating:
Summary: This Edition Goes Ape
Review: Perhaps the single greatest tribute to this film is that Tim Burton paid homage to it with a remake that was good but failed to capture the impact of the original. It is hard to identify exactly why this film seized the imagination of several generations especially since in many ways "Planet of the Apes" was a commentary on the sixties. I saw it and learned, as I drove away from the theater, that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been shot. The poignant coincidence of events will never be forgotten. This is one of the great science fiction films with a remarkable script by the dean of fantasy writers Rod Serling. It is well acted, even behind the make-up. It has one of Jerry Goldsmith's best and most original scores. And it still holds up quite well, largely because it was not driven by special effects. The new edition does not offer much beyond the widescreen version of the DVD, but the extras are terrific and make this a worthy purchase. Charlton Heston gave one of his best perfomances and will always be remembered for two scenes...when he regains his ability to speak (you know the line), and of course the end scene that still works and may well prove to be a testament to humankind in the modern age.

Rating:
Summary: I don't get it.
Review: What's all the fuss about? A bunch of pilots get lost in the grand canyon and run into some monkeys. So what? This movie is slow paced, no action, and lacking in its writing(amateurs must have written the script). At least it has the dude that played Moses in it. And you people stop saying my review is not helpful. It is plenty helpful!

Rating:
Summary: Defenders of the Faith Will Love This Set.
Review: At last a 1960s Science Fiction classic, the ORIGINAL Planet of The Apes gets it's deluxe treatment. However, I question why Eric Greene's ( Author of Planet of the Apes as American Myth, 1996, McFarland and Company ) commentary is in text form? The
audio commentaries with Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Natalie
Trundy and John Chambers appear to have come from interviews or something. Composer Jerry Goldsmith's audio commentary was interesting. I suppose that for people who could not afford the six disc Planet of the Apes: The Evolution, the two hour documentary, Behind The Planet of the Apes is perhaps a welcoming sight. Hopefully Fox will continue to re-present the
rest of the Apes series in deluxe form such as this. Note: I went through six of these sets, due to what the seller informed me was a bad batch, whereas the picture freezes and jumps back to a previous chapter, or won't play period. Finally I had to
reluctantly settle for a full screen version, in which playback was perfect. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Deluxe edition of classic science fiction film looks great
Review: Alright, everyone's unhappy that they have to buy Planet of the Apes yet again and, yes, Fox should have put this edition out in the first place. So, now that we've got that out of the way let's discuss this new, improved version of Apes. So, while I'm as unhappy as the next person to be purchasing this again, I'm going to confine my review to this disc. That means I'm not going to be mean and give the film one star because Fox screwed up the first time or that they are trying to fleece the public.

The biggest difference is the anamorphic widescreen transfer. Why is that important? Well, basically anamorphic widescreen transfers allow sharper image quality with more lines of resolution. That translates to better video quality. The widescreen transfer here will look terrific on a 16x9 televison. It'll also look pretty darn good on a regular old television as well but be aware that the picture quality will look better if you're television is of higher quality.

There's few digital or analog artifacts. The result is a exceptional picture although there is some mild edge enhancement (edge enhancement is a means to make the picture look "sharper" artifically but it also removes fine detail from the picture so is generally not a good thing). Kudos to Fox (or whomever did the transfer) for the fine transfer done here.

The audio extras include a commentary by composer Jerry Goldsmith. To the best of my knowledge this is Goldsmith's first audio commentary and it's quite revealing. Goldsmith ("Alien", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Patton"). The commentary from cast members is roughly about 35 minutes and doesn't span the disc. Unfortunately, director Schaffner died some time back and Serling and Wilson are dead as well (in addition to producer Arthur P. Jacobs). There is a very interesting audio commentary by Apes film scholar and historian Eric Greene (in the form of a text commentary similar to the Star Trek film series).

The second disc comprises the MPI DVD documentary which aired a couple of years ago. Narrated and hosted by Roddy McDowell, it offers a teasure chest of interviews, rarities and interesting tid-bits about every film from the first through the fifth. There's also outtakes, dalies (all without sound), the original make up test (with Edward G. Robinson as Dr. Zaius) featuring dialogue from one of Serling's early drafts of the script.

There's also Roddy McDowell's home movies which provide a behind-the-scenes look at his make up being applied and location shots for the ending sequence. There's also a section on many of the toys, masks made for the film and original costumes that are in collections. Is it definitive? Well no, but it's a nice glimpse into the marketing that made Apes the first big "marketing" movie. There's also an easter egg located on the last section of the extras focusing on the trailers. You'll want to hit your arrow key to skip down then to the side. The human figure on your immediate right will light up. You get a very cool old vintage t.v. advertisement. I'm not going to tell you more as you can discover that for yourself.

Curiously, there's also a couple of short vintage featurettes focusing on the directors of Conquest and Battle for the Planet of the Apes. There's also posters and a whole lot more on disc two (I haven't had the chance to check out everything yet). Many of these supplementary materials haven't been available before on DVD.

I don't care for the packaging. Fox has gone in for the cardboard sleeve and then has the two discs on an accordian style disc holder on the inside. I much prefer the snapcases (not the cheap Warner ones though)as they are more durable. In my experience this type of packaging falls apart fairly quickly and doesn't take wear and tear very well. The design is pretty good (althoug someone commented on the cover picture being from one of the later films, it's actually the same cover shot from the previous cover only reversed and, this time, designed to look like an illustration).

Overall, I'd have to rate this Apes release a success. The previous DVD was insulting as it had no extras and just a widescreen transfer of the film. Sure it looked good but Fox could have done so much more with it. This time they have. Second time's the charm I suppose in this case. Now you won't have to buy this again (at least until the high definition DVDs come out in a couple of years).