Stranded on Planet Hollywood

Michael Clarke Duncan in Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" -- (C)2001 Twentieth Century Fox

Director Tim Burton is quite clear on this matter: His version of "Planet of the Apes" is no mere "remake" of the 1968 original (insert auteur's snort of disgust here) -- it's a "re-imagination." But I beg to differ. A more appropriate description would be "remakeover," for while the simian makeup effects in Burton's film are far more advanced, in all other aspects his film is far less imaginative and daring than its predecessor.

"Planet of the Apes"? Daring? Well, after all the spinoff juvenilia of the "Apes" series (Saturday-morning cartoons, action dolls and the like), it's hard to recall the original's impact, the astute way in which it dug into the cultural psyche of the time. Nevertheless, the first "Planet of the Apes" was a landmark in dystopian cinema: Its shocking closing shot of a toppled Statue of Liberty, a crumbling ruin of a past empire buried in sand, hit audiences hard.

That this nightmare image came in 1968 was no coincidence. In that year both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated, the Tet Offensive gave America a chilling preview of its imminent defeat in Vietnam and the street violence surrounding the antiwar protests hinted at a coming anarchy. Fear of the end of an empire was in the air, and "Apes" seemed to reflect this. (Its sequel, "Return to the Planet of the Apes," literalized it, with pacifist chimpanzees carrying peace signs protesting the war policy of the gorillas.)