Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

MORD39 RATING: *** out of ****

Roddy McDowall gives maybe his best APES performance as Caesar, an intelligent chimpanzee stuck in a time he was never meant to live in.

Nearly twenty years after ESCAPE..., Caesar has learned that apes have become household servants for humans to use. Their stature has increased, and their learning abilities too. Though no reason is given in the film (a typical criticism by some viewers) one may presume that the mysterious plague which killed all dogs and cats somehow had an effect on primates. Even Ricardo Montalban's character says "the pets became larger...and larger...until now......"

Soon, Caesar sees himself as a savior who can lead the apes out of their bondage and assert their independence. He leads the charge as the apes revolt and take over, apparently planting a seed that could eventually grow into the world we saw in the original PLANET OF THE APES classic.

The film again is intelligent, and action-packed. It's true that by today's over-blown standards, the ape revolt can't look as awesome as it did in 1972...but the focus here is on the character of Caesar, an ape from another time who is not responsible for what he is, and who has to stifle his anger over the state of his fellow simians and cope with his situation.

CONQUEST is good, solid science fiction.

Back when I first saw Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes I thought that the filmmakers had been influenced by the Stonewall Rebellion of three years earlier. Seeing it once again reinforced that opinion and the havoc and destruction wrought by the apes reminded me so much of Greenwich Village after the riots brought on by that legendary bar raid.

It's been a generation since Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter were killed by the forces of fear and in the interim their son also played by Roddy McDowall has grown up under the kind care of Ricardo Montalban, a circus owner. In the interim a plague came to earth and wiped out all the dogs and cats in the world, so people starting to take apes as pets. It wasn't long before the more avaricious of human kind saw the possibility in exploiting the apes as a new slave class.

Those avaricious ones are symbolized by Don Murray who is the governor of I presume California. Note how he and all the folks like him and who work for him are dressed in black to symbolize both villainy and fascism. No subtleties in this film. Not all feel like Murray and one who doesn't is an aide played by Hari Rhodes. Why he feels that way about exploiting anyone is rather obvious when you see the movie.

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes may not be subtle, but it is very effective in putting its point of view across. It holds up very well for today's audience because its message is very relevant.

When the future looks bleak, it's very bleak! In "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes", it's like the 18th century only more primal. The slaves are not humans, but apes(Gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans) not only they are made into slaves, they are also taken over society's workforce by a tyrannical governor. The last surviving talking Caesar(Roddy McDowell) would be the chose one to rise above tyranny. Unknown o most of the crew Caesar is the only chimp who speaks. The reason for this kind of treatment to the apes, they are pets! They replaced the dog and cat, because of a strange plague that claimed the regular domesticated animals. Another reason for such actions is when the circus owner (Ricardo Montalban) sees the horror of everything, and he sacrifices himself to avoid further interrogations. Since Caesar is the hope for all apes, they rise up and gain the upper hand on Man. It's like when the slaves revolt against their masters, the pet revolt against the master who abuse it. We all hate slavery, but when it's not humans owning one another, ti doesn't seem to matter. This scifi movie isn't all stereotypical, it's just have their way of showing the evils of slavery, that's all! 2.5 out of 5 stars!

Taking place some 18 years after ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, this fourth chapter in the consistently entertaining series is another good one that benefits from an extra strong performance in the chimp makeup by Roddy McDowall. The actor now assumes the challenging role of his own son, Caesar; or rather, the now-grown, angry but clever offspring of Zira and Cornelius, who survived his own assassination attempt at the climax of the previous movie.

It's now the year 1991 (no, not the same '91 that we all experienced, but actually an altered version for the "next" time it comes 'round, having been changed by the arrival of Zira and Cornelius and their events of ESCAPE). The world has become different due to a mysterious virus brought back to Earth from the astronauts (maybe Zira & Cornelius themselves from their future?); as a result, dogs and cats have become extinct while apes increase in stature and rate of intelligence and ability to learn. To replace their lost pets, a business called APE MANAGEMENT (which I presume to be a franchise throughout the world) has been established to train gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans to serve humans in their homes, as waiters, sweepers, bed-makers, and general servants.

Ricardo Montalban is good as a kindly circus owner who brings Caesar into this new environment, but the young chimp must be careful not to reveal that he is actually the notorious talking ape who threatened humanity two decades earlier. Yet, as Caesar becomes increasingly angrier by the acts of bondage he witnesses among his fellow primates, he launches a full-scale riot to overthrow the community and bring humans to their knees. He is motivated by an all-consuming hatred and wages bloody war as the first step, possibly, to world domination on other continents.

And that's just the point - some viewers say that the battle in CONQUEST is on such a relatively small scale that they can't see how the apes would, or could, "take over the world". But if you pay close attention, the vengeful Caesar only considers this encounter "a beginning", not an all-out apocalyptic defeat of all of mankind in one night! It's easy to gradually come down on this series as it goes along, pointing to the obvious lower budgets and so forth, but director J. Lee Thompson does a great job utilizing the futuristic look of the real-life Century City Complex to pull off a feeling of a city out of tomorrow.

I won't deny that more money could have made this film even better (God knows the pull-over ape masks for the extras are certainly obvious), but I feel it's McDowall's energetic and intense performance that elevates this to a higher level than its budget alone would allow. Don Murray as the evil governor is perhaps a little too theatrical, but Severn Darden is quietly contemptible as his more reserved assistant, Kolp (who would return in the next and final chapter of the saga).

Reportedly, preview audiences found the original ending too violent, so McDowall was called in to loop more "humane" lines of dialogue over some non-matching closeups for the movie's official release. It would be great to see a restored version with the actual ending one day**. But even as it stands, CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES has more than enough action, humor and drama to make it a winner considering it's a fourth sequel.

**EDITED UPDATE -- In 2008, a Blu-ray Special Edition was released which featured, for the very first time, the "original" version of the movie. It features several gruesome, bloody, and violent moments which were cut out of the Theatrical Version. Also restored was the more downbeat ending. My review stands for either version of CONQUEST, but die-hard fans of the series really owe it to themselves to check out the "Unrated Cut"! *** out of ****

20 years after Zira and Cornelius' deaths, the United States has migrated towards a totalitarian state where following a plague that wiped out cats and dogs, domestication of the ape gradually gave way to their enslavement. In the year's since, Milo (Roddy McDowall) hides the fact he can talk as he resides in the care of altruistic circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban) who has kept the fact Milo can talk a secret while keeping him safe from the world. As Milo and Armando travel to one of the cities where slavery and abuse of apes is commonplace, Milo inadvertently alerts the state to his presence and finds himself separated from Armando and hiding in with his enslaved kind as Governor Breck (Don Murray) attempts to roust his whereabouts. Through a series of events, Milo takes the name Caesar and winds up in the stewardship of Breck where he begins to sow the seeds of revolution that will give rise to the planet of the apes.

With the success of Escape from the Planet of the Apes yielding healthy box office on a reduced budget, producer Arthur P. Jacobs moved forward on yet another sequel with returning screenwriter Paul Dehn this time focusing on Zira and Cornelius' surviving child from the end of the last movie. The film thanks to its low budget managed to yield a decent profit (but continued the trajectory of less and less box office gross not even cracking $10 million) and would prove sufficient for one final film. Critical reception tended to be mixed with some appreciating the unique turn by returning actor Roddy McDowall who got to play a harder edged character, while many were beginning to feel the series had run its course and this latest entry was little more than an excuse to get more mileage out of the established costumes and sets. There are certainly ideas at play in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, but they're often lost among the bombastic excess that feels like it's lacking in focus with character development.

Much like the setup of the previous film, you'll have to allow a lot of leeway in order for the premise to make sense as while the inciting incident of the plague that wiped out cats and dogs may have been established in the prior film, it's no less silly here and is a far cry from the air of mystery and intrigue we got from the original. While I have no problem with the series exploring how we got to the state showcased in the original film, you get the sense the filmmakers are working against ever tightening purse strings who are placing more emphasis on cost effectiveness over narrative or logical cohesion. In spite of those plot hurdles the movie's vision of the future of Ape enslavement and Caesar's revolution is well realized especially from Roddy McDowall who gives some really strong expressions of emotion especially in the first two thirds. As with the previous entry Conquest feels like it's rather hamfisted on exploring the nature of rebellion and revolution and issues I had with the prior entry are still present and arguably worse.

We also see a major issue in the third act where a major restriction of this series comes front and center and that the make-up's lack of differentiation among the apes makes it hard to care because Caesar is often lost among the crowd. While the Ape make-up was undeniably impressive for its time, the fact prior films either had them balanced against human protagonists (like the original or Beneath) or limited the number of apes (likes Escape) helped to keep the characters from getting lost in the scenery. Outside of Caesar (and maybe Caeser's mate Lisa to a degree) the rest of the apes don't have any character and just blend together due to the restrictive nature of the make-up in allowing different characters.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes isn't a terrible film and certainly tries to have commentary on the nature of revolution and racial relations in the United States, but it also sees a lot of these ideas presented with less clarity and focus than they ought to be especially on the character side. Serviceable, but shows that the series is approaching the limits of what current technology and budget can accomplish.