Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: J. Lee Thompson

Starring: Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban, Natalie Trundy, Hari Rhodes

From: 20th Century Fox

Thankfully this movie turned out to be fine... and that goes for both versions, although the unrated version is the way to go, as I explain below: 

I finally have gotten back to finishing my viewing of this franchise. For the record, I saw the unrated version as available on Blu-ray. As that version contains a different ending, it needed to be said. The Blu has both versions of the movie, so after I saw the unrated, I watched the theatrical ending. Both are fiery conclusions with the same impassioned speech, but the two have some big differences and the unrated version (which was the original) is the preferable way to close the story and set up what ended up being the final tale in this timeline of the franchise.

This movie is about an ape named Caesar who due to his intelligence starts to lead an ape uprising. Yes, this was definitely an inspiration for the new series of Apes films. Here, it is the far-flung future of... “North America, 1991”. What a crappy world it is. First off, it's a police state, something that could possibly never happen in our near-future...

*** looks at camera like I am on The Office ***

Anyhow, it's a police state and due to a wacky disease, both cats and dogs are extinct species. In the EIGHT years since then, apes not only became replacement household pets, but indentured servants and even hold menial jobs. I realize, that is pretty wacky also. You get to see how they are trained but I imagine it's more expensive than finding certain people to work those jobs for little pay. All that said, it is rather obvious what this is a metaphor for, and I realized that even before there were monkey auctions and an ape shining shoes.

Anyhow, Ricardo Montalban reprises his role as Armando, and you do get to see more of him than in Escape... which to me is a good thing. Things happen, and Caesar does indeed start an uprising. Now, I admit there are some contrivances along the way but this was still a fine watch and also entertaining. Although like I said, what a crappy world they live in, where apes have begun to rebel anyway and while the world is seen on a small scale, I am glad that was not our 1991, although the 70's version of the future was-as usual-pretty groovy. It helps that a pro like J. Lee Thompson (after The Guns of Navarone & Cape Fear but before a bunch of Charles Bronson movies at Cannon) was the director. They try to do the most with what was obviously a low budget, and this ended up being entertaining.