Franklin J. Schaffner | Scott's Film Reviews-1,504 Reviews posted!!! RECENTLY LAUNCHED-MY TOP 250 FAVORITE FILMS AND TOP 40 HORROR FILMS!!!

Planet of the Apes-1968

Director Franklin J. Shaffner

Starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall

Top 250 Films #109

Scott’s Review #363

Reviewed January 9, 2016

Grade: A

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 science fiction film starring one of the greats, Charlton Heston.

At the time of release, the film was a great film and quite visionary- and the message still holds up well today. Since certainly everyone on the “planet” must know the “surprise” ending, the film speaks volumes about the destruction of the world we know and love.

Intelligently written, Planet of the Apes is memorable and was followed by a bunch of not-so-compelling or strong sequels, remakes, and reboots.

A group of astronauts crash-lands on a strange planet in the distant future. The men have no idea where they are or what period it is.

The planet is inhabited by apes, who are highly intelligent and speak and act just like human beings. They are dominant, and the real humans are largely mute and incapable of doing much- they are kept imprisoned.

George Taylor (played by Heston) is the lead astronaut who, the apes realize, can speak and is assumed to be brilliant. The ape leader wants him killed, but sympathetic scientist and archaeologist apes Cornelius and Zira (played by Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter) are curious about Taylor and wish to experiment further.

To say nothing of the story, the prosthetic makeup and costumes are dynamic. Human actors play the apes, but they do not look fake or phony.

Furthermore, the sets look genuine and grand and hold up well nearly fifty years later. Nothing about the film appears to be remotely dated or losing its original appeal, as some movies inevitably do.

Planet of the Apes is a political film, and this message also holds up well in the present times.

How human beings have ruined their planet is the main point of the film, but this is wisely not revealed until the very end, with the now-famous scene of an escaped Taylor running along the beach, only to realize, in terror, that the submerged, tattered Statue of Liberty is there.

With horror, he realizes that human beings have destroyed planet Earth, and the astronauts never actually left their planet!

Fun and serious to watch all rolled into one, Planet of the Apes (1968) is a film for the ages, with a distinct message and a story that audiences everywhere can absorb and relate to.

Oscar Nominations: Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (Not a Musical), Best Costume Design

The Boys from Brazil-1978

Director Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, James Mason

Scott’s Review #1,391

Reviewed August 20, 2023

Grade: B+

The Boys from Brazil (1978) is a taut political thriller with a neo-Nazi focus and a weird cloning subject matter. It’s a bit of a tough follow but quite compelling all the way though and doesn’t lag at all.

Sometimes political thrillers get overly complicated or drag but this one doesn’t. The story is slightly hokey and impractical even bordering on ludicrous but since it’s so intriguing and action-packed these adjectives can be overlooked.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t blown away by either the performance of Laurence Olivier or Gregory Peck despite being a fan of both quality actors. Both actors overact and create stereotypes but especially Peck’s character is a bit too cartoonish.

It took me half the film to even recognize either man since both are heavily made up making them hard to recognize. It also took until the dramatic conclusion for either character to truly grow on me.

A brilliant one-scene cameo performance by Uta Hagen, a German American actress, as a former Nazi guard now imprisoned nearly steals the show and should have deserved an Oscar nomination.

The story surrounds Doctor Josef Mengele played by Peck who clones Adolf Hitler ninety-five times and raises the boys in Brazil, giving them childhoods identical to Hitler’s in various parts of the world.

His goal is to create a band of Nazi leaders that can continue where Hitler left off, forming the Fourth Reich. Their fathers will be murdered and the boys will be mothered as Hitler was.

Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), a Nazi hunter, learns of the plan from a young journalist (Steve Guttenberg) and is determined to thwart it.

The plot is a tough pill to swallow and takes some time to absorb exactly what is going on but it’s fresh and unique. I’m not sure if in 1978 people had had enough of Nazi and World War II films but both subjects are always worth dissecting again.

I’m not sure why it was so tough to get used to Peck as the evil doctor but it was. It’s probably because Peck usually plays characters with a strong moral compass and he was playing way against type.

His character looks weird and Peck seems to be overacting sometimes almost like he was playing a James Bond villain. It’s not exactly a role that measures up to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Olivier is better and the main protagonist of The Boys from Brazil but I’m not sure he entirely wins me over. It’s not easy immersing in the prim and proper British aristocratic actor playing a Jewish man who kvetches so often.

Still, by the finale when Mengele meets Lieberman in a deadly showdown involving vicious Dobermans, a gun, and a Hitler clone I was cheering for Olivier all the way.

Supporting characters played by Guttenberg, Anne Meara (Jerry Stiller’s wife) as Mrs. Curry, one of the Hitler clone’s mothers, and the aforementioned Hagen is excellent. I wish that each character was explored better and given more screen time.

The same can be said for Rosemary Harris in a one-scene performance. While quality, I wanted more from her character of Frau Doring, the wife of one of the murdered fathers of the Hitler clones.

Finally, James Mason has little to do as Colonel Seibert other than serve as second fiddle to Peck.

But, The Boys from Brazil is the Olivier and Peck show.

The locales are a big win since they add an international vibe and relevance. Geographies such as Germany, Paraguay, Austria, and rural Pennsylvania, United States are featured which lofts the film up tremendously.

The taught nature of the film provides suspense, an ode to history, and an eerie measure of Trumpism in comparison to Nazi-ism. The Boys from Brazil (1978) isn’t prime steak but it’s not a bad watch either.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor-Laurence Olivier, Best Film Editing, Best Original Music Score