Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes Unrated Blu-Ray Review

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!”