Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Genre: Socio-Science Fiction
THE MOVIE
The second sequel to Planet of the Apes is a striking about-face from its immediate predecessor, the mostly light-hearted Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Conquest is the darkest and most violent of the Apes movies and is very much a product of the gritty early seventies, the heyday of violent exploitation movies.
Chronologically, Conquest takes place twenty years after Escape and tells the pivotal story of how the Apes took over the Earth, portraying the early events of the world we see in the original movie. In a bit of early '70's futurism, the movie is set in a spare and sleek 1991. In this future, America has become a dysutopian society that is reliant on the slave labor of (genetically engineered?) apes. These apes are mute and beat down, not unlike the humans in the first movie.
The rather flimsy back story for the apes is that there had been a plague that killed off the earth's population of dogs and cats. Apes were brought in as replacements (!) and ultimately they were trained to work menial tasks and hard labor. Humans eventually began to rely on them so heavily that the apes became a cornerstone of the economy.
Meanwhile, Cornelius and Zera's child, Ceasar, had been raised in secret by the circus owner, Armando. For most of Ceasar's life, he has been hidden from the authorities who believed that they had killed the child of the talking apes and safeguarded humanity's future. In a trip into the city, Ceasar and Armando are separated and Ceasar is forced to hide amongst the ape slaves. He is ultimately purchased by the governor of California, a slimy fascist who could give Charlton Heston a run for his money when it comes to scenery-chewing. Soon, Ceasar witnesses the brutality of human beings and over the course of the movie he is forged into a revolutionary who leads an uprising against human beings, and sets into motion the future we see in the original movie.
While there is no time-travel in this movie, it is interesting to note the fundamental paradox at the heart of the original Apes series. The planet of the apes only came about because two apes were able to travel back in time on a spaceship sent by men to explore the cosmos. If Zera and Cornelius had been unable to restore Taylor's (or Brent's) ship and travel back in time, they would not have been able to leave Ceasar behind to found Ape society. It is Taylor's trip to the future that sets the whole series of events in motion.
By this time, the Apes movies had established themselves as being quite popular with black audiences. One could speculate that this is because they depicted a world in which the white power structure was obliterated and Charlton Heston-the epitome of blond, Anglo Saxon American manhood-was objectified, humiliated, and dragged through the street in a way that recalls how African slaves were treated in the U.S.. Or perhaps it is that words and images of apes and monkeys had always been used by white racists to dehumanize people of color. In the context of the American racial experience, an ape planet in which all-American Charlton Heston is nearly done in by intelligent talking simians only to collapse at the ruins of the Statue of Liberty is powerful stuff.
Remember, this is during the late sixties and early seventies during a time when the Civil Rights movement was taking a darker turn with a backdrop of riots, assassinations and violence. While the Apes movies have always had an important sociological component, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes brings this to the fore like no other. It is very consciously aims to be part of the revolutionary dialogue of the times, and its visual references to then-current events would not have been lost on its original theatrical audiences.
Another interesting point to consider, is the movie's connection with the 2011 series reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which can possibly be considered a very loose remake of this movie. Both movies are concerned with an ape uprising led by a chimpanzee named Ceasar. While that Ceasar is not the product of time-travelling super-intelligent apes, the two movies do cover quite a bit of the same thematic territory and are interesting companion pieces.THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
Sadly, Conquest continues the sad trend of diminishing budgets in the Apes sequels and the ape effects do suffer in this one. This is particularly true of the many background ape characters which are realized through god-awful overhead masks as opposed to the more expensive prosthetic appliances used on the lead characters. Unfortunately, even the terrific Ape make-up starts to show its limitations here, as the mouths are not really as expressive as you'd like for such an intense high-drama story as this and Roddy McDowell often sounds muffled under his make-up.
McDowell returns to play the son of the character which he had made famous in the first and third Apes movies and Ceasar is a bit of a stretch from his fastidious father. Ceasar has an interesting character arc that takes him from naive young chimpanzee to furious revolutionary leader. By and large, McDowell does a good job taking us on this journey.
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
Has been widely available on home video in a number of configurations and boxed sets, some of which are quite nice. The Bluray set in particular is amazingly good not only with a whole slew of extras but a very nice hard cover book as well.
In the case of Conquest it features the ability to watch the original unrated cut of the movie, which to my knowledge had never before been released on home video. The two versions of the movie are largely the same, up until the end which features a far more violent conclusion to the movie and makes Ceasar a more militant and less likeable character. The theatrical cut uses some weird editing tricks and redubbed dialogue to soften his lines. The unrated cut seems to better suit the spirit of the movie.
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
The ending battle in the unrated cut of the movie is surprisingly violent, with characters getting stabbed and shot in the face left and right.
SEQUELS
This movie was followed by Battle for the Planet of the Apes which continues the story of Ceasar and further sets up the pieces for the Ape society that we encountered in Planet of the Apes, although for my money it is the worst of the original movies.
TRAILER
No comments:
Post a Comment