Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston: Blu-ray Cover
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Planet of the Apes Director: Franklin J. Schaffner Cast: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans

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  • Blu-ray Release Date: 11/04/2008
  • Original Release: 1968
  • Rating: Rated G
  • Sales Rank: 27,796

Viewer Rating: (5 ratings)

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DVD - 35th Anniversary Widescreen Edition$12.95
DVD - 35th Anniversary Pan & Scan Edition$26.99
DVD - Wide Screen$14.99
 
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Scenes

Features

Closed Caption; Commentary by actors Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Natalie Trundy, and makeup artist John Chambers; Commentary by composer Jerry Goldsmith; Text commentary by Eric Greene, author of Planet of the Apes as American Myth; Science of the Apes Bonusview; Beyond the Forbidden Zone adventure game; public service announcement from ANSA; Evolution of the Apes featurette; Impact of the Apes featurette; Behind the Planet of the Apes documentary with interactive mode; Behind the Planet of the Apes promo; The Archives of the Apes: Original Makeup Test With Edward G. Robinson, Roddy McDowall's On-set footage, dailies and outtakes, N.A.T.O. presentation, vintage Planet of the Apes featurette, teaser trailer, original theatrical trailer; The Galleries of the Apes: The Ape Newspaper, Interactive Pressbook, advertising, lobby cards, costumes, props, behind-the-scenes stills

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Editorial Reviews

Simply put, Planet of the Apes is a great film. The various film and TV sequels, the collectable lunch boxes, and the lingering visions of thespians emoting through simian-shaped latex can't obscure that fact. Like the Pierre Boulle novel that inspired it, the film has just enough satirical wit to carry the day. Three American astronauts, including Charlton Heston, crash-land into an upside-down world where the apes are civilized and humans are wild. Heston's overblown performance as George Taylor is legendary -- his delivery alone makes for great one-liners. The actors playing apes are also riveting: Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter shine through their makeup (which won a special Academy Award) as a pair of scientists who befriend Taylor. Also chewing the scenery is Maurice Evans, who, as Dr. Zaius, sees Taylor as a threat to the ape status quo. Sharply directed by Franklin Schaffner, the film features some stunning scenery and a superb score by Jerry Goldsmith. But the real fun comes from such throwaways as "Human see, human do" and "I never met an ape I didn't like" (The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling was one of the screenwriters). Good to the last shot, Planet of the Apes also boasts one of the best endings in cinema history. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll groan out loud. Gregory Baird, Barnes & Noble

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Customer Reviews

Planet of the Apesby Anonymous

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June 04, 2003: Best movie. Love the storyline. Don't even consider thinking the new movie is better. The original is the way to go. Think old school.

This review was written about the DVD Wide Screen edition.

Planet of the Apesby Anonymous

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November 02, 2002: ''Planet of the Apes'' is a very entertaining movie, and you'd better go see it quickly, before your friends take the edge off it by telling you all about it. They will, because it has the ingenious kind of plotting people love to talk about. If it were a great picture, it wouldn't need this kind of protection; it's just good enough to be worth the rush. Adapted from a novel by Pierre Boulle, 'Planet of the Apes' most closely resembles George Pal's 1960 version of H.G. Wells' 1895 novel 'The Time Machine.' It's also a little like 'Forbidden Planet,' the 1956 science-fiction adaptation of 'The Tempest,' though it's perhaps more cleverly sustained than either of those movies. At times, it has the primitive force of old 'King Kong.' It isn't a difficult or subtle movie; you can just sit back and enjoy it. That should place the genre closely enough, without spoiling the theme or the plot. The writing, by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, though occasionally bright, is often fancy-ironic in the old school of poetic disillusion. Even more often, it is crude. But the construction is really extraordinary. What seem to be weaknesses or holes in the idea turn out to be perfectly consistent, and sequences that work only at a simple level of parody while you're watching them turn out to be really funny when the total structure is revealed. You're too busy for much disbelief anyway; the timing of each action or revelation is right on the button. The audience is rushed along with the hero, who keeps going as fact as possible to avoid being castrated or lobotomized. The picture is an enormous, many-layered black joke on the hero and the audience, and part of the joke is the use of Charlton Heston as the hero. I don't think the movie could have been so forceful or so funny with anyone else. Physically, Heston, with his perfect, lean-hipped, powerful body, is a god-like hero; built for strength, he's an archetype of what makes Americans win. He doesn't play a nice guy; he's harsh and hostile, self-centered and hot-tempered. Yet we don't hate him, because he's so magnetically strong; he represents American power -- the physical attraction and admiration one feels toward the beauty of strength as well as the moral revulsion one feels toward the ugliness of violence. And he has the profile of an eagle. Franklin J. Schaffner, who directed 'Planet of the Apes,' uses the Heston of the preposterous but enjoyable 'The Naked Jungle' -- the man who is so absurdly a movie-star myth. He is the perfect American Adam to work off some American guilt feelings or self-hatred on, and this is part of what makes this new violent fantasy so successful as comedy. ''Planet of the Apes'' is one of the best science-fiction fantasies ever to come out of Hollywood. That doesn't mean it's art. It is not conceived in terms of vision or mystery or beauty. Science-fiction fantasy is a peculiar genre; it doesn't seem to result in much literary art, either. This movie is efficient and craftsmanlike; it's conceived and carried out for maximum popular appeal, though with a cautionary message, and with some attempts to score little points against various forms of establishment thinking. These swifties are not Swift, and the movie's posture of superiority is somewhat embarrassing. Brechtian pedagogy doesn't work in Brecht, and it doesn't work here, either. At best, this is a slick commercial picture, with it's elements carefully engineered --...

This review was written about the DVD Wide Screen edition.


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