Planet of the Apes

I recently re-watched the original Planet of the Apes. I've enjoyed this movie ever since I was liitle, and before the Tim Burton version came out. Of course now watching it, ever since CGI and Burton's version, the make-up and special effects seem so hoky. But back in 1967, they were revolutionary. Before then, a person playing an ape looked like a man in a bad Disney charector suit. You could see the zipper and there was very little facial movement. But this new technique gave the apes life, and facial movements. Of course it is nothing compared to Burton's, but still amazing. The make-up winner got two Oscars that year. One for best make-up, the other a special award for advancement in make-up.
Of course when I was little, all I saw was a movie about monkeys, but now I see it differently. There is a big trial scene where the orangatans are trying Taylor for crimes that have no basis for trial. I see this differently now when I know that Kim Hunter, who plays Zira, was blacklisted. The screen writer was also blacklisted, and I think you can clearly see refernces to this through out the movie. Of course the people will say they were not making a politcal movie, but I think it comes through.
Of course there is the famous ending where Charlton Heston discovers he has been on Earth the entire time. An ending actually thought up by Rod Serling. Well the sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, draws form this and makes a more political movie then the first one.
A new astronaut lands on the planet, and discovers the city of New York, underground, and filled with mutated people that worship the atomic bomb. This movie came out during the hight of the Vietnam War. It eventually shows the world being destroyed by the bomb's blast. Heston and the new astronaut discuss how the human love for warfare and the bomb has brought down human society within the film. I think it was really an eye opener, because I fell that the views shown in the movie are correct.
The power lies within those who worship the bomb. Those who do not have the bomb fear and hate those who do, and wish to take them down out of fear. It is similar pattern that is shown in our society. But what is worrisome is that we need a plant of monkeys to point this out and we don't see it ourselves.
I love these movies, and I have ever since I was little.