Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Sadly Over-hyped

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This fourth instalment of the "Planet of the Apes" films is a big improvement over the previous one. The above film has a good pace, a fair amount of incident and Roddy McDowall back once again as the offspring of Cornelius and Zira. The emphasis has been placed more upon violence more than anything else but the acting is of note also. McDowall and Ricardo Montoban are both very good but Don Murray is just a wee bit over the top. Seven Darden makes for a rather quirky villain but evil nonetheless. The budget had been reduced further for this 1972 "Apes" film but I hardly noticed in all honesty. I like seeing how Caesar (McDowall) changes from being a frightened and vulnerable character, into a ruthless and determined leader. I would rate this as being the third best from the original batch of "Planet of the Apes."

Based on the strong positive response to Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Fox ordered Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, though it provided a comparatively low budget of $1.7 million. Paul Dehn returned as the scriptwriters and the producers hired J. Lee Thompson to direct.Thompson had worked with Jacobs during the planning stages of the first film, but scheduling conflicts had made him unavailable to participate in the series. For this film, Thompson and Dehn focused heavily on the racial associated the apes with African-Americans and modeled the plot after the 1966 Watts Riots and other episodes from the Civil Rights Movement.Following the events of the third film, this film is set in a near future where humans have turned apes into slaves, Caesar rises from bondage to lead an ape rebellion.The story is amazing and confusing as well, but I like it because it is like that. The action is over-the-top, but it works and is really fantastic. The music is really good as well and the other films musical scores' were amazing, well, with exception of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes".The acting is just amazing and dreadful at the same time. Roddy McDowall plays Caesar again, the son of his previous character Cornelieus.The late Ricardo Montalban returned as Armando and he does a good job as well. The new members including Don Murray, Severn Darden and Hari Rhodes playing new roles and they are really amazing in this film and the acting could have never been better.The music in the film is just stupid, but a few themes are amazingly well done and the make-up / visuals are really good and fantastic.Overall, CONQUEST OF THE PLANET of the APES is a little confusing, but spectacular in a few areas and I give this film a 6/10.

After getting burned that the reboot franchise of the Apes films are something special ( They're not ) I thought I'd revisit the original franchise . What that series did expand upon a circular storyline of a film that must surely have been conceived as a one off movie with a twist ending . By the third film of the franchise the producers had moved in to themes of time travel and self fulfilling prophecies that resemble cerebral time paradox that you'd later see in the likes of THE TERMINATOR . The problem with doing this is that you're in danger tying yourself up in knots and painting yourself in to a corner . Certainly I thought CONQUEST a much more entertaining and enjoyable film than RISE which mirrors this film to a large extent but the lack of internal logic is very problematic CONQUEST is set in 1991 , almost 20 years after the film was produced and is a future where cats and dogs have died out and apes have replaced canines and felines as pets initially but have now effectively become slaves . The scenario quickly falls apart when given much thought . Is a gorilla a type of pet you'd want ? I'm guessing it's very difficult to keep even if it's toilet trained and a fruit bill alone would make keeping one prohibitive . One fact is that a chimpanzee is the most vile , violent and vicious of primate . An adult male chimp can literally tear a human being from limb to limb so there's no way anyone would want to have one in the same household . It's pointed out to the humans in the previous film that humanity will be replaced by the apes as the dominant species so what does the human race do ? " I know let's breeds millions upon millions of apes , keep them in every city on Earth where they outnumber us because they're cheap labour " I understand both greed and short termism but if anyone had any common sense this problem would be easily averted . I'm certain it'd also be impossible to condition apes in to doing relatively complex tasks but I guess you have to suspend disbelief or otherwise there would be no story This is a shame because Paul Dehn's screenplay does contain rich food for thought . I found this America of the future absolutely fascinating along with the locations that have austere functionalism and are entirely credible . Bad enough about apes but there's a very large elephant in the room where bad things happen to " troublemakers " no questions asked . The fact this type of fascism is specieist rather than racist doesn't make it anymore commendable and the first half of the film is much more compelling than the second as we're shown glimpses of this scenario and allows the actors to give incisive and economical performances with their roles , especially Severn Darden who resists the temptation to do any goose stepping and underplays everything . The second half of the movie concentrates on the Ape revolution and probably isn't violent enough for my liking but I'm guessing I've only seen PG version where much of the violence is excised . It is very noticeable that the fascist militia seem to suffer from tunnel vision and can't see apes creeping up on them from the flanks Despite all the numerous flaws CONQUEST is a fairly enjoyable film and I liked this much better than the remake / reboot / reimagining from 2011 . It does however require turning off your brain in order for the narrative to work and sometimes this is a bit too difficult especially if you remember the internal continuity of the previous and following film

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth of the Apes series. It is my third favorite of the films and a pretty dark and entertaining film.Armando takes Caesar to the city where Caesar witnesses how humans mistreat apes. Caesar curses at a few humans who torture a chimpanzee and Armando takes the blame for it since any ape who can talk would be known to be the offspring of Zira and Cornelius. Eventually Caesar starts to lead a ape rebellion.I like the story and tone of this film. It is set in a cold dark setting so that makes you want to root for Caesar. It is definitely the darkest of the first five ape films and has a lot of parts that might disturb younger audiences. I kind of like how dark it is, I always was a fan of darker films sometimes.Another thing this film has going for it is that Roddy McDowall returns to play Caesar this time. Its cool that he plays Caesar as he also played Cornelius so he is playing his own son. He gives one of his best performances in this film, maybe his best from the apes series. Roddy is always great in these films.Supporting characters are OK. I liked Mcdonalds character as he sympathizes with the apes. Also Ricardo Montalbon is great again as Armando. The rest of the characters are OK. Nothing too special.Towards the end this film has some good action packed scenes. But they really lead up to it and build suspense as you see the apes start rebelling and smuggling weapons.A few complaints. Some of the apes in the background clearly are just wearing masks. Caesar and the main apes look great, but not all of them do. That was probably due to budget restraints though. Also like I said before there are some pretty dark parts that show apes being tortured so I don't think this is the most kid friendly ape film. Its not the worst thing out there, but from the first five it definitely has the most disturbing scenes with torture.Overall I really liked this film. It is dark and that makes it stand out. Roddy McDowall is also great. I recommend it.