Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Colorful futuristic sets a relentless pace and an action-packed climax highlight the fourth episode of the legendary Apes saga starring Roddy McDowall and Ricardo Montalban. The time is the near future. Apes have supplanted dogs and cats as household pets and replaced servants as personal assistants - until their continual mistreatment provokes one advanced ape from the future Caesar (McDowall) to lead a spectacular revolt. It's thrilling science fiction that offers both a serious message and stirring entertainment.Episodes-Bonus Features:Conquest of Planet of the Apes-Web LinkWidescreen FormatInteractive MenusScene Selection & Theatrical TrailersFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: Unknown UPC: 024543228189 Manufacturer No: 2232818 Product Description

Takes place in a near-future police state

Near future for the 1970s, that is. A good movie and one of the ones that rarely gets rebroadcast today. In this one Caesar, the son of two apes from the far future whi were sent back in time, has grown to adulthood and must hide his identity from the State, which is determined to prevent the takeover of the world by intelligent apes. They are pretty ruthless in their methods, needless to say. May 21, 2008

ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN APE!

This is the forth installment in the POTA's series. I had heard rumors that this film was severely cut before releasing it in theaters. It would have been nice if they would have restored the edited scenes in it in an extended version like what was done with "Battle for". Oh well....... The film is pretty good, but a bigger budget could have helped. It also would of helped if they were not pushing for a G rating like all the sequels. I guess they thought these films were for kids?..... The problem with all the sequels is that they are too middle ground. Too violent for the kiddies too tame for the adults! I don't mean to be harsh on these films as I am a big fan! I saw them all at the theaters growing up and have seen them many times now. This is a good film that could have been better. The DVD transfer is very good. August 2, 2007

Ape Epic

This is one outstanding film in the PLANET OF THE APES saga. It begins to bring the plight of the Apes and Taylor's discovery in the original real substance. How did the world of mankind get turned upside-down? This film explains a lot and there are some very good performances in it. May 26, 2006

The Wrath of Caesar!

In Escape From the Planet of the Apes, Cornelius and Zira arrived from the future and had a child, one who was destined to destroy the future of human civilization. To protect her child from human treachery, the baby chimpanzee was switched with a normal zoo chimp by his mother, and grew up under the protection of his benevolent human master Armando, the extravagant sideshow circus entertainer ironically played by Ricardo Montalban from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Having been given a taste of freedom by the compassionate Armando, the talking simian chimpanzee Caesar (played by Roddy McDowall who had the unique opportunity to play the son of his character Cornelius) becomes disillusioned when Armando brings him into the city only to learn that his ape brothers and sisters have become "domesticated" after a plague brought back from space in the year 1983 wiped out every dog and cat on the planet. Because of their adept intelligence and human-like faculties, the apes quickly became trained to serve their "superior" human masters. In 1991, human civilization is controlled by an oppressive authoritarian government fearful that a race of talking apes will inevitably rise up and destroy human civilization as foretold by the arrival of Cornelius and Zira.

Now the apes have supplanted humans as working class slaves distinguished by the two dominant ape species... the smarter chimpanzees wearing green worker overalls and the stronger and more aggressive gorillas in red, not unlike the delineation between white and blue collar human laborers. When Armando and the son of Cornelius witness a cruel public display of torture against a helpless ape worker, the emotionally enraged talking simian lets loose his tongue and makes the fatal mistake of publicly shouting out an obscenity against the human oppressors. Armando, accepting responsibilty for the outcry, is taken into custody for questioning after he helps Caesar flee capture. The fugitive ape conceals himself by infiltrating a cage of "immigrant" ape orangutans imported from Indonesia and is taken to a worker conditioning center where apes are harshly trained to become subservient to human domination. He is soon sold at a slave auction to the Governor's assistant MacDonald, who ironically is an Afro-American. MacDonald brings him before Governor Breck, played by the melodramatically camp Don Murray, who suspects that he is indeed the talking ape that they are searching for and is given the opportunity to name himself by choosing a name randomly from a book. The intelligent ape points to a name which not only surprises but reaffirms the Governor's suspicion and thus, Caesar is born.

Caesar is put to work in an operations center where he can be closely monitored. When Caesar overhears that his master Armando was killed trying to flee interrogation, he becomes outraged and communicates non-verbally with his ape brethren to be defiant against their masters and the seeds of discontent are sown. Caesar organizes the apes into an uprising against their human captors that erupts into a full-blown ape revolt akin to Che Gorilla --- a sly reference to the Cuban revolutionary guerilla leader Che Guevara for which Caesar emblematically bares an uncanny symbolic resemblance to and has even been parodied as such in pop-culture. Roddy McDowall gives a rousing and unforgettable dramatic performance that surpasses his characterization of Cornelius in the three previous Ape films. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes explodes into a riotous and violent action packed climax that inevitably sets the stage for the entire Apes Saga and the birth of The Planet of the Apes.

Conquest is the fourth film in the series and it is my second favorite. It is brutally violent and was the first Apes film to earn a PG rating after explicit scenes of graphic violence were cut. I would love to see an uncut version released on DVD. It is filled with so many socio-political themes that are just as relevant (if not more so) today as they were back in 1972. While the ape revolt was patterned directly after the 1965 Los Angeles Watts Riots, it could easily parallel the racial Alabama and Chicago civil protest riots of the 50's and 60's or the L.A. riots of the 90's. It's themes of working class oppression not disimilar to the current issue of Immigration Reform which saw demonstrations of protest in major cities across the country by tens of thousands of immigrant workers who perform low-paying laborious and menial jobs, as exemplified by the scene where Caesar witnesses the temperament of a snobbish blonde woman having her hair done in a salon by a chimp named Zelda. The Government is portrayed as oppressive and paranoid and is an interesting examination of how the need for social constructs like Ape Management (i.e. Homeland Security) can easily deteriorate into an oppressive state of authoritarian control. Conquest is a political-charged cautionary allegory of how society breeds contempt. Viva la Revolution! May 19, 2006

To Bill C.

Hey Bill, Ceasar is actually the son of Zira and Cornelius from the third film (Escape From The Planet of the Apes). Richardo Montablan's circus character switched chimp babies, so the man in "Escape" shoots a circus chimp instead of the baby Ceasar, hence the "mama, mama, mama" scene that closes "Escape." Milo's character was killed early on in "Escape" by the gorilla in an adjacent cage, so there really aren't any incosistencies in "Conquest" when compared to its predecessor.

Peace. April 15, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...