Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea
Watch it again.
I'll generally watch any well-done film at least 4 times, once just to watch, once for the dialog, then the cinematography, then the acting and direction.
Notice how they are dwarfed by the surrounding landscape as they walk through the "Forbidden Zone."
It gives you an image with a double-meaning: they are insignificant creatures on this planet, and man is insignificant in both the world and universe around him. And they are lonely. And then of course, Heston's classic line when the first meet the humans: "If this is the best they've got, we'll be running this planet in 6 months" and then the apes come out of the wood-line to attack.
Most people pick up on the racial overtones of White vs Black, but it was more than that: Light vs Dark; Good vs Evil; East vs West; Man vs Nature, and then of course the satirical attack on religion, with the ape having a soul because only the Simian has the "divine spark" and "Did you forget what is written on the 13th Scroll?" etc
It was really a well-done film.
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Agreed on all counts. The original PotA is a classic. By "not perfect," I meant that ever since I was a kid I've only had one very minor complaint about the movie. It never once became
Planet of the Apes. It was more like
One Small Village of the Apes. You never once got the sense that there was any civilization at all --- ape or otherwise --- beyond Ape City. And yes, I know, later sequels and TV shows rectified this, but none of them even came close to having the cinematic punch of the first movie.
A minor complaint, I know, in an otherwise brilliant movie. Still, it's always nagged at me.
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