Unrated
(Theatrical Version Rated PG)
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 27 Minutes
Cast:
Roddy
McDowall-Milo/Caesar
Don
Murray-City Governor Breck
Ricardo
Montalban-Señor Armando
Hari
Rhodes-MacDonald
Severn
Darden-Chief Inspector Kolp
Natalie
Trundy-Lisa
Directed
by J. Lee Thompson
 |
| The conquest begins... |
Note: Part of the "Planet of the Apes" 40-Year Evolution Blu-Ray Collection.
Even
with the increasingly reduced production budgets and domestic box office
grosses, the “Planet of the Apes” franchise remained popular among movie-going
audiences so it came as no surprise when a fourth
installment was released during the summer of 1972. Unlike the previous two
films, 1971’s “Escape from the Planet of the Apes” was deliberately left
open-ended for a sequel that was originally intended to be the final film by
producer Arthur P. Jacobs. Paul Dehn returned as writer and viewing the series
as having a circular timeline, he connected the fourth film with the first,
thereby creating a predestination paradox. Of course, “Conquest of the Planet
of the Apes” did enough solid business at the domestic box office for Jacobs to
justify a fifth and this time, final, film. Exploring the darker side of
humanity, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” is another strong sequel in this
venerable franchise, with its more brutal tone and a fiery performance from
series veteran Roddy McDowall.
Much has changed in the eighteen years since
Cornelius and Zira, two intelligent simians from the future, were murdered by Dr.
Otto Hasslein in an attempt to avert a future where humanity would be dominated
by apes. They are survived by their son, Milo, who was hidden away by a
sympathetic human, Señor Armando (Ricardo Montalban), who leads a traveling
circus troupe. Due to a space-born virus that causes the world’s dogs and cats
to become extinct in 1983, humans decide to turn to monkeys and apes as a
replacement. With their capacity to learn and adapt, they are trained and
conditioned to perform menial tasks. By 1991, the United States has become a
totalitarian nation and instead of as pets, the apes are now nothing more than
slave labor. Armando and a now grown-up Milo, renamed as Caesar (Roddy McDowall),
travel to an unnamed metropolis to distribute flyers advertising the circus’
arrival. With humans still in fear of an ape revolt, Caesar is warned to keep a
low profile to prevent others from discovering his true heritage. As they hand
out the flyers, the two observe the apes performing their tasks as ordered and
are shocked at the harsh treatment they receive if they disobey. When one ape
is severely beaten and sedated, Caesar shouts, ‘Lousy human bastards!’ Armando
quickly takes responsibility for the exclamation when questioned by two
policemen but as the large crowd becomes more agitated, Caesar slips away in
fear. Found hiding in a stairway, Armando assures Caesar that he will bluff his
way out of the situation but asks him to hide among his own kind for the time
being. Stowing aboard a shipment of orangutans, Caesar finds himself being
trained as a slave through violent conditioning. At an auction, he is sold to
City Governor Breck (Don Murray), the cruel and tyrannical leader of the
unnamed metropolis. Meanwhile, Armando goes through a tense interrogation by
Chief Inspector Kolp (Severn Darden) through the use of an ‘authenticator
machine,’ which psychologically forces its victims to tell the truth. Refusing
to confess, Armando leaps through a window and dies. Learning of his foster
father’s death, Caesar becomes convinced that all humanity is cruel. He gathers
all of his fellow simians and prepares for a revolution that will change the
fate of the planet…forever.
“Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” is the darkest
entry yet and rightly so as it chronicles the beginning of the apes’ revolt
against their human masters. The United States is depicted as a totalitarian
nation built on ape slave labor with black-uniformed storm-troopers roaming the
streets to keep them in line and make sure no one speaks out against the
government. Disobedient slaves are brutally beaten and it all feels prophetic
seeing the police treat the apes with excessive force, recalling the infamous
Rodney King incident that sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Everything is
also monitored and enforced through the use of an omnipresent public address
system. Subtlety was never a strong suit in the franchise with the apes
standing-in for African American slaves, which some might feel to be in poor
taste as a racial analogy. The film also feels timely considering it was
released just as the civil rights movement was winding down. The final twenty
or so minutes are particularly brutal, even with the fake blood, as Caesar
leads his fellow simians in an all-out revolt that was inspired by the
racial-fueled Watts Riots of 1965 in Los Angeles, California. With no music
accompanying these scenes, all we hear are the screaming and shouting as the
apes overwhelm the police forces. Taken captive, Governor Breck is asked why
apes were turned from household pets into slaves and he answers that because
humans evolved from them, their baser instincts still remain, remarking that ‘when
we hate you, we're hating the dark side of ourselves.’ Human nature, it seems,
will always be consumed by a never-ending cycle of violence, a theme also
explored in Neill Blomkamp’s brilliant 2009 film “District 9.”
Unfortunately,
audiences in a test screening reacted badly to the ending as they found it too
bleak so it was hastily re-edited to have a more hopeful tone. McDowall was
called in to record additional dialogue and it had Caesar’s lover Lisa (Natalie
Trundy) being the first ape to speak, uttering the word, ‘No!’ This prompts him
to soften his tone and to dominate the humans with compassion, which made no
sense and clashes with the rest of the film. Thankfully, the original ending is
now restored on the Blu-Ray release. If there are any complaints, it’s that the
reduced production budget becomes apparent with the minimalist sets and the
unconvincing ape makeup on the extras, which I suspect to be simply masks. The
poor lighting doesn’t help either. Also, there are some gaps in its logic due
to the rushed production, particularly with the evolution of the apes that was supposed to take centuries according to
Cornelius and Zira but only took two decades.
Roddy McDowall delivers his
strongest performance yet as Caesar and the speech he makes has such a fiery
passion, encapsulating all of his pent-up anger at humanity’s inherent cruelty.
Don Murray comes off as a bit two-dimensional as Governor Breck compared to
Hasslein in the previous film, who believed that he was saving the human race
and did not kill Cornelius and Zira out of spite. Hari Rhodes is fine as
MacDonald as a human who is sympathetic to the ape’s plight but cannot act in
fear of being arrested by Breck. Rounding out the cast is Ricardo Montalban reprising
his role as Armando and Natalie Trundy as Caesar’s lover Lisa, who has no
lines, in the unrated version anyway.
“Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”
arrives on Blu-Ray as a separate release or part of the ‘40-Year Evolution’
box-set but the picture quality isn’t up to par compared to the previous films.
While outdoor scenes are sharp, especially during close-ups, much of the film
takes place at night and the overwhelming shadows obscure detail. Still, this
is an adequate transfer and it’s unlikely to get any better. Being the loudest
of the series, audio is good with crisp dialogue but many of the effects are
dated and sound harsh. Again, supplements are on the lacking side and only the
twenty-minute making-of featurette is worth a look.
Released on June 29, 1972,
“Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” received a mixed reception and it
currently has a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, it made a nice tidy profit at
the domestic box office with $9 million (approximately $48 million adjusted for
inflation) against a paltry $1.7 million production budget. That’s one of the
things I never understood. Given the success of the original film, you would
think that 20th Century Fox would allot a bigger budget but the increased
penny-pinching led to each successive sequel looking cheaper. Despite the
noticeable logic gaps in its exposition and the cheap, small-scale production
values, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” remains a strong sequel and an
engaging film in its own right thanks to a taut narrative and a darker, more
mature tone. This is essentially its version of “The Empire Strikes Back” for
the franchise!
Final
Rating: 4 out of 5
“Where
there is fire, there is smoke. And in that smoke, from this day forward, my
people will crouch, and conspire, and plot, and plan for the inevitable day of
man's downfall, the day when he finally and self-destructively turns his
weapons against his own kind. The day of the writing in the sky, when your
cities lie buried under radioactive rubble! When the sea is a dead sea, and the
land is a wasteland, out of which I will lead my people from their captivity!
And we will build our own cities, in which there will be no place for humans,
except to serve our ends! And we shall found our own armies, our own religion,
our own dynasty! And that day is upon you...NOW!”
Posts
