A science fiction classic. Like most good science fiction, it wraps some pretty heady ideas around a great storyline.

A top of the line "B" sci-fi movie. Really a film about the stupidity of racism in our culture. Heston took this part because he liked to work and they weren't making the Biblical epics anymore. This movie did poorly when first released but became hugely popular when it hit the drive-in theaters and local movie houses. The special effects were very well done for the time and seeing it on the big screen is really a must. All the sequels were watchable but not nearly as good as the first. I think they needed to get their moneys worth from all those ape suits. It looked as though the budgets shrank will each succeeding film.

Why did Charlton Heston agree to play in this film is beyond me. Especially after such great performances as the 10 Commandments and Ben Hur.

The best of all the Ape films- a classic in itself- always enjoyable to watch. Decent acting, special affects are still good and believable. Far superior then the 2001 version.

A very solid film, a minor classic, that touched on a lot of contemporary themes and events, it's a very 1960's kind of film that was based on a mediocre French sci-fi novel by Pierre Boulle.Like Jaws or The Godfather, it's one of those rare movies that are much better than the book. The acting is spotty overall, though Heston is better than he usually is, Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter were good, and Maurice Evans was quite good as Dr. Zaius, a role originally intended for the great Edward G. Robinson. The sequels grew progressively worse, but this film, although often corny or pompous, is fine, and often funny, intentionally or not. The eerie score by Jerry Goldsmith is seldom mentioned, but it was haunting and very effective too.

A classic.

pretty good deal here. twilight zone like twist at the end, to be expected as original screenplay written by Rod Serling. uncomfortable sexual tension between man and female ape.

Much better than the Mark Walberg version. Heston was at his best in this. The ape costumes were a little hockey but for the time they were great. The sequals got gradually worse but the original was another highlight in sci-fi motion pictures.

Still one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made.DO NOT bother with the remake-it is inferior to the MAX!

I didn't think much of the planet of the apes by looking at it until I watched the this flick for the first time at a friends house. Excellent story line, far ahead of it's time.

Predictable, badly filmed, and Charleton Heston's acting is so bad it would knock a hound-dog off a gut wagon.

Pretty good film, and creepy in places. The scene where they find their friend dead and stuffed in an ape museum is freaky. The movie is so bleak at times that it's a bit of a turn off. The ending was waaaay out there too. Riding up onto the Statue of Liberty on the beach. WEIRD.

I didn’t appreciate this one much until the 2001 version was released. In the original, the writers actually gave you an opportunity to get to know the characters enough that you actually felt something for their circumstances (character development – which has all but disappeared - is what I miss most about some of the newer films!). By the time the story rolls around to its surprise ending you feel all the gut wrenching loss that Heston’s character felt. You have become involved to the point that you are part of the film rather than an observer. This cannot and does not happen in a film where very little meaningful dialogue is spoken and you are constantly shooting through scenery in an apparent death race to get to the end of the film. The ’68 version may not have been the best thing ever recorded on celluloid, but compared to the newer “holiday for short attention spans”, it looks like a production of Hamlet.

wow. an amazing movie which touchs on the human race and its moronic self-destructive ways. less civil than damn apes. i had the extreme displeasure of seeing this movie more or less back to back with the new one (with makers mark.) its saddening how foul the movie industry has turned. really. saddening. i dont understand. i still have some hope. but then again, with all the morons around...i doubt it.

I was extremely surprised by how great this movie is. I thought it was just going to be one of those role reversals with white people being slaves and stuff like that. What caught me off guard was the ending and what it meant in the time this movie was made. Really good.

One of my favorite movies of all time with one of my favorite actors. All of the sequels are terrible, but this movie's social commentary seems to be unplanned while being ever present. This film's plot is well developed, and while Charlton Heston's character shows some development, most of the apes are lacking in that respect. Rod Serling's work on the film was fantastic. While it was not able to hold to the book in which the apes are in a far more sophisticated society than that of the movie, the movie has a great quality which could not be duplicated in todays cinematic climate. If you liked the Twilight Zone, this movie will be one for you. This film's costumes and makeup, while being state of the art at the time, are very bad, and nothing postitive can be said for the sequels which were simply a form of profit from the original, each becoming cheaper and cheaper, and the stories becoming thinner and thinner.

Very well done, just very depressing. Heston was top-notch.

Experience Charleston Heston at his greatest when he utters the words, "leave him alone, you damn dirty ape!" Better than "Ben-Hur," Heston plays a marooned space captin confused about what planet he has landed on. The question is not where, but when. And with the creepy twilight zone ending, this movie rates "5" bananas!

Crap!

a true, unique classic !

A classic. People talk about sixth sense having a great surprise ending, but I think that it pales in comparison to the horror on Charlton Heston's face when he realized the truth about the Planet of the Apes. Great flick - and who was the actress who played his mute companion? She may be one of the only actresses from any old movie who I think is smoking hot by today's standards.