Of course, that hardly excuses him trying to suppress the whole truth about humans (which he already knew) for his civilization's sake. Not until the fifth and final "Apes" movie do we see that it might be possible for humans and apes to build a commingled society -- but of course, that's not the movie I'm reviewing.

If you haven't seen "Planet of the Apes," your science fiction literacy is even lower than someone who hasn't seen "Blade Runner" yet, but I'm going to give a brief explanation of the plot, just in case. Humans do live on the Planet of the Apes -- not even as slaves, just as pitiful creatures who can barely make rags to cover themselves and who are hunted practically for sport by gorillas (giving the lie to Zaius' favorite scriptural passage). After landing (he believes by mistake) on the planet, Heston's character is befriended by two ape scientists who work for Dr. Zaius. They help him and the female he has chosen escape to discover the horrible truth about their past and his future. That's all I have time to say now. Hopefully, my five stars will convince you to see this, if you really haven't. If you have, well, see it again.



Recommended: Yes