Recently, I decided to do a retrospective of the original Planet of the Apes series. I had already seen Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes, but I had never gotten around to seeing its four sequels. So, in order to properly judge them, I decided to re-watch the film that started it all. The story of a group of astronauts led by George Taylor (Charlton Heston) who crash land on a planet ruled by apes after traveling almost 2,000 years into the future, the film has become a cultural touchstone and one of the most important sci-fi films of the 60s. Now, I had already seen the film once before when I was younger. But at the time I only saw it as a piece of Hollywood entertainment and was unable to appreciate its artistic merit. During this second viewing, I was blown away by the power and nuance of Leon Shamroy's anamorphic cinematography. The first 25 minutes where the astronauts explore the Forbidden Zone are heart-breakingly beautiful and prove that CGI will never match the magnificence of on-location shooting. The ape make-up and costumes still hold their ground against modern special effects. While much of the film's philosophical underpinnings seem forced, over-bearing, and quaint by today's standards, I can't imagine how a late 60s audience raised on benign, cheaply-made creature features would have reacted to a sci-fi film with such intellectual depth. In short, Planet of the Apes is even better than I remembered. Onwards to the rest of the series!
9/10
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