Darwin's revenge on Moses Best of the series

Many early science fiction films are now, quite inadvertently (and in most cases undeservedly), objects of camp attention: we laugh at the silly makeup, tin-can special effects, and the naive "high-tech" dialogue.Planet of the Apes is no such film. Its intelligent script, frightening costuming, and savagely effective conclusion (which needs no big-budget special effects to augment its impact) remain both potent and relevant. When Colonel George Taylor (the fabulous Charlton Heston) crash lands his spacecraft on what seems to be an unfamiliar planet, he is captured and held prisoner by a dominant race of hyperrational, articulate apes. However, the ape community is riven with internal dissention, centered in no small part on its policy toward humans, who, on this planet, are treated as mindless animals. Befriended and ultimately assisted by the more liberal simians, Taylor escapes--only to find a more terrifying obstacle confronting his return home. Heavy-handed object lessons abound--the ubiquity of generational warfare, the inflexibility of dogma, the cruelty of prejudice--and the didactic fingerprints of Rod Serling are very much in evidence here. But director Franklin Schaffner has a dark, pop-apocalyptic sci-fi vision all his own, and time has not dulled the monumental emotional impact of the film's climactic payoff shot. If you don't know what I'm talking about here, you owe it to yourself to check out this stone classic, and even if you do, see it ...

Cast: Kim Hunter, Charlton Heston, Lou Wagner, Roddy McDowall, James Whitmore, Woodrow Parfrey, Maurice Evans, James Daly, Linda Harrison, Robert Gunner

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

Genre: Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Release Date: 3 April 1968 (USA)

MPAA Rating: G

Screen Writer: Rod Serling, Michael Wilson, Pierre Boulle

DVD Release Date: August 21, 2001

Runtime: 112 min

Studio: Twentieth Century Fox