The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2019: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), directed by J. Lee Thompson

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "I Am An Ape", by David Byrne & St. Vincent

       In 1968, a spaceship captained by Charlton Heston crash landed in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where human beings were as cattle to a race of intelligent, talking apes, a Planet of the Apes if you will. Two years later an astronaut from another conveniently crash landed spaceship went Beneath the Planet of the Apes, as the remnants of man’s civilization engaged in one last confrontation with their simian nemesis. A year later ape scientists Cornelius and Zira managed to Escape from the Planet of the Apes, only to find themselves back in the days when humans still ruled the roost, and who aren’t all that pleased about primate possibilities. Now another year has passed, for the Marathon and the release date of the films, and it’s time to return to our saga with Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Will it excite like Star Trek II, or disappoint like Star Trek V? Only one way to find out.

       The year is 1991. It’s been 20 years since the events of the previous film, where Cornelius and Zira were murdered by government agents attempting to prevent the ape dominated future, and their child Caesar was secretly taken in by circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban). Apes have become society’s new underclass; Originally used as pets after a space-borne virus caused the extinction of all dogs and cats in 1983, they were eventually bred into what has become a race of slaves, used for manual labor by the human populace and kept in line by a fascistic police force. Sheltered by Armando and the circus his entire life, a now adult Caesar (played by Cornelius’ actor Roddy McDowall) bristles at the treatment of his brethren, which turns into outright hatred after Armando and he is forced into becoming a slave himself in order to hide from the authorities. Abuse, humiliation, outright torture, it all serves to mask what the humans cannot or will not accept, that these apes are not just mindless, unthinking brutes. They are smart; Smart enough to know they are being made to suffer and who is making them suffer, and smart enough to know that they aren’t going to take it anymore. Destiny or not, fate or not, the war between ape and man begins today.

       I said in my review of Escape (paraphrased) that it felt like the first part of a much more exciting film, and that’s not the case. Rather it’s more akin to an opening scene, as Armando spends about three minutes at the beginning of this film giving you the cliff notes of the last one, rendering it completely superfluous. That can be forgiven however, as Conquest is indeed the much more exciting film. More action, harder hitting drama, stronger performances, they even made an effort to make things feel a bit like an alternate history 1991, complete with green, non-lethal cigarettes. All this in spite of the fact that Conquest actually had the smallest budget of all the Apes movie up to that point, 1.7 million dollars compared to 2.06 million for Escape (what they spent it on I have no idea). Maybe J. Lee Thompson had something to prove when they gave him the director’s chair.

       To me though, Conquest works because it finally gives context to the franchise. The original Planet of the Apes as well as Beneath relied a lot on the shock value of the concept, a stranger in a strange land, but it never delved too deep into things. Escape touched on it a bit, but it wasn’t until Conquest that we got answers as to how the apes came to be and why they have such animosity towards humans. More than that, as you go through the film and see every instance of beatings, torture and terror the apes are subjected to, only slightly worse than what we put real people through these days, you empathize more and more with their plight. To the point where the climax of the film, where Caesar and the apes clash with the security forces feels like a triumphant moment in spite of the implications it has for the future of the human race in that universe. Suddenly what was once a simplistic ‘man good ape bad’ dichotomy becomes a much more nuanced affair, and what was once a simple sci-fi thriller that runs on twists and sudden reveals is elevated into proper science fiction, a story that is capable of promoting actual discussion. That it took four movies to get us there isn’t the best look in the world, but at least they got there.

       I mentioned strong performances, but to be honest this entire film is buoyed by three actors: Roddy McDowall as Caesar, Don Murray as Governor Breck, and Hari Rhodes as Breck’s assistant MacDonald. Caesar is easily the highlight of McDowall’s tenure with Apes films, not just for the his incredible, sweeping speeches at the tail end of the film but the way he’s mastered the physical art of acting in the makeup, conveying so much emotion solely through his eyes. Don Murray is is positively Nixonian as Governor Breck, chewing through his lines with a manic flair, in a way that teeters on the line between comic and terrifying. Hari Rhodes by comparison is much more down to earth, but then he is that way by design, caught as he is between recognizing the ape’s growing self-determination and protecting the continued existence of the human race. No real female characters of any note, they’ve got a chimp woman in every couple of scenes but she doesn’t talk or really do anything, so I kept forgetting that was meant to be the same character. Not that the lack of women in the credits damns the film necessarily, but it is kind of weird in hindsight. Needed a couple hundred thousand more dollars to fit them in, I suppose.

       Beneath was alright, but Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is probably the first of the series since the original that I would straight up call ‘good’. I’d go so far as to call it a hidden gem, if indeed the fourth entry in a famous film series can ever be considered ‘hidden’. It’s exactly what the Apes movies needed to rev back into gear, and it’s what I needed as someone who has spent the last couple of years of my life watching these movies and pondering my life choices. A hearty recommendation from me, and a potentially nice Halloween night for you if you decide to watch it. Bananas not included.