By now there are no less than 8 films, a novel, and two TV
series on this. We even had the “action
figures” (they’re not dolls! They’re
action figures!) in the 70s. With the
series recently rebooted and due to continue, why not talk about this?
The
Planet of the Apes (1963), by Pierre Boulle. This is the original novel which started it
all off. I read it in English, although
French is a language I don’t have much trouble reading. None of the movies follows the plot exactly
from start to finish, though the 1968 film gives us close to the beginning, and the Mark Wahlberg remake of recent vintage (2001) gives us the closest to
the end of the novel; so the rest of the movies are original stories but based
on the novel as an origin story. The
author was the same guy who wrote Bridge
Over The River Kwai. The novel is
fairly short and easy to read, so there’s really no excuse for an ApeHead not to
read it. You can read, can’t you?
Planet
of the Apes (I) (1968).
The original 1968 film with Charlton “Ben Hur” Heston as Taylor. This first movie establishes the general plot
of the series. In fact, it’s such a
classic than anyone interested in the series should consider it to be the key
film, possibly the most important film, of the entire series.
A trio of
US astronauts (Taylor, Dodge and Landon) lands on what they believe to be an
alien planet, after having been in stasis for several hundred years of space
travel. However, Taylor warns the other
two astronauts that due to time dilation, thousands or millions of years have passed
on Earth in the time they travelled mere centuries.
Upon
arrival, the three find themselves caught in a hunt – intelligent gorillas are
rounding up scantily clad, mute, humans.
Dodge is killed outright, Taylor is wounded in the neck and captured, and
Landon’s outcome is only discovered later.
Taylor is put in pens with other humans, none of whom can talk, although
he hooks up with a native female, Nova, who is pretty damn hot. According to the novel, they’re all naked,
but the movie obviously can’t do the same.
Too bad. The society consists of
intelligent chimpanzees (scientists), orangutans (elders) and warriors
(gorillas). So far as the apes know,
humans are not intelligent and cannot talk, read, or write.
Although
humans are treated roughly – as animals – one of the handlers, a chimp named
Zira (Kim Hunter, aka “Stella” from “A Streetcar Named Desire”) – is actually
very compassionate. Taylor tries, and
eventually manages to convince her of his intelligence. Unfortunately his intelligence is a rude
rebuke to the apes’ worldview. In the
original novel, Merou (the Taylor equivalent) addresses a collective assembly,
basically the Ape Congress. In the movie
Taylor simply appears in front of a three-judge panel of orangutans.
I liked
how Taylor eventually establishes a dialogue with Dr. Zaius, who reminds me of
Rick Wakeman. Clearly the “incompetent
ape elders” are well aware that humans can be intelligent and that the fossils
from the Forbidden Zone support the theory that human civilization predates the
apes’, which of course is incompatible and thus unacceptable to the ruling
class. But of course this is all a
secret from the rest of the apes, even from Cornelius, whose research points
him in that direction.
Although
Taylor, Dodge and Landon all assume they’re on another planet, the landscape
and atmosphere should have been a tipoff.
Even in 1972 we knew that there were no habitable planets anywhere near
Earth. The logical conclusion, even
before seeing the Statue of Liberty, is that the spacecraft was programmed to
return the ship back to Earth if its fuel would run out before reaching any
suitable destination. Anyhow.
Beneath
the Planet of the Apes (II) (1970). Taking place immediately after Planet.
Another astronaut, Brent (James Franciscus), comes to the same planet,
in search of Taylor. He meets up with
Nova, gets briefly captured by the apes, talks to Cornelius and Zira, then
follows after Taylor (Heston), taking Nova along. It turns out the humans did in fact survive
the nuclear holocaust – which apparently destroyed human civilization and
allowed the apes to thrive and develop their own - but have a small society
buried deep in the ruins of NYC, worshipping the ICBM as a god. They have an elaborate illusion system set up
to protect them, but Taylor gets through it anyway. Soon after escaping from the apes, Brent and
Nova also breach the illusion barrier and find the cult – and Taylor.
For their
part, the apes also decide to invade the Forbidden Zone. Although at first shocked and horrified by the
illusion barrier – images of crucified apes and a bleeding Lawgiver – the sheer
horror of the illusions finally convinces Zaius that it must in fact be an
illusion. [Seriously, their illusion
system didn’t seem to fool anyone, at least not in these two movies.]
Finally
there’s a showdown downtown, as the invading ape army is far larger and
stronger than the remaining Sithrak cultists.
The apes shoot Brent and Taylor.
Taylor manages to activate the last remaining nuke device before he
dies, presumably destroying the entire city and/or planet, and the apes along
with them.
Escape
From Planet of the Apes (III) (1971). Zira, Cornelius and Milo (Sal Mineo) manage
to escape from Earth just before Taylor detonates the nuke buried in NYC, but
the resulting blast not only destroys Earth, it plunges the spaceship –
actually Taylor’s ship – through time to L.A. in the early 70s. Then it becomes “Planet of the Apes” in
reverse, with Z & C (Milo dies almost immediately – just like the third
astronaut in “PotA”) trying to convince skeptical earthlings of their
intelligence. Actually, unlike the apes
on “PotA”, the humans of L.A. quickly realize Zira and Cornelius are
intelligent and treat them as such. And
so they enjoy celebrity status until…
Yep, the
only snag comes when Zira, who can’t tolerate falsehood lets it slip that
they’re actually from the future, and that the apes will eventually take over
and a war will destroy the planet.
Sleazy scientist Hasslein (Eric Braeden) schemes to kill off Zira,
Cornelius and their unborn baby. Taking
the equivalent roles of Z&C on Earth are human scientists Lewis Dixon
(Bradford Dillman) and Stephanie Branton (Natalie Trundy), who help Z&C
escape just as Z&C helped Taylor and Nova escape. Even Khan – sorry, Armando - (Ricardo Montalban)
has a role in this, as a sympathetic circus owner who – briefly – allowed
Z&C to hide in his circus. And quite
conveniently, the chimpanzee in his circus also just gave birth to a baby
chimp! “Mama!”
Conquest
of Planet of the Apes (IV) (1972).
It’s 1991 in L.A., and the “mama!” baby of Cornelius and Zira is now a
grown chimp, Caesar, under Armando-Khan’s protection. By this time gorillas and chimps are badly
abused and oppressed, mainly because the humans know that they’re supposed to
rebel and take over. Self-fulfilling
prophecy, no? Guess what? Caesar does in fact rally the chimps and
gorillas (no orangutans here, though – where are they?) and takes over. Big surprise.
Battle
For the Planet of the Apes (V) (1973). This takes place soon after Conquest. Caesar is still alive, as is MacDonald, the
sympathetic black guy from the last movie.
Humans are somewhat subservient in ape society, but well-treated. MacDonald tells Caesar that the archive tapes
in the ruined, forbidden city may have footage of Cornelius’ and Zira’s
testimony before Congress (from “Escape”).
Along with Virgil – aka Little Enos from “Smokey and the Bandit” (Paul
Williams) – Caesar and MacDonald infiltrate into the ruined depths of L.A. They do in fact find the footage and watch
it. However, the remnants of the human dictatorship
remain in the city and chase out the trio.
Soon
thereafter, the leader of the human dictatorship, Kolp, decides to take an
expedition outside to wipe out the ape society.
A big battle ensues. Given what
we know – and the fact that the apes are the good guys in this series – the
outcome is to be expected: despite
initial setbacks by our simian friends, ultimately they prevail and defeat the
evil humans. We learn that Caesar
himself is the Lawgiver.
** This fifth movie ended the series – for the time
being. Note that all the apes in these
films, whether chimp, gorilla or orangutan, were human actors in makeup and
costumes. A live action TV series
lasted one season, as did an equally unsuccessful animated series immediately
thereafter, in 1974 and 1975.
Planet
of the Apes (VI) (2001).
This was the reboot by Tim Burton with Mark Wahlberg as Davidson,
essentially the Taylor (Heston) character.
I saw it in the movie theater when it came out, but only now, after
having read the original novel and watched the 1968 original, do I see how they
altered the story.
In 2029,
Davidson is an astronaut on the Oberon, a spaceship orbiting Saturn. The ship encounters an anomalous space storm
nearby, and sends off a probe with a chimp inside, Pericles. Disobeying orders, Davidson takes a pod
himself and chases after Pericles into the storm. He crash lands on a planet, which seems to be
inhabited by wild – but intelligent and speaking – humans, but dominated by
apes. Naturally he’s captured. A female chimp, Ari (Helena Bonham Carter)
(essentially Zira) befriends him and ultimately helps him escape to the
“forbidden zone”. The nemesis is General
Thade (Tim Roth) whose ailing father confides in him the secret that humans
used to be much more advanced than apes.
Inexplicably for a Tim Burton
film, Johnny Depp is MIA. Well, HBC is
here.
Davidson
leads a small group of humans and a smaller group of sympathetic apes, to the
forbidden zone, where he finds the wreck of the Oberon. Eventually Thade is captured and
neutralized, Davidson finds his way back to Earth. And instead of Taylor beating his hands down
on the beach recognizing the Statue of Liberty half-buried in the sand,
Davidson finds Earth to be….very different.
“God damn you all to hell!”
At the
time I originally saw this, I hadn’t read the novel or seen the 1968 film. With the benefit of that background I can
recognize a major issue which may have doomed the remake to irrelevancy. Leaving aside Wahlberg’s failure to match
Heston’s acting, the biggest problem with this is that the humans can talk and
are obviously intelligent.
** No one seemed to like Burton’s version, so they gave it
another shot. This time around, the apes
are computer generated, except for Caesar, who is Gollum’ed by Andy Serkis,
Smeagol himself.
Rise
of the Planet of the Apes (VII) (2011). This is somewhat of a remake of “Conquest”,
though not exactly. Lab scientist Will
Rodman (James Franco) is trying to develop a cure of Alzheimer’s for his father
(John Lithgow) and naturally the lab tests the serum on chimps first. One test subject, a female chimp, Bright Eyes
(Taylor’s nickname for Nova), shows promise, but then has to be put down after
she goes BSI – it turns out she was simply protecting her baby, later named
Caesar, who inherited the serum’s effects.
After the
project is shut down and the apes “put down”, Will brings Caesar home and
raises him there, also bringing some serum home to test on his father. Good results initially, but eventually Will
Sr’s body stops accepting the serum and he goes back to being old and
befuddled. Caesar attacks the neighbor,
and he’s sent off to an animal sanctuary full of chimps + one gorilla and one
orangutan (Maurice). The sanctuary director (Brian Cox) isn’t so bad,
but his son Dodge (poor Tom Felton, aka “Draco Malfoy” from the Harry Potter
films) is kind of a jerk. These poor apes
can’t catch a break, can they?
As you
can imagine, Caesar eventually takes command of the apes in the sanctuary. By the end of the film, he’s managed to break
them out of the sanctuary, AND liberates the apes in Rodman’s lab AND the apes
at the local zoo. There’s a huge
confrontation on the Golden Gate Bridge, and of course Caesar and all the apes
are killed and the series comes to a screeching halt. Oops, no, alternate ending. No, although a few apes die, the rest manage
to break through and establish a new community in the redwood forest. And there was much rejoicing…
Dawn
of the Planet of the Apes (VIII) (2014). After the deadly virus wipes out the majority
of Earth’s human population, one of the last surviving enclaves, in San
Francisco, makes contact with a society of chimps, gorillas, and orangutans –
the group started up by Caesar in Rise. The human leader, Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) has
no particular bias against the apes, but he does want to reactivate the
hydroelectric plant located within ape territory.
A team of
peaceable humans negotiates the right to reactivate the power supply, thanks to
an uneasy truce with the ape leader, Caesar (Andy Serkis). Naturally, even among their small advance
group, the humans have the poor judgment to bring along an obvious troublemaker,
Carver (Kirk Acevedo, aka Agent Charlie Francis from “Fringe”) who does his
best to antagonize the apes and sow mistrust – yet doesn’t seem to have any
useful skills. For their part, the Beta
male, Koba, claims to mistrust the humans – sensibly enough – but is really
using that as an excuse to seize power from Caesar himself. As you might expect, he does accomplish that,
shooting Caesar with an M4 carbine and leaving him for dead [why not finish him
off? “Sharks with friggin laser
beams!”]
Led by
Koba, the apes attack the human settlement and succeed in taking over, but also
enslave their own kind, which naturally sows discontent among their own
camp. And since Caesar did survive, it’s
only a matter of time before he recovers, reveals himself as still living AND a
failed assassination attempt by Koba, and reasserts his control over the apes,
hopefully resolving issues with the humans in the process.
While
restoring electricity to the human community might be otherwise innocent and
not an inherent problem, the real reason they wanted the electricity restored
was so they could re-establish contact with other human communities in the
country and the world. And doing so
would most likely pose a definite threat to the continued existence of the ape
society. So, notwithstanding the
peaceable intentions of Malcolm (Clarke) and the other more enlightened humans
in the short term, this was not a situation which could be indefinitely
sustained with peaceful coexistence.
FYI: this film did well enough that they’ll be
making another one, due to be released in July 2016.
Themes. “Ape shall never kill another ape”. Generally a good idea, but Koba discards it
in Dawn much to his discredit.
Commenting on this business of chimps, gorillas and orangutans
collaborating, biologists scoffed at this, arguing that in real life such
cooperation would be impossible, the three types would be fighting each other
constantly.
The
Lawgiver. A stylized chimp in statue
form who serves as the apes’ Jesus/Aslan (“Monkey Jesus” – maybe that’s what
she was going for). Later we learn that
it was Caesar himself.
