Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
Director: Ted Post
Genre: Science Fiction
THE MOVIE
The shocking twist ending of Planet of the Apes didn't exactly loan itself to a sequel but that didn't stop the powers that be at Fox from churning one out and creating a "franchise" that would set the stage later film series like Star Wars. The Apes sequels are a pretty diverse lot and, truth be told, it is one of the weakest and least original entries to the series. The first half of the movie is basically a retread of Planet of the Apes and the latter half is a bizarre visit to the remains of New York City and the psychic mutants which inhabit it.
Charlton Heston was not hot on doing a sequel but was talked into appearing so long as his role was scaled back to a cameo and his character Taylor was killed off at the end. The movie begins at the iconic conclusion of POTA and we follow Taylor and Nova into the Forbidden Zone where they come across some strange phenomena. Heston's character disappears and the rest of the movie is a search for him. To replace the Taylor character the writers came up with Brent, portrayed by mini-Heston, James Franciscus. Brent is an astronaut sent in search of Taylor who, improbably, passes through the same freak time warp which ensnared the crew of Taylor's ship.
While the first movie had some serious socio-political themes embedded into the story, in Beneath they seem a little forced and superficial. The Ape society as depicted in Beneath is highly divided between the chimpanzee "intellectuals" and the militaristic gorillas lead by the new character, General Ursus. Ursus seeks to lead a gorilla squad into the Forbidden Zone to confront the mysterious forces that have been observed there and any humans that they may encounter because, "the only good human, is a dead human." This whole subplot is a pretty ham-handed commentary on the Vietnam war, complete with chimpanzee peace protesters. The political angle in Beneath the Planet of the Apes lacks the wit and cleverness of the original.
Ursus, is the first in a long line of warrior gorillas in the movies. Even the Tim Burton remake carried on this tradition. In the original movie, however, the gorillas were depicted as laborers.
What is present in the sequel is a rather weird and subversive commentary on religion. There are two belief systems present in the movie: that of the apes, who worship a long dead messianic figure that they refer to as The Lawgiver and that of the mutants who worship a super-powerful doomsday missile. The religion of the apes is presented as a superficial and ineffective control system (Ursus barely tolerates sitting through a service) while the beliefs of the mutants presented as absurd and perverse.
Preparing for services at Our Lady of Perpetual Nuclear Destruction.
The other important point in talking about Beneath is the ending, in which Taylor blows up da earf, continuing/establishing a tradition in the Planet of the Apes movies for shocking or downbeat endings. I suppose there is no way to top the amazing ending of the first movie (although Tim Burton tried) so the writers just decided to go for destructive finality. Plus Heston wanted to have his character killed off. It is a pretty shocking ending, but one that is in character for the misanthropic Taylor. The funny thing is that there is not even music over the credits, just silence. I can imagine the slack-jawed, horrified reactions of audience members when the movie played in the 1970's: ominous silence, and then the sound of little boys afraid to cry. No wonder the next movie was a gentle fish-out-of-water comedy (well, with a shocking and traumatic ending).
But first you may want to catch a show while you are in town with the Ben Nye Dancers.
THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
Sequels often operate under the economic principal of diminishing returns, that is each successive installment will bring in less money than it's predecessor. This is not really the case these days, unless you are talking about a series that is purely a money-making enterprise. Apes was a pioneering franchise that paved the way for all of the trilogies and sequels that would pop up in the '80's and beyond. Unfortunately, the producers of these movies were still operating under the old fashioned idea that each movie would make less and less money, and therefore should cost less to make. In Beneath, you can really see this in the decline in quality in the makeup. While the main characters, Cornelius, Zera, Zaius and Ursus, are given decent treatments, many of the background-and not-so-background-apes are given awful pullover masks with unarticulated mouths like something from Troll 2.
Ursus and Zaius even have a steam bath scene (!?) in which both actors wear some really bad full body monkey costumes. This is a pretty strong argument for keeping things concealed. No one was clamoring to see Dr. Zaius without his shirt on.
A lot of attention was payed to the newly introduced mutant characters who wear rubber masks to conceal their skinless faces. The mutants are irradiated humans who have developed psychic powers including telepathy, the ability to mind control humans to produce visions. These guys have some cool make up to give them that "invisible man" effect but are otherwise kind of goofy.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
Beneath the Planet of the Apes features some impressive sets. There is a great scene in the middle of the movie where Brent stumbles upon the ruins of a New York subway station. The last third of the movie is set among these dilapidated urban underground settings.
SEQUELS
Escape From Planet of the Apes
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
Widely available in a variety of really good formats. Can usually be found in one of the many Apes boxed sets, the best of which is the exhaustive Bluray set, which is complete with a book and an interactive documentary. The DVD set is quite good also.
TRAILER
Patrick Garone
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