My first encounter with Planet of the Apes was a reenactment with either the real Charlton Heston or Phil Hartman playing him on Saturday Night Live. It was a big joke it took me awhile to get. My second exposure to the film was on the Simpsons with Planet of the Apes: the Musical starring Troy McClure. After those renditions I had no desire to see the films (actually I had thought there was only one film at the time, but I digress), thinking they would be terribly cheesy and not worth the effort. Then, thanks to the Space channel, I finally got the chance to watch them, and boy could I have not been more wrong? (don't contemplate that statement... continue)
What I found with the first installment was an intellegent, crafty, exciting, frustrating, charismatic, and powerful film - what more could you expect with a screenplay co-written by Rod Serling, creator of the Twilight Zone? The essential plot, if you don't know, deals with time lost space explorers landing, unsuspectedly, on Earth 2000 years in the future. What they find is a city full of talking, civilized apes, and humans who cannot speak and have limited brain capacity. One of the explorers is killed during the gorillas frequent human hunt, the other two captured. One is taken for experimental brain surgery, the other is Taylor (Chuck Heston) is taken as a lab subject because of his phenomenal capabilities. When he finally speaks and tells the truth of how he came upon the land, the Apes do not believe him, except Zera (Kim Hunter) and Corneleus (Roddy McDowall). They help him escape, but are pursued by Dr. Zaius and the gorillas as criminals. We find out the conspiracy that Dr. Zaius has been covering up all along, and the secret of the terrible planet.
In the second installment, a second space crew, following the same trajectory as Taylor, land in the Planet of the Apes. One dies, the other, Brent (James Franciscus), proceeds to find Taylors mate, Nova, who takes him to Zera and Corneleus. In this chapter there is something strange going on in the Forbidden Zone. A troop of gorillas have gone missing, and the Apes wonder what mysterious forces are out there. Setting up a search and destroy mission, the Apes head out to conquer their strange oppressors, while Brent and Nova try to avoid colliding with them. In the search for Taylor, the two humans find the ruins of New York City, and a passage underneath. There they find a strange race of unearthly beings who praise a nuclear weapon... a doomsday bomb capable of destroying the entire planet. Emprisoned by the strange race, Brent finds Taylor and the two escape only to be caught in the middle of the war between the aliens and the apes. Taylor, with his dying breath, sets of the bomb, destroying the planet.
This sequel was terribly disappointing, containing none of the excitement or wonder of the original. Franciscus makes for a disappointing lead, and the aliens were a sub-par element to the film. The score of the first film was by Jerry Goldsmith, and it was amazing, haunting and tormenting, something sorely lacking in the second. Few of the original production crew returned for the sequel which could be the main reason why it was so poorly executed.
Escape from the Planet of the Apes was the third installment, with an interesting twist on the original. A pregnant Zera and Corneleus (again played by Roddy McDowall who did not reprise his role in the second film) along with another ape scientist escaped their doomed planet in Taylor's washed up ship - the explosion of the planet repelling them into the past. They land in the 1970's Earth, where they are greeted by the US army and are befriended by a pair of Zoologists. The pair soon become celebrities on the planet, becoming cherished in the eyes of humans. Yet, one aide to the president is wary of the motives of the apes, and assembles a commision to explore the options of what to do with them. After interrogation it is revealed that the planet in 2000 years is ruled by Apes and that humans are in the reverse position... and that the planet is destroyed. The aide decidedes that it is the child of the time-travellers that causes the unrest that leads to humanity's downfall and takes it upon himself to kill the apes. He succeeds but not before Zera switches her child with that of a circus chimp just recently born.
Possibly even more powerful than the original, this installment shows decidedly the true evil nature of humanity. There is so much behind this powerful film that it deserves watching repeatedly. Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall are excellent and charming in their roles, two characters barely used and sorely missed from the second film. Goldsmith is back with an interesting and somewhat different soundtrack, but the film is the original's equal.
Paul Dehn, co-writer of the second and writer of the third installment further explores the mythology of the apes in this fourth episode. The son of Zera and Corneleus is alive and hidden well by circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban), but his first venture into the city of humans (Los Angeles) is not a pleasant one for Caesar. After a space virus destroyed cats and dogs as house pets, humans quickly needed replacements for them, and apes were the next best thing. Over a course of 25 years the apes went from simple pets to slaves capable of performing complex duties. Through a series of misfortunes, Armando is killed and Caesar becomes the "pet" of the govenor of LA. Caesar begins to form an "underground railroad" of sorts, a place where apes congress and build their power to break free of their metaphorical chains. The inevitable happens, and Caesar is found out as the child of the talking apes, and the apes begin to revolt. Massive riots spark out everywhere, and soon, Caesar predicts, the Apes will rule the humans... but not with punishment, instead with compassion and kindness until humans can change their violent ways.
Roddy McDowall, quickly typecast into his ape role, plays Caesar in this film, yet still performs well, as do all the actors. Not quite as apalling as prior episodes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is still provocative and powerful, the viewer torn between rooting for the apes to succeed or to side with their own kind. Goldsmith again provides a stark and chilling score.
The final installment, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, is weak in the same respect that the second one was as most of the production crew from the good installments are missing, and Dehn did not return to script. The attempt in this installment is to show how the Planet of the Apes is evolving in a different manner because of Zera and Corneleus' interference. Caesar is ruler of the apes, having moved out of the destroyed and radioactive city of LA. The humans have prove to be good servants of the Apes and Caesar is contemplating admitting them freedom. However, he is wary of the future his parents predicted and does not want humanity destroyed. But, Caesar has an opponent, a Gorilla who feels that humanity will be their downfall and wants them all destroyed, and is willing to kill Caesar to see it happen. As mutated humans from the city are set to attack, Caesar's son is killed by the Gorilla leader, and he begins to seize power. A battle between mutants and apes begins, the mutants destroyed, the apes weakend, and ultimately the humans are freed.
A lackluster and weak ending to the series Battle loses what the previous installments were focussed upon... connecting the human to the ape. There is nothing in the script that really clicks with the audience, making it hard to really care whether the apes or the mutants - or both - are destroyed. The one good aspect is the apes recognition of the fact that they too are like their former captors, violent and angry, and that is what really must be changed.