Planet of the Apes (Schaffner, 1968): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.45pm
This film is part of the Big Screen Classics season at BFI Southbank. Details here.
Time Out review:
Four sequels and a TV series bred contempt, but this first visit to
Pierre Boulle's planet, bringing a welcome touch of wit to his rather
humourlessly topsy-turvy theory of evolution, remains a minor sci-fi
classic. The settings (courtesy of the National Parks of Utah and
Arizona) are wonderfully outlandish, and Franklin Schaffner makes superb use of
them as a long shot chillingly establishes the isolation of the crashed
astronauts, as exploration brings alarming intimations of life (pelts
staked out on the skyline like crucified scarecrows), and as discovery
of a tribe of frightened humans is followed by an eruption of jackbooted
apes on horseback. The enigma of the planet's history, juggled through
Charlton Heston's humiliating experience of being studied as an interesting
laboratory specimen by his ape captors, right down to his final
startling rediscovery of civilisation, is quite beautifully sustained.
Tom Milne
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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