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The Planet of the Apes Collection (six disc box set) [1968]

RRP: £49.99
Our Price: £8.00 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

The five films in the Planet of the Apes series are enjoyable as pure entertainment and yet substantial enough to have inspired academic studies about the film's broader political themes. Loosely adapted from the novel by French author Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes was released at the height of racial and political unrest in America, adding resonance to its story of a NASA astronaut (Charlton Heston) stranded on a planet where superior apes dominate inferior human slaves. The film's final image--in which a horrified Heston realises the fate of humankind--remains one of the most indelible in all of science-fiction cinema.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) continues the original's distant future scenario, pitting militant apes against mutant humans dwelling in the subterranean ruins of New York City. Its phenomenal success spawned Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), in which simian scientists Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter, reprising their roles from Planet) travel backward in time, setting the stage for the ape supremacy of the first two films. McDowall returned in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) as Caesar, the son of Cornelius, leading an ape revolution that bridges the historical gap of the previous films. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) ended the five-film cycle with McDowall again playing the chimpanzee leader Caesar, defeating gorillas and human mutants to establish the hierarchy introduced in the original film.

The Apes films present a classic what-if scenario that hasn't lost a bit of its potency. As if to prove its cultural endurance, the cycle returned to its origins with director Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes in 2001. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

On the DVD: A glorious indulgence for diehard fans of the series, this handsomely packaged six-disc set contains all five original" Apes" movies, from the wonderful 1967 original to 1973's low-budget Battle. It all look as good as possible in widescreen anamorphic transfers, the first movie's starkly wonderful cinematography in particular is a treat to see on DVD. Planet has been remixed in vivid Dolby 5.1, highlighting the bold sound design and JerryGoldsmith's masterful avant-garde score. The others are good Dolby stereo, with the odd exception of Escape, which is mono. There are trailers on each disc, but no commentaries sadly. The sixth bonus disc consists of a relatively new two-hour documentary hosted by Roddy McDowall which takes us through the entire saga in detail, pointing out the series' daring social commentary and the increasing difficulties of working with progressively smaller budgets. Sensibly, the documentary spends about an hour on the first movie and then an hour discussing all the rest. Overall, this is a very attractive package. --Mark Walker

Classic Sci Fi Film
Review date: 2008-06-28 Rating: 8 out of 10

"Planet of the Apes" was made over 40 years old and as a result it has a somewhat dated feel to it. However it has still much to recommend it. Charlton Heston is excellent as the time traveller from Earth who lands on a planet ruled by walking ,talking ape like creatures who hunt humans for sport and generally treat them like scumbags. He gets captured by these creatures before escaping thus avoiding likely castration and a lobotomy. The truth of the ape run planet is revealed in a dramatic ,iconic closing sequence. "Planet of the Apes" of course relies on the discredited theory of evolution as its foundation but is there anyone left who seriously believes that the human race has evolved from apes and that walking ,talking apes such as those seen in this film could evolve from present day simians ?

Reviews

Film + Documentary + Price = *****
Review date: 2008-04-12 Rating: 10 out of 10

One of the previous reviewers is being a little uncharitable in saying there are no extras in this excellent DVD set. Sure on the main 5 film discs there are very few extras. However disc 6 contains an superb 2 hour+ documentary on the making of the films. So may there be no extras but there is an extra disc!

The first film is a classic. Both entertaining adventure story and classic Sci-fi rolled into one. Watching the documentary you will see film critics reading in social messages about race and the political times in the US in 1968. However quite a few other people (including the producer) say there was no attempt to put messages into the film! Whatever your view on this the performances of the cast and the make-up are quite superb. Remember the make-up is all for real - no CGI in the 1960's.

The later films do decline in quality and their budgets were progressivly reduced as the films went by. The first and second sequels (Heston appears briefly at the start and end of the first) are both decent. The last two are pretty poor.

As a set though, and at the right price (search around 'cause this is available ridiculously cheap at the moment) this is worth it for the first film and documentary alone.

Birth of a franchise
Review date: 2007-10-07 Rating: 10 out of 10

"Planet of the Apes" is fantastic entertainment. A crew of astronauts crash on an unfamiliar planet, only to discover it's ruled by talking apes. The apes hunt the local mute humans and use them for scientific experimentation. When Charlton Heston (one of the astronauts)is captured, he impresses kind chimpanzee scientists Zira and Cornelius becasue of his ability for speech, but the other apes are not amused; their religion dictates that apes, not humans, are God's chosen. The movie's famous twist ending not only deepens the meaning of everything that's come before; and gives great reason for sequels.

A good collection, but not as good as it could have been
Review date: 2007-02-07 Rating: 8 out of 10

Franklin J. Schaffner's original Planet of the Apes is in a class of its own - superb, serious filmmaking with an incredibly strong script which manages to encompass everything from the creationist/evolutionist debate to the Hollywood blacklist (all five films feature heavy presences from blacklist victims both in front of and behind the cameras). And John Chambers' make-up is still quite miraculous, convincingly simian while still retaining much of the identity of the players underneath the masks. Unfortunately, the edition in this 6-disc boxed set misses the excellent extras from the later 2-disc DVD edition.

Unlike the Star Trek films, this is one franchise where the odd `numbered' films are better than the `evens.' Beneath the Planet of the Apes suffers heavily from the loss of writers Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, and perhaps more so from Schaffner's replacement with talented but often uninspired journeyman Ted Post. The first half hour is a rushed recap of the first film, with Charlton Heston-lite James Franciscus taking the lead to little effect. There are interesting jabs at Vietnam era America - peace protesting chimps, militaristic rabble rousing gorillas - and civil rights - Thomas Gomez's prayer is actually a KKK blessing - but it lacks the wit, character or detail of its predecessor. Heston's insistence on no more sequels (or so he thought) also adds a somewhat needlessly nihilistic ending.

Much better by far is Escape From the Planet of the Apes, which is when Paul Dehn really took over the series by proxy and created the mythology which would see it through to the short-lived TV series. Roddy McDowall may get top billing, but it's actually Kim Hunter who easily dominates the film, and it's a wonderfully imaginative and witty inversion of the original. Funky score by Jerry Goldsmith too, a million miles from his savage primitive work on the original but still recognizably the same musical universe.

The quality drops again with Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Despite some interesting plays on slavery and race relations - the final carnage is based closely on the Watts riots - it's mildly uninvolving, not helped by a poor DVD transfer that makes the scenes shot in Century City even duller than they were meant to be. Don Murray's hysterical overacting doesn't help - at times the film cuts away from him to inanimate objects as if embarrassed to linger on his performance.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is easily the least ambitious, toning down the violence for what the producers admitted was just `a kid's film.' Yet on its own terms its extremely well made, often dryly amusing and particularly well shot, with J. Lee Thompson showing a good eye for the Scope frame that's almost completely absent in [i]Conquest[/i]. It's a shame that Dehn's much, much darker take - in which Caesar's attempts to build a world where apes and men can live in peace leads to his murder and the birth of the hardline regime of the original film - was abandoned, but it's a surprisingly enjoyable movie in a cowboys and Indians, or rather, apes and mutants kind of way. And where else can you see John Landis playing horsey for a young ape? Unfortunately, the version in this boxed set is quite heavily cut - for the unncut version you need to pick up the 2006 DVD reissue on NTSC.

Aside from the poor Conquest, the 2.35:1 widescreen transfers are good but not outstanding, with extras limited to the excellent two-hour documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes and the original trailers for the films.

What on earth where they thinking.......
Review date: 2005-12-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

There is very little I can add to the other reviews already published here. These are mostly great films, the first one standing out in particular as an all time classic sci-fi movie. For anyone who has yet to see the first film in the series and knows nothing of it's fantastic ending, it truly is a heart stopping moment. Planet of the apes has probably one of the greatest endings ever, a twist the like of which has yet to be matched in any movie since. So why on earth did the makers of this set decide to spoil it by using that final revelation as the image on the box??
Words fail me.

Product Details/Specifications

Actor(s):
Severn Darden
Lew Ayres
Natalie Trundy
Claude Akins
Paul Williams (III)

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036007450
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 6
Format: Box set, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2001-10-08
Number of discs: 6
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 582 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1973-06-15
Language: English (Original Language)

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The Planet of the Apes Collection (six disc box set) [1968]

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