How much of a surprise was the twist in 1968?
-
onerichard — 9 years ago(July 09, 2016 12:01 PM)
I don't necessarily believe people were shocked! by the ending. For me it felt more like a confirmation than a complete reveal.
They could have been in many places on Earth. Taylor himself could have believed it, or thought maybe they were on earth.. I mean it looked like earth, didn't it? What planet did they think they were on?
The reveal was that they were spoiler alert! on North America's East coast of New York City !!! And not some far off (from where they launched) continent like a jungle of Africa for example.
it was the slow reveal of a statue half buried at the ocean beach that made it such a wow moment. -
JoeKarlosi — 9 years ago(July 27, 2016 03:56 PM)
I was 6 when the movie came out but I didn't catch up with it until it aired on TV in 1973 so I already knew the whole concept. But I went to see the film the other night theatrically (Fathom Events) with my nephew, and I remarked afterward that it's incredible to conceive now that audiences truly had no idea this was Earth back in the '60s. What I mean is, these days people are so conditioned to expecting "twists and turns". Same thing holds true for people being duped by the revelation in Hitchcock's PSYCHO (1960) though that's another topic!
-
cada123 — 9 years ago(July 29, 2016 06:50 PM)
If we hadn't blown ourselves up in a nuclear war, been taken over by pale-skinned vampires in over-sized Jawa hoodies, or found out our favorite candy bar was made out of people - we would have at least been enslaved by apes. By the time Chuck and co. found the talking doll, I remember thinking he had to be pretty thick if he didn't see it coming that he was in fact on Earth - especially since he had recently starred in so many other end-of-the-world movies.
Slack,
This movie was first shown in the theaters in 1968. Other films such as Star Wars, Soylent Green, Omega Man, etc. did not appear until the 1970's - so original audiences had not been influenced by them - and Taylor (Chuck) would not have been, either.
The generally innocent feeling of the early 1960's had been eroded by 1968 (the Assassinations of MLKing and Bobby Kennedy, the Vietnam War - etc. etc!). But the more jaded feeling of the late 60's had not Quite Yet pervaded the entire population (hence, "Don't trust anyone over 30" - widely quoted by youth & young adults of the era, and thus a bit of comic relief in the movie).
I had later seen Planet/Apes on TV as an adult, and I found the ending to be Very shocking.
I had not (quite Yet!) entirely acquired the more global cynicism which Taylor so eloquently gives voice to.
*btw, I have not read the book - but I understand (from someone who has) that the ending is Quite different.
(I won't give spoilers here because I heard about it years ago, and might get part of it wrong.
I will just say that from what I do remember, it would be hard to make a believable ending of it - even harder than the Heston version is to believe.) -
hachmom-1 — 9 years ago(September 10, 2016 08:41 AM)
I've read the novel several times, and the biggest problem would be to keep secret on film, a visual medium, what isnt revealed to the reader until the very end, especially given the characters appear at the beginning as well (literally finding a message in a bottle).
It is not our abilities that show who we truly areit is our choices -
rainbird131162 — 9 years ago(September 22, 2016 02:48 PM)
I've seen the movie more times than I can remember over the last five decades and that ending never fails to impress. I think it's because one of the strengths of the film is that it so convincingly drops you into a world where everything is upside down that the possibility of our heroes being on Earth never seems obvious. That's a hard trick to pull off in this kind of story and it relies on the viewers attention being constantly distracted, something the movie achieves quite brilliantly. I just watched it again the other night and it hadn't lost any of its power. It is one of cinema's great SF masterpieces (and as good as Charlton Heston is Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter steal every scene they're in!)
Mai Yamane!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-sYFirfywY&feature=related -
wxray1 — 9 years ago(October 21, 2016 05:38 PM)
I was about 9 when I saw it on TV with my parents. It was the first network broadcast. My parents didn't see it in the theaters (they were more into James Bond).
They were shocked. At 9 years old, I got it totally and remember being blown away. We had just been to NYC and visited the statue. Wow!