On the Planet of the Apes with Jerry Goldsmith

Jerry Goldsmith (allegedly) wore a gorilla mask while writing 

and conducting the score to Planet of the Apes (1968) 

in order to better understand the film and its themes 

 

 

I. 

 

Last night, I returned to the Planet of the Apes ... 

 

That is to say, I rewatched the 1968 American post-apocalyptic science-fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Charlton Heston (as Taylor), Roddy McDowall (as Cornelius), Kim Hunter (as Zira), Maurice Evans (as Dr Zaius), and Linda Harrison (as Nova).

 

As well as marvelling once more at the cinematography, set and costume designs, and various other visual aspects of the film, I was for the fist time really struck by the brilliance of Jerry Goldsmith's score ...

 

 

II. 

 

Whilst working with a traditional orchestra - albeit one which made use of innovative techniques and some unusual percussion instruments [1] - Goldsmith fashioned a composition that is paradoxically primitive yet futuristic, alien yet strangely familiar, and thus perfectly suited to Earth in the year 3978, when apes have found their voices and assumed a position of dominance, whilst humanity, on the other hand, has lost its exceptionalism (as well as the power of speech).    

 

As one commentator notes, Goldsmith gives us an unsettling avant-garde combination of Bartók and Stravinsky [2] and why he didn't win the Oscar for Best Original Score for a non-musical motion picture in 1968 I don't know [3]. 

 

Perhaps it was just a little too clever (and unconventional) for the Academy; Goldsmith's background in classical music and his knowledge and appreciation of modern developments such as dodecaphonism (i.e, twelve-note composition) set him apart from many of those in Hollywood (including many of his fellow composers whom he felt were just repeating the same things over and over again) [4].      

 

  

Notes

 

[1] For example, when scoring Planet of the Apes, Goldsmith looped drums into an echoplex, had his orchestra imitate the grunting sounds of apes, and used stainless steel mixing bowls (among other objects) to create unique percussive sounds. 

 

[2] The Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist Béla Bartók and Russian born composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky are widely considered two of the most important figures within the world of modern classical music. 

      Bartók's innovative style blended complex, percussive musical ideas and rhythms with extensive use of native folk music, thereby giving the latter a distinctive modernist edge. His work has had a lasting and significant influence on later classical composers, as well as those who, like Goldsmith, scored music for film and television. 

      Stravinsky's stylistic versatility along with his revolutionary approach to rhythm and harmony - as demonstrated in ballets like The Rite of Spring (1913) - opened up entirely new ways of composing and, like Bartók, he was highly influential on those who came after him. 

      Goldsmith cited both men as inspirational, whilst also acknowledging the profound impact made by Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone serialism on his own work, using the latter to create the psychological tension that is a crucial aspect of many a film score. For a comprehensive discussion of this, see John O'Callaghan's Simians & Serialism: A History and Analysis of Jerry Goldsmith's Score to Planet of the Apes (Pithikos Entertainment, 2015); an expanded second edition of this text was published in 2023.

 

[3] Actually, I do know: Goldsmith was nominated for the Academy Award, but lost out to John Barry for his work on The Lion in Winter (dir. Anthony Harvey). Planet of the Apes was also nominated for Best Costume Design (Morton Haack). The only Oscar it picked up, however, was an honorary award given to John Chambers, for outstanding makeup achievement. 

 

[4] It's interesting to note that although Goldsmith would receive 18 Academy Award nominations during his career - making him one of the most nominated of all Hollywood composers - he only once took home an Oscar, for his score for The Omen (dir. Richard Donner, 1976). 

      He did, posthumously, also receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017, in recognition of his many achievements.

 

 

Musical bonus: Jerry Goldsmith, Main Title from Planet of the Apes (1968): click here.  

 

Cinematic bonus: to watch the famous final scene from Planet of the Apes on YouTube, click here. 

 

 

This post is in memory of the English primatologist Jane Goodall who, sadly, died a few days ago (1 October 2025), aged 91. She spent more than six decades working and living alongside wild chimpanzees at Gombe Stream National Park, in Tanzania.