Planet of the Apes (1968) ****1/2

Planet of the Apes is about a U.S. space crew led by Taylor (Charlton Heston) that land on a desolate planet while studying the effects of light speed travel and its relationship to time travel itself. There is a problem with this planet, though. It's inhabited by highly evolved apes and humans are little more than animals that roam the prairie and are used for the apes slave labor and experiments. The crew is eliminated except for Taylor who intrigues the apes due to his ability to talk and higher intelligence than the other humans on the planet, leading to altercations that span from religious to political to scientific.

The film boasts landmark make up for the era, leading to an onslaught of make up artists who would exploded to the screen with Star Wars a decade later. The Three Stooges ape costumes wouldn't work in this film- the audience would have to believe that apes ruled the land and it succeeds. Charlton Heston is great as Taylor, mainly from the fact that he is set against type during the first part of the film. Taylor is probably the most cynical protagonist ever to grace a film screen at that point. He hates people and laughs at a fellow crew member planting an American flag upon the new planet. This isn't Moses or Ben Hur, but a cynic even before cynicism was hip. The real stars of the show are the apes, particularly Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowell. You have to remember that these actors and actresses are working through a ton of make-up. They exhibit the emotions even through the layers and layers of plastic and latex giving the apes more personality than they might otherwise have had.

The thing about Planet of the Apes is that it isn't just a kids sci-fi film. There are messages deeper in this film than Charlton Heston running around in a loin cloth fighting apes. The first you get is the whole persecution aspects between the apes and humans expressed in the slave labor and medical experiments of the humans, which in some ways we have done to apes for years. But as a whole the film is a commentary about if man continues on the path he is following he will eventually screw everything up. Even the most powerful species will fail themselves into mediocrity and new races will rise.

Sure, it's heavy stuff for a G rated sci-fi film but Planet of the Apes is a classic fantasy that takes you to a new world sort of. Rich performances and an interesting story radiate in this film that ushered in a new era of science fiction while embracing the old one.