Behind the Planet of the Apes Page #6

what is this saying about|how groups interact...

..and how peopIe in power|view peopIe who aren't in power?

You can cut pieces out of me.|You've got the power.

Return this creature to his cage.

But you do it out of fear!

Remember that! Because you're afraid of me!|What are you afraid of, Doctor?

(Roddy McDowall) But serious|thematic content on the screen...

..did not prohibit a sense of fun on the set.

(Charlton Heston) I remember|when we did the courtroom scene...

..where they take the fiIthy IoincIoth.

These rags he's wearing|give off a stench that's offensive.

I think that was my first nude scene,...

..and when they were setting up the shot,...

..one of the coffee girIs passing coffee|around waIked behind me and said...

..''Mm, nice buns!''

The Iighting peopIe|wouId speak of us as monkeys,...

..and then they'd kid us with...|bringing us bananas.

I got to hate bananas|during the course of the fiIm!

There was a famous day when the goriIIas|were being made up at the studio...

..and then hauIed out to Fox Ranch|in a station wagon.

And they took over from the driver one day|and they pushed him down in the back seat.

So you have this goriIIa|drivin' the station wagon down PCH,...

..you know, stoppin' traffic.

(Roddy McDowall) An off-the-cuff gag|on the set between Heston and Schaffner...

..resuIted in one of the fiIm's|most famous scenes.

Let us assume|that the prisoner's story is false.

But if he did not come from another planet,...

..then surely he sprang from our own.

WhiIe shooting this sequence,|the starjoked...

..that the director shouId fiIm the ape tribunaI|performing the oIdest of simian cIichs.

l have found no physiological defect|to explain why humans are mute.

- Objection!|- Sustained!

(Zira) Their speech organs are adequate.|The flaw lies not in anatomy, but in the brain.

- Objection!|- Sustained!

(Mort Abrahams)|Frank said ''I want you to see this.''

This was the examination|before the three judges.

And of course, when the executives|Iooked at it, they said ''Oh, my God!''

And Frank said ''You think it's too much?''|Then of course it appears in the finaI version.

(Roddy McDowall) Schaffner had|a very specific vision for the fiIm.

And its success owed much to his|considerabIe abiIities as a director.

He was a visionary.|He was underrated as a director.

This reaIIy was his first step up.

We took a chance, reaIIy,|because he hadn't done anything.

At Ieast, I hadn't seen anything that indicated|that he couId give it scope and meaning.

And that's what it's aII about. There's a Iot|of guys that are technicaIIy competent,...

..but don't have a reaI vision,|or enthusiasm. But he did.

(ape) Grab him!

(Roddy McDowall) As the fiIm draws|to its concIusion, TayIor escapes.

- Who are you?|- So you can talk!

l'm Dr Xira's nephew.|This abduction was her idea.

Cornelius!

He is pursued to an archaeoIogicaI site|in the forbidden zone.

- Lucius, don't fiire at them!|- You're all under arrest!

lf there's any more shooting, Dr Xaius,|you'll be the fiirst to go. You can count on it.

There, an amazing discovery is made.

One that chaIIenges the ape's dominant roIe.

You say these things were found|at the same level as that doll?

Whoever owned them|must have been in pretty bad shape.

He wore false teeth.

And eyeglasses.

l don't say he was a man|like l knew at home,...

..but he must have been a close relative.|He had all the same weaknesses.

He was a weak,...

..fragile animal.

But he was here before you...

- ..and he was better than you are.|- That's lunacy!

(doll) Mama!

(doll) Mama!

Dr Xaius, would an ape make a human doll...

..that talks?

It was a confIict of civiIisations, if you Iike.

What interested me particuIarIy about it...

..was the dichotomy of TayIor's character.

He was a harsh, embittered man...

..who had become so disenchanted|with his civiIisation...

..that he IiteraIIy Ieaves the earth.

You who are reading me now|are a different breed.

l hope a better one.

And then he finds himseIf|in an aIien pIanet popuIated by apes.

And he is aIone|required to defend humankind.

l oughta kill you right now.

Come on!

It's an interesting dichotomy and I...

..I tried to get as much out of it as I couId.

(Roddy McDowall) The finaI scenes|were shot on the CaIifornia coastIine.

At Zuma Beach near MaIibu.

Here, TayIor manages to subdue Dr Zaius|and they face off in one finaI confrontation.

Don't try to follow us.|l'm pretty handy with this.

Of that l'm sure.

All my life l've awaited your coming|and dreaded it, like death itself.

Why?

l've terrifiied you from the fiirst, Doctor.|l still do.

You're afraid of me and you hate me. Why?

Because you're a man.

And you're right.

l have always known about man.

From the evidence, l believe his wisdom|must walk hand in hand with his idiocy.

His emotions must rule his brain.

He must be a warlike creature|who gives battle...

..to everything around him, even himself.

What evidence?|There were no weapons in that cave.

The forbidden zone was once a paradise.

Your breed made a desert of it... ages ago.

lt still doesn't give me the why.

A planet where apes evolved from men.

There's gotta be an answer.

Don't look for it, Taylor.

You may not like what you fiind.

The fiIm's ending was a source of|controversy for the studio and fiImmakers.

Shot, but Iater deIeted, was a sequence|reveaIing Nova's pregnancy.

We decided that the structure|wouId be badIy affected,...

..changing her situation to a specific|such as her being pregnant,...

..cos you have to foIIow through.

If she's pregnant,|that becomes an eIement of the story.

And now we're off to...|something eIse entireIy.

If TayIor and Nova have a chiId,|wiII that chiId be abIe to speak?

WiII that chiId have the same kind|of inteIIigence as TayIor?

What if they breed a new race of inteIIigent|humans? What couId happen then?

But when you take that notion out,...

..then this whoIe question about humans|being abIe to have some kind of rebirth...

..gets eIiminated, because reaIIy they weren't|teIIing a story of possibIe saIvation.

(Roddy McDowall)|The ending that was used...

..had its genesis in one of Rod SerIing's|earIy script drafts.

It proved to be one of the most surprising,...

..memorabIe and chiIIing cIimaxes|in motion-picture history.

Oh, my God!

l'm back!

l'm home.

All the time, it was...

We fiinally really did it.

You maniacs!

You blew it up!

God damn you!

God damn you all to hell!

(Eric Greene) That finaI image is one of|the most memorabIe scenes of '60s cinema.

The American hero is standing in front|of this faIIen icon of American expectation.

And it reaIIy speaks to|this sense of aII America's aspirations,...

..the seIf-image that we had as defenders|of Iiberty and the beacon of hope.

AII of that now is Iaid waste - IiteraIIy.|It's in ruins.

It was reaIIy designed|not to send a message,...

..but to throw in a big surprise,|from an audience standpoint.

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