Planet of the Apes (1968)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title planet of monkeys
Original title Planet of the Apes
Planetoftheapes-logo.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1968
length 112 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Franklin J. Schaffner
script Michael Wilson
Rod Serling
production Arthur P. Jacobs
music Jerry Goldsmith
camera Leon Shamroy
cut Hugh S. Fowler
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Return to the Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Charlton Heston . The plot is based on the novel La Planète des singes (German book title: The Planet of the Apes ) from 1963 by Pierre Boulle .

action

The astronaut Taylor is traveling in space in a spaceship and is currently recording his last log report on tape before he goes into artificial deep sleep with the astronauts Landon, Dodge and Stewart who are flying with him. Although the four left the earth in 1972 only six months ago, the year 2673 is now written there due to the time dilation at almost the speed of light . Taylor affirmed that he left the earth of the 20th century without regret and criticized humanity who kill each other in wars.

When the crew woke up from their deep sleep one year later, 18 months after leaving Earth, in the Earth year 3978, the spaceship fell into a lake on an unknown planet and is slowly sinking. Astronaut Stewart is dead and her body is mummified because of a defect in the deep sleep chamber. The three surviving men were able to save themselves in a rubber dinghy with emergency equipment and reach the bank. When Landon positions a small flag of the United States there, Taylor can only laugh out loud.

After crossing a desert landscape, the three of them come across strange structures that look like scarecrows and discover an oasis with water behind them. When they take a bath in the water, their equipment and clothing are stolen. In pursuit of the thieves, they encounter a group of primitive and dumb humanoids who ransack a corn field in search of food. Suddenly, hordes of armed gorillas , walking, talking, dressed and sometimes on horseback, rush in and hunt down people. Dodge is shot dead, Landon is knocked unconscious and Taylor is captured with a gunshot wound in the neck.

Taylor is taken to the city of the apes along with other captured people, including a woman named Nova. Because of the injury to his larynx, he cannot speak at first and is kept in cages like everyone else. We learn that monkeys used to keep humans as pets, but since they could not be tamed, this has been forbidden by the legislature.

Taylor meets the "animal" psychologist Dr. Zira, who worked with archaeologist Dr. Cornelius is engaged. The two chimpanzees are very interested in humans: Zira wants to prove that wild humans can be tamed, and Cornelius, too, would like further research into humans. The orangutan Professor Zaius, on the other hand, does not think so and refuses to do so in his function as Minister of Science and at the same time the highest herald of the faith. Cornelius once discovered traces of a previously unknown, ancient culture during an expedition in the so-called "forbidden zone" and put forward the theory that the apes could have descended from a lower species of primate - possibly from humans. However, he is no longer allowed to represent this publicly because Zaius has declared this theory to be heresy .

Zira gives Taylor the name Blankauge (in the original Bright Eyes ) until he finally succeeds in stealing a piece of paper from Zira and then sending her the message "My name is Taylor" ("My name is Taylor"). Zira then takes the astronaut out of the cage and into his home, where he answers her and her fiancé Cornelius' questions in writing. Zira believes Taylor would fit well with Cornelius' scientific theory and could represent the missing link between primates and monkeys. However, this would contradict the theses of the Holy Scrolls and go against the beliefs of the monkeys. Zaius has Taylor returned to the cage and orders him to be neutered. When he is to be picked up, Taylor manages to escape. In doing so, he arrives at a human museum, where his dead colleague Dodge is also shown as a stuffed exhibit. The monkeys manage to recapture Taylor; shortly afterwards he regains his ability to speak, which shocks all the monkeys present.

Taylor is brought before a tribunal of three orangutans from the Academy of Sciences, which includes the President of the Academy, Zaius and the Commissioner for the Treatment of Animals, Dr. Maximus, belong. The Deputy Minister of Justice Dr. Honorius represents the interests of the monkey state as prosecutor. On the side of Taylor are Zira and Cornelius.

Taylor's claim that he came to the planet with two other intelligent people is being refuted by the tribunal by showing off the people who survived the hunt. In fact, Landon is among them. When Taylor is asked to speak to him, he notices that Landon has a scar on his head and that he has apparently undergone brain surgery that has made him dumb and dumb. Cornelius now explains that Taylor must have been in the Forbidden Zone in order to correctly describe it, and that a culture must have existed there long before the Holy Scrolls were written 1200 years ago. The Justice Minister rejects this as a mockery of the faith and is investigating Zira and Cornelius on charges of scientific heresy while the Taylor case is adjourned.

Thereupon Zira's nephew frees Taylor from the cage with a ruse, and Nova takes Nova with him because he has noticed her pleading look. Zira, her nephew and Cornelius flee with Taylor and Nova into the forbidden zone, which according to the scriptures is taboo for all monkeys. There they want to visit the excavation site of Cornelius, a cave on a beach. Shortly thereafter, Zaius arrives with a group of gorillas, whereupon Taylor forces him at gunpoint without the gorillas going to the excavation site with them. Cornelius shows them traces of an apparently human culture that was more developed than today's ape culture long before the apes' time. They also come across an ancient human doll that can say "Mama".

Zaius admits that he had long known about the prehistory of humans and that he regards them as a race whose wisdom goes hand in hand with their stupidity and which wages war with everyone, even with themselves. Man is the only primacy who kill for lower motives. The forbidden zone was once a fertile paradise before people turned it into a devastated desert landscape. Zaius wants to prevent the other monkeys from finding out about this and orders that the cave be blown up in order to destroy all finds. Without this evidence for their theory, Zira and Cornelius can no longer escape their conviction for heresy either.

Meanwhile, as Taylor continues to ride along the beach with Nova, he finally comes across the remains of a structure that turns out to be the Statue of Liberty . He realizes that in truth he was on earth the whole time, which was devastated by the people centuries ago in a nuclear war , who thereby wiped out their civilization themselves. In his anger and desperation, he curses humanity.

synchronization

The German synchronization was created in the studios of Berliner Synchron GmbH in Berlin. Dietmar Behnke wrote and directed the dialog.

role actor German voice
George Taylor Charlton Heston Wolfgang Kieling
Dr. Cornelius Roddy McDowall Claus Jurichs
Dr. Zira Kim Hunter Renate Danz
Prof. Zaius Maurice Evans Fritz Tillmann
President of the Academy James Whitmore Wolfgang Amerbacher
Dr. Honorius James Daly Klaus Miedel
nova Linda Harrison (no voice)
Landon Robert Gunner Rolf Schult
Lucius Lou Wagner Andreas Mannkopff
Dr. Maximus Woodrow Parfrey
Dodge Jeff Burton Edgar Ott

background

  • The sentence spoken by Charlton Heston in the film “ Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape! “Was voted 66th in the American Film Institute's list of 100 best quotes from American films of all time in 2005 . There it appears, however, incorrectly quoted as “ Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape! ". In the German dubbing you can hear at this point: " Can't you take your dirty paws off my body, you stupid monkeys ".
  • In the original version, Dr. The figure named Zaius is named Prof. Zaius in the German version.
  • Taylor's first name, George, is neither mentioned nor shown in the film and only appears in the credits.
  • The lake into which the spaceship fell is called Dead Lake by the monkeys .
  • During the scene of the committee of inquiry at the tribunal (the three monkeys preside) one of them can be seen covering their eyes, ears and mouth, which is an allusion to the three monkeys who see nothing (evil), nothing ( Hear evil) and say nothing (evil).
  • It premiered on February 8, 1968 in New York City. It was released in the US on April 3, 1968 and in Germany on May 3, 1968.
  • The production cost of the film was put at 5.8 million US dollars. The film grossed around $ 32.6 million in US cinemas and generated a further $ 15 million in sales in US video rentals.

Production history

On March 8, 1966, a first test recording of a scene with a budget of US $ 5,000 was made at 20th Century Fox , which was supposed to show that actors in monkey masks can be depicted believably and do not appear involuntarily funny. Charlton Heston played the role of Taylor (then still called Thomas), Edward G. Robinson the role of Zaius, James Brolin played Cornelius and Kim Hunter played the role of Zira. The masks of the monkeys were created by Ben Nye , the head makeup artist at Fox. The test was successful and filming was scheduled to start in the spring of 1967, leaving only seven months for preparations.

In the original script version, the ape civilization (as in the novel) was technologically advanced, similar to the level of development on Earth in the 1960s. Since it was not possible to finance the production costs, for example for modern houses, cars and helicopters, the monkey civilization was placed on a rather rustic stage of development with horses and very simple houses.

William J. Creber, artistic director of production, was now looking for an inspiration for the architecture of the monkey dwellings and found it in the stone dwellings of the cave architecture in Cappadocia .

Rod Serling's script was rewritten by Michael Wilson , who eventually wrote the final draft for the film. According to Wilson, the film was more about the human dilemma than it was about monkeys. The monkeys were simply an allegory to show the problems of humanity. Wilson also gave the film a much more political dimension. Wilson himself was a direct victim of the "witch hunt" in the McCarthy era ; Because they imputed to him, he did not "correct" political views, he was on the blacklist entertainment industry , briefly Hollywood blacklist ( "black list of Hollywood studios" ), set, which in fact amounted to a professional ban. His experiences from the time, especially with the Committee for Un-American Activities , can be found most clearly in the film in the tribunal scene, when Taylor was subjected to the Inquisition with practically no rights .

Richard D. Zanuck denied any intentional social criticism or message , suggesting that the film was merely an entertainment adventure film, but Associate Producer Mort Abrahams disagreed by stating, “We never spoke out, but we made a political film ". Because of a difficult decade for the United States (which included the Vietnam War , the Cold War , the assassination of John F. Kennedy , the assassination of Martin Luther King, and serious racial riots like the 1967 Detroit riot) was the last thing the studios sell wanted a political film; so it is also to be understood that one denied this outwardly. Abrahams noted that the science fiction genre is a good way of conveying controversial content without this content being perceived as truly controversial and being attacked.

As filming started getting closer, the actor Edward G. Robinson, who was supposed to play the role of Zaius, got out because he said that, given his age and state of health, he was unable to endure the daily donning of the monkey masks for several hours. According to Kim Hunter , who played the role of Dr. Zira embodied, it took five hours to put on her complete monkey mask in her first dress rehearsal. For other monkey masks, it could take up to six hours. The process was finally optimized to around three hours in the course of the film.

On April 28, just three weeks before filming began, the studio cut the planned 55 days of shooting to 45 in order to cut costs. In a dispute over production costs, Arthur P. Jacobs and Fox finally settled on $ 5.8 million, citing the total cost of $ 1 million for make-up, masks and costumes for the monkeys alone.

On May 21, 1967, filming could finally begin. The first scenes shot for the film show the three surviving astronauts on their way through the desert and were shot in a remote desert landscape near the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona . In order to film the escape of the astronauts from the crashed spaceship, an approximately 7 meter long tip of the spaceship was made of plywood and anchored in Lake Powell . However, the majority of the film was shot in Malibu Creek State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains . The area that belonged to the Fox film studio at the time was therefore also known as Fox Ranch . The watering hole where the astronauts take a bath was originally created for the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle and is reused here. The associated waterfall was reinforced for this scene with 24 hidden fire hoses. The scenes at the end of the film were filmed on Malibu Beach .

The experimental and completely atonal music of the composer Jerry Goldsmith , for which he used unusual instruments such as metal bowls, a ram's horn and a cuíca , also contributed to the strange atmosphere of the film .

When Charlton Heston was supposed to film the famous scene with the first sentence directed at the monkeys, he fell ill with a bad flu shortly before. It turned out, however, that his hoarse and gruff voice served the scene even more. However, this can only be heard in the original sound.

The role of Nova was played by Linda Harrison, who was under contract with Fox and had a relationship with Fox boss Richard D. Zanuck . A scene was also planned for the character of Nova, which was to show her visibly pregnant by Taylor at the end of the film. The scene was also filmed, but did not make it into the final version of the film as it would have distracted from the structure and ending of the film and would only have raised numerous new questions.

Up to 80 make-up artists, hairdressers and costume designers were employed for scenes in which more than 200 monkeys could often be seen. The main actors of the film were put on a new monkey mask every day. Because of the extremely time-consuming procedure, all actors were forced to keep their masks on during breaks. Actors and producers unanimously reported that during the lunch breaks there was a phenomenon of self-imposed racial segregation, in which the different species of monkeys preferred to stay with their "conspecifics" instead of people in the costumes of gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees mixed at will.

The Statue of Liberty in its full view from the front was not built, but was a matte painting made by Emil Kosa Jr. , which was held on a pane of glass in front of the camera. A section was created as a miniature on a scale of 1: 2 for the rear view at an angle from above.

Filming ended on August 10, 1967.

Creation of the final scene

In the novel by Pierre Boulle, an alien planet is the scene of the action. According to producer Arthur P. Jacobs, this appeared to be "too predictable", which is why he suggested that he played the story on earth at dinner with Blake Edwards , who was occasionally in conversation as a director, at the Yugo Kosherarna Delicatessen restaurant in Burbank to leave, but initially to leave the audience in the dark. Edwards is said to have been thrilled. When leaving the restaurant, the two of them are said to have gazed at the picture of the Statue of Liberty, after which they both want to have called out “Rosebud” at the same time, a famous quote from the film Citizen Kane for an aha experience. Author Boulle is said to have enthusiastically approved the idea immediately and regretted not having come to this brilliant conclusion himself. However, there are also statements by Boulle in circulation that he was not satisfied with the new ending, although it was appreciated by both critics and the public.

Blake Edwards presents the brainstorming a little differently. So he and the former Disney outfitter Don Peters came up with the idea. Peters, on the other hand, claims that he came up with the idea all by himself when he was making early stage design sketches. The executive producer Mort Abrahams in turn spread the version that the screenwriter Rod Serling deserves credit for the spectacular ending of the film. Serling was also contradicting himself, once actually wanted to have come up with the idea himself, another time referred to a joint effort by four or five participants, including Jacobs.

Social criticism

  • Right at the beginning, the figure of Taylor criticizes mankind who wars against its own brother and at the same time lets human children starve ( make war against his brother, keep his neighbors' children starving ). In the German version, however, the reference to starving children in human society has been omitted. Taylor also explains that he couldn't believe that nowhere in space is there better than human society on earth.
  • The ape society has a strictly hierarchical structure with a caste system , in which the orangutans provide the aristocrats and politicians who administer the law and the faith, the chimpanzees the scientists and intellectuals and the gorillas the workers, hunters and representatives of the police apparatus. The groups are classified based on their genre.
  • When an orangutan (the ruling monkey species in the film) declares that all apes are the same in their society, Taylor criticizes that some apes are more equal than others ( some apes, it seems, are more equal than others ). In the German dubbing, however, this quote from George Orwell's Animal Farm was lost because there only the orangutan generally describes the monkeys as being clever and Taylor doubts this. The genera also harbor prejudices with one another, so one hears that the orangutan Zaius looks down with contempt on the chimpanzees ( you know how Zaius looks down his nose at chimpanzees ).
  • The monkeys deal with humans, just as humans deal with supposedly more primitive beings, based on the conviction that they are on a completely different level and thus have a right of disposal. The reversed roles make this particularly dramatic when the monkeys behave like "the whites who slaughtered blacks like animals during the colonial era, kidnapped them and made them slaves". When Taylor complains that the monkeys led him around on a collar and leash, Cornelius apologizes that the monkeys thought he was a lower being.
  • Since humans are considered lower beings without rights, this also justifies experimental brain surgery and experiments on humans (analogous to animal experiments in the human world).
  • The ape society forms a theocracy whose state authority is religiously legitimized and based on irrefutable dogmas . Anyone who questions or doubts this is committing heresy and is condemned or even threatened with death. For example, Cornelius no longer wants to represent his scientific findings in a scene (restriction of freedom of expression) when the clergy described them as incompatible with the faith.
  • As a high cleric, Zaius is also Minister of Science. In this function he subordinates science to the dogmas of religion. There is no division into several state organs that can make decisions independently of one another (lack of power limitation and separation of powers ). The film also alludes to creationism , particularly represented in the USA , which denies evolution in the sense of Darwin. Dr. Honorius explains, for example: Perverted scientists would advocate "an obscure theory that they call evolution". In one scene, Zira asks how it is possible that scientific research can be condemned as heresy.
  • The deputy minister of justice explains in the film that he is basing himself on the first article of the doctrine, according to which the Almighty separated the monkey from the wild animals and made him the ruler of the planet. These are "sacred truths" that are already established, so there is no need to prove them. That Taylor cannot recite the Monkey Articles of Faith is true of Dr. Honorius as proof that he is a primitive animal and not capable of independent thinking. Before the tribunal, Taylor is told that humans do not fall under the monkey laws and therefore have no rights. Since he is a "non-monkey", he has no rights under the monkey laws.
  • In one scene it is mentioned that all men look alike to apes to monkeys . It alludes to the cognitive distortion of the cross-race effect . In the German version, however, the scene is only about the smell of people.
  • In a sacred scroll given by Zaius it is written: “Man alone among God's primates kills out of sport, lust or greed. He will murder his brother in order to own his brother's land. Make sure that people do not reproduce too much, otherwise they will turn their homeland and yours into a desert. Man is the messenger of death ”.

Novel

In Pierre Boulle's book , the story is told in a framework story: The couple Jinn and Phillys go on a pleasure trip on a spaceship and find a message in a bottle in space that tells of the adventures of a certain Ulysse Mérou.

It describes that Mérou flies with some companions from Earth to the star Betelgeuse and discovers an unknown planet there, which he calls Soror. On the planet he finds a highly developed civilization of talking monkeys, who keep primitive humans as pets. He realizes that the people there once built civilization, but then fell back into primitiveness as the monkeys evolved and took over.

In the end, Mérou flees back to Earth with his spaceship and lands near Paris, over 700 years after he left Earth. He must discover that the development on earth has taken the same path as on the planet Soror and that this is also ruled by monkeys. In his spaceship, he escapes from his former home planet, writes his report and leaves it in a message in a bottle in space to warn others.

Only now does the reader learn that Jinn and Phillys, the couple who found the message in a bottle, are chimpanzees. Neither of them take Mérou's report seriously, however, as they are certain that humans are not able to develop a civilization, are not intelligent enough for what is described and are not able to write either.

Reviews

“To expose him to the folly of humanity, Jonathan Swift sent his novel hero Gulliver to the land of the Yahoo! there talking horses had established a human-style state, and in this animal kingdom Gulliver's eyes opened to his own kind. In the optically opulent science fiction film by Hollywood director Franklin J. Schaffner, the horse cure is carried out by monkeys. […] For a while the film draws comedy and amazement from the upside-down world; the buildings and monkey masks, however, are far more impressive than the texts presented. "

- The mirror

"The successful original film, which resulted in a whole series of sequels, is an exciting social parable that lives, especially in the long opening sequence, from a visual and musical design that goes to the limits of the avant-garde."

- Munich Film Museum

“There is a quarrel between tolerance and understanding on the one hand, hatred and racism on the other. The amazing final punch and the shiny monkey masks (Jack M. Smith / William Creber) made the film a great success, which was followed by four sequels. "

- Lexicon of international film

"The examination of the religious problems of the monkey state forms the content of this science fiction flick with an approach to depth, which lovers of the genre from the age of 15 can welcome."

- Protestant film observer

Awards

Sequels and offshoots

The film was followed by four direct sequels, so the original series includes five films:

1970: return to the planet of the apes
1971: Escape from the planet of the apes
1972: Conquest of the planet of the apes
1973: The battle for the planet of the apes

Remakes

  • In 2001, a remake of the 1968 film was released under the title Planet of the Apes . Charlton Heston has a guest appearance as a monkey and Linda Harrison (Nova from the 1968 film) can be seen again in one scene as a primitive human woman. The socially critical aspects are only a side issue in the remake. The ending has also been changed so that the planet of the apes is no longer the earth, but another planet. Initial speculation that the remake would be the start of a new Planet of the Apes franchise has evaporated. Since a previous story was published in 2011 instead of a film following the remake, the remake from 2001 is considered a single film.
  • In 2011 appeared under the title Planet of the Apes: Prevolution . The film is viewed as the restart of the film franchise. It shows how the monkeys became highly intelligent creatures through medical experiments and finally conquered the earth. The monkeys were also portrayed by actors in the new trilogy, but they no longer wore costumes; instead, the performance capture process was used here.
  • In 2014, Planet of the Apes: Revolution was the sequel to the 2011 remake.
  • Planet of the Apes followed in 2017 : Survival , the third part.

TV Shows

  • In 1974 CBS released a television series entitled Planet of the Apes with episodes of 45 minutes each. It was discontinued after 14 published episodes.
  • In 1975 an animated series followed in the USA under the title Return to the Planet of the Apes , which had a continuous plot and represented a technically more sophisticated ape society. The series consisted of 13 episodes of 30 minutes each.

comics

In 1973 Marvel Comics started a comic book series for which separate storylines were developed. The Williams-Verlag published monthly issues of the comic adaptation from 1975 to 1976. The booklets cost 2.50 DM and contained the actual story, background information about the film and further comics from Planet of the Apes. The US series comprised 29 issues, while in Germany it was discontinued after 13 issues.

Since 2011, the US publisher Boom! Studios again comics based on the franchise. From 2014 these will also appear in Germany at Cross-Cult-Verlag .

Pop Culture

The Planet of the Apes film series became part of pop culture, well-known scenes from it were used for allusions and parodies, e.g. B. in the Simpsons episode Selma marries Hollywood star (season 7, episode 19) and in MAD magazine No. 51 from July 1973 with a parody under the title A good movie and its bad consequences - The Planet of the Apes (title of the US - Edition: The Milking of The Planet That Went Ape ). Allusions to the film can also be found in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs .

literature

To the movie
  • Tatjana Càrpino: “The planet of the apes” in film locations VSETH & VSU , Ed .: Science Fiction. - Andrzej Wajda. Documentation. Association of Students at the University of VSU, Zurich 1990, without ISBN, pp. 115–120 (with filmography).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Planet of the Apes. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Statue of Liberty , fandom page planetoftheapes.fandom.com , accessed February 16, 2020.
  3. ↑ cf. Jürgen Müller: Films of the 60s , Taschen, ISBN 3-8228-2797-5 .
  4. ^ Film review Home again .
  5. ^ Film review Planet of the Apes .
  6. ↑ Planet of the Apes. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich , Critique No. 215/1968.