A tale of the future where the natural order of things has been turned upside down.
Taylor, played by Charlton Heston, pilots a space craft on some sort of mission when they get caught up in some space anomaly and get flung far away from Earth.
He manages to crash land the craft in a lake on a nearby planet and as the ship slowly sinks he and two of his crew of three manages to scramble ashore. The ship’s chronometer reveals that they have been projected some two thousand years into the future.
The planet has a striking resemblance to Earth if dryer and more barren. With strictly limited supplies and no sign of being able to replenish them the trio decide to hike it away from the lake and go in search of help, food or whatever.
They eventually come across a couple of human like beings who are mute and who seem to be terrified of their presence. Hearing horns blowing and the sound of horses hooves Taylor and his crew are amazed to find that the horses are being ridden by gorillas and these gorillas tote guns and can speak.
The three astronauts are quickly captured and taken to the nearest settlement where they discover that it is populated by intelligent apes. The gorillas seem to be the warrior class whilst the chimpanzees favour science and orang-utans are the administrators.
The trio quickly learn that it’s a case of apes rule O.K. and humans are treated as slaves or pets. The role reversal is complete when Taylor discovers that humans are dumb in the oral sense of the word and what were animals are now vocal and clever.
Taylor is befriended by two chimps, Cornelius (played expertly by Roddy McDowell) and his wife Zira and eventually by an orang-utan called Dr. Zeus. The apes eventually discover that Taylor can speak which throws the whole culture into chaos and the gorillas want him dead.
This is a tale of survival and discovery as Taylor, now alone as his two companions were killed, tries to come to terms with the situation.
The end is quite revealing.
The ’’ape’’ costumes are extremely realistic as are the ’’walking’’ movements of the actors in their costumes. Seeing the film for the third time the realism wanes somewhat but nonetheless the ape portrayal is very good.
Don’t knock the film as just a bit of science fiction because there is a message as sociological points are explored.
Although the sequels are not quite as good as the original you do get an answer in them as to how the apes evolved to speak and take over their planet and for the sake of completion of the saga, are worth viewing but not worth casting an opinion on.