A doc about the ape saga made in France ?As Roddy McDowall says ,trying to sound French ,it was based on a novel written by "Pierre Boulle ", this novelist had also provided a blockbuster "bridge on the river Kwaï"
It all began in France,with Boulle's 1963 book "la planète des singes" ;To think that he was not even credited in the last franchise! Interviews of the writer are included: he tells that he had his doubts about a movie:" it would be ridiculous" :with the staggering exception of "King Kong ",all the movies starring apes were ridiculed .
The doc focuses on Schaffner 's movie which,in spite of the modern technology and spectacular pictures of Ceasar's saga ,has remained the very best to date :its extraordinary finale scene (with which the doc begins),which was inspired by Rod Sterling 's "the twilight zone" has no contender in the field .Its comments on the contemporary human society ,although disguised, were harsh ,and Sammy Davis jr declared it was the best anti-racist allegory he had ever seen.
It spawned four sequels ,all mentioned in the doc :apart from Heston ,the movie enhanced the couple of chimpanzees Zira and Cornelius ;the third segment "escape from......." displays some feminism "he speaks when I allow him to " ; Kim Hunter talks about claustrophobia when "we were imprisoned in our masks ,not to damage the make-up we had to look at ourselves in a mirror when we were eating. Both she and mcDowall became overnight sensations and were guest stars on Tv shows (extracts of Carol Burnett show)
It was ,before "star wars" and "star trek" the fisrt sci-fi franchise ; a tV miniseries was made ,comics appear,along derivatives .
Tim Burton wanted something different and he only partially succeeded :his "stunning ending" (shown in the doc) is actually a variation on Pierre Boulle's ending -who has another unexpected twist afterward :do read it!-Critics were mixed ,in spite of Burton's desire to create a true villain among the apes (played by Tim Roth )
And it was not over,by a long shot ; technology and computerized pictures had opened new horizons : resuming the story with Ceasar -Zira's and cornelius' son - , it told his story in the way both last episodes of the first saga were not able to; Andy Serkis ' performance is praised ,for he's got only his eyes to express his feelings ; he leads his people to the promise land ,as Mosis did (full circle as Heston did it too )
The director is in awe of the way the movies parallel the history of the last fifty years (he notably points out that the epidemy of the 2014 movie was premonitory)
To be continued :at my time of writing the new ape episode is released.
