Planet of the Apes (1968-1973)

I should like to preface this by saying it's solely the original series. I've seen the Burton film once and two of the new-ones ages ago once but it's the originals here.

I recently got the original boxset on the cheap and figured, of course, run through them. It's an interesting series in its way and like most of its kind, you sort of wish they stayed to the first one (like I once watched Return of the Seven and for a while it tainted my view of The Magnificent Seven).

Planet is by itself a classic. Now I by now know what's coming, it's the most watched of the series but there's still that element throughout that maybe Taylor isn't on Earth all the same. The film makers doing a fantastic job early on of finding locations that must have lain the seeds in audiences mind in '68 of, well, maybe this *is* an alien world they're filming on. Goldsmith's score is evocative throughout and more-so early on. Heston is on form and the supporting acts also. It's so removed from the book of course (the Burton film has its detractors but the ending is at least quite true to the book in a way) but there's something haunting about the film. Maybe it's the fact its set far into the future and anything we knew has turned to dust.

Beneath has interesting ideas but I found on this latest viewing I sort of lost interest along the way. And it ended in a dark, haunting way and that's how it should've stayed. However...

Escape is the best of the sequels. The idea that these guys somehow escaped 3955 by the skin of the teeth is plausible even if the impression you get in the first two films that for all their evolved intelligence, the apes haven't mastered technology as such never mind send a spacecraft up. The cast isn't too bad, Braden gets more unhinged as it goes on and William Windom is great whatever he does and then there's Montalban at the death. The end again feels quite haunting. Just the long shot and everything.

Conquest again there's an interesting idea, if anything the look of the film helps. The exterior LA locations feel quite futuristic in its way (one reason you suspect Buck Rogers in 1980-81 used some of them) and interior shots you feel it's 1991 (or their idea of it) irrespective of it in other ways looking 1970sish.

Battle the most pointless one, it has the look and feel of a cheap TV movie. Conquest did enough to lay the seeds for Planet and Battle should never have happened.

I genuinely like all five low budgets notwithstanding/ Each one has a point and while some are far less effective they at least have ideas and make some sort of effort. The Burton film has astounding makeup and wonderful production design and nothing else. The modern films are empty exercises and demos for mo-cap acting. I still need to see the third new film.

POTA is a classic because the writers, director and entire cast/crew believed in what they were doing. Franklin J Schaffner is an underrated director and its really his efforts that most sell the film-particularly the opening half being made to feel so distancing and alien-which if course perfectly sets up the second half.
Beneath was an unplanned sequel to a runaway smash. The studio cut budgets at every turn and forced it into a rushed shoot. No one was quite happy and after a power struggle it was Richard Zanuck now fired who came up with the stunning ending with Ted Post. The story idea is fine and the film adds the incredible Gen. Ursus, more in the Forbidden Zone, the mutants which terrify kids especially...but it's hard to overlook the low budget, AWFUL pullover masks because they wouldn't allow everyone to be made up, the lack of Roddy McDowall or that because Chuck Heston didn't want to do it-Taylor disappears and then astronaut no.2 shows up made to look exactly like Chuck, finds nova and then magically finds the underground entrance. But all is made up for by that ending.

Escape is a brilliant conceit to make a sequel where there couldn't be one. It's able to get away with a low budget and becomes a social satire until becoming a chase film for the last third.

However the film that is possibly my favorite despite the ultra, ultra low budget-and the one I rank almost as highly as the original is Conquest. So many ideas abound here, the setup is brilliant and the parallels to the real life race riots of the time period are explicitly put in your face. This is a dark picture definitely not for kids and I'm flabbergasted Fox finally put back the original uncut version with the correct ending for the Blu-ray release.

You always hear Battle is terrible and had no money whatsoever. Actually it's quite a bit better than you'd think but thematically follows Conquest only by character association and loose plot details. It's a major step downwards but holds up pretty well-but you must see the longer version on Blu-ray that for years was only on an import Japanese Laserdisc. It helps things make a lot more sense. And Battle has John Huston in ape makeup. That alone is worth admission.

I should note Conquest and Battle were directed by J. Lee Thompson who made Guns of Navarone and Cape Fear among others.

It's rumored the original POTA films have been scanned at 4K for a new release. Hopefully this vaults pasts the pretty decent Blu-rays and gives us the original mono tracks instead of stereo folddowns. I recently got the 70's TV series on DVD which I've never seen but sadly the animated series is super OOP and pricey these days.

Go ape!

Aye, I noted that Lee Thompson directed the last two. Apparently he didn't quite like Battle because Dehn wasn't involved. There's meant to be a longer version too.

Escape is a nice bit of social commentary, the chase bit is what it is but you do have Ricardo Montalban. Nothing the man did that I've seen has ever been all bad.

I grew up with the TV series, saw it more than the original film to the point it skewered my memory of what happened in the first couple of films.