Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Theatrical release poster
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Produced by Arthur P. Jacobs
Screenplay by John William Corrington
Joyce Hooper Corrington
Story by Paul Dehn
Based on characters created
by Pierre Boulle
Starring Roddy McDowall
Claude Akins
Natalie Trundy
Severn Darden
Lew Ayres
Paul Williams
John Huston
Music by Leonard Rosenman
Cinematography Richard H. Kline
Edited by Alan L. Jaggs
John C. Horger
Production
company
APJAC Productions
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • June 15, 1973 (1973-06-15)
Running time
 93 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1.7 million[1]
Box office $8.8 million[2]

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is a 1973 science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson. It is the fifth and final entry in the original Planet of the Apes series, produced by Arthur P. Jacobs, following Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.[3] It stars Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Lew Ayres, Paul Williams and John Huston.

The two sequels in the 2010s reboot series, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, have a similar premise to Battle, but they are not officially remakes.[4]

Plot

Told as a flashback to the early 21st century, with a wraparound sequence narrated by the orangutan Lawgiver in "North America - 2670 A.D.", this sequel follows the ape leader Caesar years after a global nuclear war has destroyed civilization. Living with his mate Lisa and their son Cornelius, Caesar creates a new society while trying to cultivate peace between the apes and remaining humans. Caesar is opposed by gorilla Aldo, who wants to imprison the humans that freely roam Ape City while doing menial labor.

After defusing followers of Aldo who attacked a human teacher for saying "No" to apes, Caesar ponders if his own parents could have taught him how to make things better. MacDonald, Caesar's human assistant and younger brother of Mr. MacDonald (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes), reveals to Caesar that his brother told him of archived footage of Cornelius and Zira within the underground ruins of New York, now radioactive and known as the Forbidden City. Caesar travels with MacDonald and orangutan Virgil to the Forbidden City to find the archives.

It is revealed that mutated and radiation-scarred humans are living within the city, under the command of Governor Kolp, the man who once captured Caesar. Caesar and his party view the recordings of his parents, learning about the future and Earth's eventual destruction before they are forced to flee when Kolp's soldiers attempt to kill them.

Fearing the mutants may attack Ape City, Caesar reports his discoveries. When Caesar calls MacDonald and a select group of humans to the meeting, Aldo leads the gorillas away.

Kolp's scouts have found Ape City. Kolp believes that Caesar is planning to finish his people off. He stubbornly declares war on Ape City despite his assistant, Méndez, attempting to have him see reason.

Aldo plots a coup d'état in order for the gorillas to take control. Cornelius happens to overhear from a nearby tree, and is critically wounded when Aldo spots him and hacks the tree branch he is on. The next day, after a gorilla scouting pair are attacked by Kolp's men, Aldo takes advantage of a grieving Caesar's absence to have all humans corralled while looting the armory. Cornelius eventually dies from his wounds, leaving a devastated Caesar with a revelation that he was not hurt by humans.

When Kolp's ragtag force launches their attack, Caesar orders the defenders to fall back. When Kolp finds Caesar lying among dozens of fallen apes, he expresses his intention to personally kill him. But it turns out the apes are feigning death, launching a counter-attack that captures most of the mutants. Kolp and his remaining forces escape, only to be slaughtered by Aldo's troops once out in the open.

Aldo confronts Caesar about releasing the corralled local humans and orders the gorillas to kill them. When Caesar shields the humans and Aldo threatens him, Virgil (having learned the truth from MacDonald) reveals Aldo's role in Cornelius' death and that he broke their community's most sacred law – "Ape shall never kill ape". An infuriated Caesar pursues Aldo up a large tree, their confrontation resulting in Aldo falling to his death.

With Caesar realizing that apes are no different from their former slave-owners, he agrees to MacDonald's request for humans to be treated as equals, coexisting in a new society. They store their guns back in the armory: Caesar and Virgil reluctantly explaining to the overseer that they will still need them for future conflicts and can only wait for the day when they don't need their weapons anymore.

The scene returns to the Lawgiver, saying that it has now been over 600 years since Caesar's death. His audience is revealed to be a group of young humans and apes, the Lawgiver noting that their society still waits for a day when their world will not need weapons, while they "wait with hope". A close-up of a statue of Caesar shows a single tear falling from one eye.

Cast

Production

Development

Initially writer Paul Dehn who had provided the script for every previous sequel was hired to provide a story treatment for the fifth film in the series. Dehn withdrew from the project prior to completing the screenplay due to health reasons. Screenwriters John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington were brought in after the success of their film The Omega Man, although prior to that neither one of them had written any science fiction films and, indeed, Joyce Carrington later admitted they had never seen any of the Apes films prior to being hired to write the script for "Battle".[5] Dehn was unavailable for the initial rewrites but was hired to come in and do a final polish on the script making minor changes to the script that the Corringtons had written. Dehn was given a story credit despite an appeal to the Writer's Guild of America for shared credit on the screenplay. Dehn claimed to have rewritten 90% of the dialogue and he altered the ending. The original script by the Corringtons ended on a playground with ape and human children fighting. Dehn chose to go with a close up of a statue of Caesar with a tear falling from its eye which Joyce Corrington characterized as "...stupid. It turned our stomachs when we saw it."[6] The Writer's Guild of America ruled in favor of the Corringtons for sole screenplay credit.

Filming

Principal photography took place on the Fox Movie Ranch for an estimated budget of $1.7 million. Heading into filming, director J. Lee Thompson was unhappy with both the script and the scope of the production, which he felt could have used a bigger budget to assist in the portrayal of the "Battle". Thompson had agreed to direct without a script in place and regretted that Paul Dehn couldn't have been on the project throughout the writing process.[5]

Battle for the Planet of the Apes was the second-to-last film produced by Arthur P. Jacobs. He died June 27, 1973 at age 51, less than two weeks after its release.[7]

Extended cut

The syndicated television version adds a few scenes cut from the theatrical release. One scene takes place after Aldo chases teacher Abe, where MacDonald reminds him why humans should not say "no" to an ape.

Another scene towards the end of the film shows the beginnings of the House of Mendez cult, as the humans in the city are about to fire off the doomsday bomb (as seen in Beneath the Planet of the Apes), but decide not to, as it would threaten the world. In Beneath, one can see many signs of Mendez in the Forbidden Zone, a hymnal on the pipe organ reading "Mendez II", busts of past leaders of the mutant society (such as Mendez XIV), and the mutant leader in Beneath is also named Mendez. It is clear that Governor Mendez is a different leader than his predecessors, Breck and Kolp, since he is more sympathetic to the apes; so long as they do not invade their territory.

In 2006, the Planet of the Apes movies were re-released separately and in a new box set. This version was earlier released as a bootleg. Listed are the additional scenes:

  • Near the end of the opening credits, the score continues to its original ending for 25 seconds, with extra footage of General Aldo approaching Ape City on his horse.
  • The chase of the teacher of the apes is longer by 20 seconds.
  • The mutant chief is walking around in his HQ, and has more dialogue.
  • The entry into the ruins of the Forbidden City of the ape scout party with Caesar is 40 seconds longer, with more dialogue.
  • The escape from the Forbidden City shows more footage and dialogue involving the apes.
  • The scene where Cornelius is "shot" by a human boy begins slightly earlier, making it clear that the shooting is a game — which makes more sense, since no mutant party had yet even approached the ape city.
  • DELETED SCENE: In this edited scene, Governor Kolp tells his lieutenant to fire an atomic missile on Ape City when he gives the signal.
  • The mutant assault is 45 seconds longer. In this sequence there were three more smaller cuts that reduced the battle scene by 40 additional seconds, and originally there was no musical score.
  • The scene where the Governor Kolp calls "Sergeant York" is missing.
  • There are additional shots and dialogue before the mutants lay down the smoke screen.
  • 355 more seconds of the battle were cut.
  • The scene where Aldo kills Governor Kolp and his followers in the school bus has been restored.
  • The fight between Aldo and Caesar is longer.
  • DELETED SCENE: Mendez has become the new governor and talks the mutant lieutenant out of firing the atomic missile. As they argue, they discover it is the Alpha-Omega bomb from Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Reception

Battle for the Planet of the Apes grossed a domestic total of $8.8 million, making it the lowest-grossing film in the series.[2]

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics. The film holds a 38% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 critical reviews.[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a negative review, stating, "Battle looks like the last gasp of a dying series, a movie made simply to wring the dollars out of any remaining ape fans."[9]

Legacy

In the 2012 film Argo, based on the 1980 "Canadian Caper" rescue from Iran of U.S. diplomats hiding at the Canadian ambassador's residence, Tony Mendez gets the idea for the fictitious Argo cover story from watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes on television. This was a nod to the role of Planet of the Apes make-up artist John Chambers in the Canadian Caper.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 257.
  2. 1 2 "Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Box Office Information". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  3. ↑ "Those Damned Dirty Apes!". www.mediacircus.net. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  4. ↑ Scott Mendelson (May 8, 2014). "'Dawn Of The Planet Of the Apes' Gets Plot-Heavy Trailer". Forbes.
  5. 1 2 Russo, Joe; Landsman, Larry and Gross, Edwards. Planet of the Apes Revisited. St. Martins' Griffin. August 2001.
  6. ↑ Russo, Joe; Planet of the Apes Revisited.
  7. ↑ "Family Film Producer Found Dead". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. June 28, 1973. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  8. ↑ "Battle for the Planet of the Apes – Rotten Tomatoes". Flixster. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  9. ↑ Ebert, Roger (July 10, 1973). "Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) | Roger Ebert". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  10. ↑ Hruby, Patrick (October 10, 2012). "Tony Mendez, clandestine CIA hero of Ben Affleck's 'Argo,' reveals the real story behind film smash -". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
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