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Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:06 pm    Post subject: Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) Reply with quote

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After the mutants blow up the Earth with a superbomb in "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", 20th Century Fox was forced to use time travel to keep the profitable "Apes" series alive.

Three apes (Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Sal Mineo in his last role) escape Earth before the destruction by salvaging the spacecraft Charlton Heston originally arrived in, and they travel through a time warp to present-day America.

The arrival of three simian astronauts makes quite a stir. Mineo's character is killed in an accident, but McDowall and Hunter are hits with the public, and they start climbing the human social ladder. Things change dramatically when doctors discover that Hunter is pregnant; now the two apes are viewed as the Adam and Eve of a second sentient species on Earth -- and of course as a threat to mankind.

The government tries to kill them, but the apes find sympathetic allies among the humans. Also starring Eric Braedon ("Colossus: The Forbin Project"), Bradford Dillman, and Ricardo Montalban. Directed by Don Taylor. The next film in the series was "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes".

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Sep 09, 2022 11:44 am; edited 3 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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This is one really wacky "Ape" movie. Very Happy
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_____ Escape from the Planet of the Apes - Trailer


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2018 4:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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IMDB has 23 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting. Very Happy
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One of the earlier scripts has the three ape-o-nauts viewing the dying Earth from their space capsule before going back in time.

Note from me: Hey, that would be a good edition to this somewhat weak story. I wish they'd include that scene.

With Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) doing well at the box office, producer Arthur P. Jacobs sent a telegram to writer Paul Dehn which simply said: "Apes exist. Sequel required."

Note from me: This is the kind of telegram that would put a writer on cloud nine! "Hot damn, I'm get paid this month!"

With Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) doing well at the box office, producer Arthur P. Jacobs sent a telegram to writer Paul Dehn which simply said: "Apes exist. Sequel required."

Note from me: Okay, this is fine example of how producers sometime save a movie by excluding bad ideas in the story which would have become notorious moments in the film.

All five original "Planet of the Apes" movies were #1 at the U.S. box office when released. "Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)" spent one week as the #1 top grossing film: the week of May 23, 1971 it made $4,294,942.

Note from me: This one surprised me. I was entertained by the first movie, but the rest of them weren't very impressive.

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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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The 3rd film in the Apes series (after Beneath the Planet of the Apes) is easily the most whimsical . . . at least, in the first half. The writers had to stretch believability in getting the two primary apes of the 1st 2 films (the chimps Cornelius and Zira) into our present times from the future, when Earth is destroyed by a doomsday bomb. There was no hint in the previous film that these two, along with the new character, genius chimp Milo (Sal Mineo), were recovering Taylor's old spacecraft. But, the first few scenes here are almost classic farce disguised as science fiction storytelling. We view our central characters first as 'ape-onauts' and then stuck in a zoo, followed by a brief turn at celebrity when our populace becomes enamored of the two as the latest fad.

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The best and most clever thing about this sequel is that it utilizes the already well-known captivating characteristics of the chimps, delightfully performed again by Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter (this was Hunter's 3rd and final appearance as the flustered Zira). They're kind of like old friends by this point and seeing them get acquainted with our modern-day culture just comes across as plain good times, though in a TV-movie style mode. It's also a neat reversal on the ape society of the first two films, which was visited by aberrant intelligent humans.

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Things turn grim in the 2nd half, as the fad wears off and our leadership begins to take the threat of possible future ape domination rather seriously. The most interesting character becomes the chief human scientist, played by Eric Braeden, who starts out typically dispassionate but soon reveals an intense personal desire to preserve the human race and society, to the point of fanaticism. In his coldly intelligent eyes, only he sees the truly apocalyptic threat presented by the chimps' pregnancy. He's the nominal villain, but he sees himself as the only one who gives a damn.

Some of the sf plot lines regarding time travel are very clever, while others are a bit clumsy. It's clever that the two evolved time-traveling chimps may now be the cause of the future time-line ruled by an ape society. But they reveal to have a knowledge of their history that did not exist in the previous two films; Cornelius reveals stuff about a plague which killed off all cats & dogs and how an ape named Aldo first said "no" to a human - hello? In the first two films, the apes knew nothing about their history; only a few select orangutans had limited knowledge about humans ruling the planet in some dim past.

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This brings about the possibility that this Cornelius and Zira are not the same chimps we met in the first two Apes films. These two are, most likely, from some parallel Earth future, similar to the one we observed in Planet of the Apes & Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Also, rather than letting events evolve over a century or more following what happens here, the next film accelerates everything to change the world in the next 20 years - in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Now, maybe... these two time-traveling chimps caused a new Earth future which resulted in the one we see in the first two films. You see? I hope so, 'cause I'm getting a headache.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10


Click Here to enjoy the original program booklet on the film from 1971.

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BoG
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 12:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This was really "The beginning of the End" for the series as far as I'm concerned.

Although it brought the "Hassilien" concept into the continuity, it was very much a beating of a dying horse. As I've previously stated I thought the first two were a PERFECTLY conceived story and should have been left as such. The next series of movies were sheer contrievences at best.

I don't believe the current group of "Apes" films have elicited anything near the interest that the original ones did. The only saving graces of them is that the CGI with Andy Sertis's original performances underlaying them is so memorable.

I do confess that back in the day I DID enjoy this film and very much looked at is the one that really brought the series full circle.

The rest were redundant exploitation.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 2:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Although I enjoyed the first film immensely, none of the others seemed very good compared to the Twilight Zone flavor that Rod Serling gave it.

Howver, I have great admiration for the current movies, partly because it gives us completely convincing intelligent apes (not actors it stiff rubber masks), and because it presents a brilliant explanation for how the apes developed intelligence while the humans lost the power of speech (and some I.Q. points as well).

My father died as a result of Alzheimer, and the idea that a viral-serum (as they called it) could restore the lost intelligence which that disease cases is quite believable. Equally believable is the idea that the viral-serum (called AZ-112) could increase the intelligence of simians to the point where they become as intelligent as humans.

And the final brilliant touch was the outbreak of a virus which was the result of humans being exposed to the newly developed and more powerful gaseous form of AZ-112. I admire the fact that the story links the increase in the apes' intelligence and the decrease in the humans' intelligence. Making it all the result of a cutting edge science experiment that went horribly wrong was good story telling.

The original film left me unsatisfied when it made no attempt to explain the apes who were smart and the humans who were dumb (in both ways). Frankly the sequels just played around with half-ass explanations that involved the death of all dogs and cats, resulting in chimpanzees becoming pets / servants. Rolling Eyes

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