ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

In the fourth film of the series, Roddy McDowall stays with the story even though his character is dead. He switches from playing Cornelius (the ape who befriends Charlton Heston in the first film) to Caesar, Cornelius' son, now living in the pre-holocaust, pre-ape-dominated society of a near-future age.

Caesar goes from circus performer to slave laborer to rebel leader. He and his fellow intelligent apes defeat the slave-master humans at a government installation and establish the first stronghold in the new ape-ruled world order. Ricardo Montalban is the circus owner, Don Murray is Caesar's slave master. Directed by Lee Thompson.

The ape series is laudable for making good use of the time paradox. Take a look at the total time line of the series.

The intelligent apes of the original film become the dominant species on the planet because of a revolt lead by Caesar, the son of the two "future apes" from the first film, Cornelius and Zira -- and then Caesar goes on to become an ancestor of the later generation who spawned his own parents!

"Conquest" also refutes the original film's sly suggestion that apes evolved intelligence after mankind destroyed itself. Contraire' -- first the apes became intelligent, then they overthrew mankind and took possession of the planet.

Strictly speaking, "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" should be titled "Conquest of the Planet of the Humans", since the planet starts out belonging to humans and then gets conquered by apes. It's a nit-picking point perhaps, but we Ape fans enjoy such legalistic debates.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

I'm not really a fan of any of the sequels to Planet of the Apes — and I can't figure out why that's true, because this one is the biggest, the newest, the most exciting of all the Planet of the Apes pictures!

I know that must be the true, because the narrator on the trailer below says so. He also says —

This is the climax of the spectacular revolt of the apes . . . the most awesome, the most horrifying spectacle in the annals of science fiction!

Boy, I just didn't appreciate this movie. I couldn't get enthusiastic about a bunch of revolting apes. Know what I mean?

Oh, well.


__________________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[orzel-w]

[Krel]

A lot of reuse in that movie. The VTTBOTS jumpsuits, Project Tic-Toc patches on the uniforms, "City Beneath The Sea" sets. Along with "In Like Flint", COTPOTA is a good example of how studios reuse what they have on hand.

David.

[ralfy]

The major story arc is remarkable because it makes the whole of human progress unfamiliar. In this case, apes treat humans as animals, their divine creators take on ape-like forms, etc.

[scotpens]

In the final installment of the series, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, John Huston played the ape Lawgiver. I always thought he looked like an orangutan even without the ape makeup.

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[orzel-w]

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Wow, that's fascinating. Does that mean Ann-Margret can just change her name to Ann Margret and scoff in the face of her creditors if she ever gets deeply in debt?

_____

Butch, I was sure you were pulling our leg with that hyphen stuff until I found this eBay auction for the original hyphen that Fox sold off! It's even been authenticated by somebody we know!


_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I had read an article that stated the 1965 movie musical "The Sound of Music" saved 20th Century Fox from going under due to the "Cleopatra" debacle.

Around the studio back then folks referred to "TSOM" as "The sound of money."

[Robert (Butch) Day]

The Sound Of Music only partly relieved the studio of Cleopatra's massive debt. (I was one of those who lost in the paycheck mess-up.)

It began to recover when they sold the North Hollywood facilities (some 50 shops and 2 back-lots) which became Century City, part of which was the area where they filmed portions of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).

The studio finally recovered with the release of Star Wars (1977) and it's two sequels. They then re-incorporated in 1985. The hyphen was used from it's founding until re-incorporation.

The hyphen is indicative of the studio's origins, 20th Century Pictures (founded by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck) and Fox Films (founded by William Fox), Hence 20th Century-Fox.
_________________
Common Sense ISN'T Common

[scotpens]

[Bogmeister]

____________
_________

There are a few sci-fi fans who consider this 4th film (the 3rd sequel) in the Apes saga to be atrocious and perhaps even the worst of the lot. And yet, there are also a few who consider this one to be the best sequel. In many ways, this one is the most divisive of the 4 sequels. Hard to pin down? Difficult to analyze properly? You say monkey business, I say ape action?

________ Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes


__________

I believe that this 4th film in the Apes series (after Escape From the Planet of the Apes) has some fans because it's the most ambitious of the sequels. To wit: during the course of the film, we are presented with an alternate version of modern North America (circa 1991), a totalitarian version, and then the planning and execution to overthrow this regime — a full-fledged revolution.

Of course, events such as these should take years, sometimes many years, and everything is compressed into what seems to be a matter of weeks. We may infer that the story is a parable, perhaps not to be taken completely literally.



Taking place almost 20 years after the events of the previous film, we learn quite a bit in the first few scenes, courtesy of Ricardo Montalban's character, Armando, who explains all this stuff to the son (Roddy McDowall) of the 2 apes from the far future.

Quite a lot has happened in those past couple of decades, including the death of all cats & dogs due to a plague (back in 1983). Apes have already evolved within this very short time into mankind's latest slave class (perhaps the plague affected them — this is conjecture; the filmmakers don't bother to explain why the apes here already look like the futuristic ones of 2,000 years later — in Planet of the Apes, 1968).

Also, with this oppressive, cruel atmosphere, it's no accident that some of the policemen resemble Nazi storm troopers. I think the film was pretty successful in presenting this oppression. I felt a bit closed in and trapped when I first watched this, as if I was about to be arrested any second.



This film tries to make a statement, which can be powerful if presented correctly and all too rare in most science fiction films (especially nowadays). As to how well the film succeeds at this . . . well, that's what promotes debate.

What it proposes is that mankind will always fill the need to possess a slave class. Is it (a) out of plain laziness? (b) The advances in a society in which most free citizens outgrow all menial jobs? Or is it (c) just some need to dominate another class?

What might annoy some viewers is the presumably easy way in which America slipped towards a version of Nazi Germany. This is done to facilitate the story of a rebellion, but no substantial reasons are given for this slip to the dark side. As said, there's room for debate — this film proposes that societies seem doomed to a cycle, as the new lower class eventually rises up and forms the new society. In this case, all that was needed was a new Caesar (McDowall) to organize the worker class. I did like a few of the scenes here, especially where the future ape leader picks out his new name and all his scenes with the fascistic governor (Murray).



The scenes of those multitudes of apes, dressed in basic colors, undergoing mass training, stay in the mind because they really are disturbing. The cinematography is different from the previous films, stressing deep blacks and a coarse palette. Filmed in an area with very modern architecture (even by today's standards), this achieves a nice futuristic feel. Much of the later scenes take place at night, in the dark, including all the climactic battle action sequences during the swift revolution, and this future city forms an eerie backdrop.

I don't pretend to understand how even taking over this one entire city results in eventual global control by the apes, but speaking of battle, the next and final film was Battle For the Planet of the Apes. Maybe that one would explain some of these issues, but I think you would have to approach it with an open mind — a very open mind.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus