Transcript: Planet of the Apes 55th Anniversary Discussion | Retro Drive-In Podcast

Greetings, classic cinema and TV fans. This is Jason Lockhart here with you once again, bringing you another retro drive-in podcast. And today we are kind of celebrating the 55th year anniversary of one of my favorite films of sci-fi films of all time. I love this film so very much. We're talking about the original Planet of the Apes. Oh my goodness. Charlton Heston. You know, wow. Such a great film. Planet of the Apes. I have watched Planet of the Apes probably, oh, who knows how many times in my life. I'd venture to say we're probably, I'm getting, if I'm not over 100, I'm getting very close to probably watching that over 100 times. I've watched this film, I watch this film basically every year of my life. and for a lot of years, my teenage years, I was watching it probably two or three times probably every couple months because it was playing on SyFy network when I was a teenager and so I would sit there and watch it. Every time it came on, we'd watch it again and again and again and then of course we got it on DVD and then on Blu-ray and all But I watch it every year because it's one of my favorites. Planet of the Apes deals with some astronauts. The hypothesis of the original is that you go into space and you come back and it's in the future. And come back to Earth. And many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years later. and find that Earth is now a planet of the apes. And mankind is enslaved and mute. And the dominant species is the apes. And they're pretty advanced for apes. But it is such an amazing series film. The original is amazing. As you get along into the episodes, the film series, it's not as spectacular. Beneath Planet of the Apes is, some people like it. Personally, I think it's one of the weakest of the films. But anyway, Beneath Planet of the Apes, Escape from Planet of the Apes is pretty good. I enjoy Escape from Planet of the Apes. three of the apes in their time travel into the past. And so they're seeing the world before it became Planet of the Apes. That is really pretty cool. Conquest for Planet of the Apes and then Battle for Planet of the Apes. Pretty good series, though. Not too bad. I enjoy it But it hard to believe that this film the original film is 55 years of age We looking at the 55th year anniversary of this film That is amazing. This collection here, this Blu-ray set, is pretty amazing. Now, the interesting thing is that we go from this and then we get the TV series, Planet of the Apes. Now, Planet of the Apes, the TV series, was very short-lived, and sadly so, because I personally thought it was tremendous. I love the series so, so, so very much. To me, 14 episodes, that was crazy. That should have lasted a whole lot more. It was – and I think the reason that Planet of the Apes, the TV series, is so cool is the fact that we're talking about a civilization that's a little bit more advanced at this point. So we're talking – the one where we see with Charlton Heston, society is a little more primitive. The human society is more primitive. Here we're seeing a society where mankind has evolved and grew and become able to farm and talk and communicate and all that type of stuff. And actually in a lot of ways fight back to the apes, kind of fight back a little bit and say, hey, you're not going to make us slaves. We're going to be free. We're going to be – and I think that's pretty cool. So I always loved the TV series. Sad that it only lasted 14 episodes. It should have lasted a whole lot more than that. But after the Planet of the Apes TV series, we got Return to the Planet of the Apes, a cartoon series, animated series, if you will. Some people don't like the idea of a cartoon series because it's like, it's not a cartoon, it's animated. So it is an animated series. As you can see there, it says the complete animated series. I'm not that, you know, it's whatever. But anyway, but I love this too. So that classic animation that we know and love so much from the 70s is found right here in this series. Very, very cool. Again, another series that kind of didn't last. It seems to me as though Planet of the Apes just is never going to actually have a TV series that lasts. I don't know. I don't know why we can't do that. Why can't we do that? I don't know. We get film series, but we never get the actual TV series. I don't understand that. But anyway, okay. So Mark Wahlberg did a version of Planet of the Apes with Tim Burton, the amazing director. another version that kind of tries to do the iconic thing in a different way to that shocking ending which we not going to destroy in case you never seen Planet of the Apes the original movie You should but anyway if you haven we won destroy that although I can imagine anybody doesn't know what the ending is anyway. But anyway, Mark Wahlberg and Tim Burton tried to do something a little different, and it was okay. Not spectacular, but it was okay. Okay, then here recently we had the trilogy series of the new Planet of the Apes here, as you can see here. You have Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and then, of course, War for the Planet of the Apes. But anyway, when you get down to it, nothing compares to the original. The original Planet of the Apes movie is just spectacular. I think that's why it still is beloved after all these years. It's not because the other one's production values aren't as good or anything like that. I mean, they all have really, really good stories. The action is great. Everything is really good. The costuming, the makeup, all that type of stuff is great. but there's just something that is just chilling, even to this day of that original series, right? I think it's so cool when you know it's coming, okay? It says Planet of the Apes on the screen, right, at the beginning of the opening credits, so you know it's Planet of the Apes, but it's that thing. It kind of draws it out and draws it out and draws it out until you get to that point where But Charlton Heston and his fellow astronauts are kind of in the weeds, in the bush and all, just kind of just hanging out. And then all of a sudden they hear the trumpet, you know, and all this. And everybody starts running and they're all and they're just trying to figure out what's going on. And then they come to find out that chilling scene where Heston is in the bush, right, and got all the weeds around him. And he happened to look up and he sees a rider on a horse stop and then turn around and you see it. It's an ape. And it just, it still chills you to this day. It's just amazing. I think that's why Planet of the Apes still holds strong after all these. It's those iconic things, right? When he tries to talk to one of his fellow astronauts and he turns him and he finds that he's had a lobotomy, right? And he said, you cut him. You cut out his brain, you know? I mean, it's like, wow. um those are the things that make make planet of the apes still still strong to this day and age because it is just so it's chilling even after all these years even 55 years later it's still chilling to see these things and to hear these things um it just amazing um one of my favorite series uh movies of all time science fiction wise love it that why we had to have the Blu because it so cool Uh we have the DVD uh the special um uh collector edition DVD set, but how can you not have the Blu-ray of one of your favorite, um, sci-fi films of all time? I had to. And plus I got this for extremely cheap at big lots. Um, so I mean, I, why, Why would I not? All five films, I think I paid $5 for that. I think it was actually $10, but there's like a coupon that you have. If you spend $15, you get $5 off. So I had to pick up some other things, so I had like $15. So if you take the $5 off of there, basically this cost me about $5. So, you know, how do you not upgrade that, man? How do you not have all the whole movie film series of the original on Blu-ray for like five bucks when it's five movies? How do you not? I mean, you have to do that, right? So that's pretty cool. So I had to upgrade it. I had to have that. And these are ones that I've always wanted. And the TV series I got the very first time I ever saw it when it was at Walmart so many years ago. I saw this at Walmart, and it was like $10, and I was like, ah, that's coming home. Because I had watched that on SyFy Network, and I loved it so much. So I was like, yeah, I got to have that. And you don't see Planet of the Apes streaming or anything anymore. and you don't see it on TV. So I'm glad I have that. That's why I'm a physical media proponent and why I'm a supporter of that because it takes it away from you and then you don't have it. The cartoon series, the animated series, if you will, maybe not as spectacular, but still something that I had to have anyway. So yeah, we're just kind of celebrating the awe and the majesty, I guess, of how great of a film Planet of the Apes truly is. It's amazing. It is probably one of my absolute favorite science fiction films of all time. I really mean that. It really is right up there with all my favorites. And so on its 55th year anniversary, we just want to pay homage to the great Planet of the Apes, the original movie. It is so amazing. If you've never seen it, definitely check it out. It is definitely worth it. All right, well, thank you for joining me today as we kind of rambled on about Planet of the Apes, one of my favorite films of all time. And what's your favorite science fiction film? Do you like Planet of the Apes? Let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. And until we see you next time with another Silver Screen Spotlight, Retro Drive-In Podcast or whatever the case may be we want to remind you to go to Classic Cinema Plus check out all our reviews and articles and all that kind of good stuff and until we see you next time have a blessed one and remember if you want to see a great film check out a classic see you next time