Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) - film review

In the aftermath of a devastating nuclear conflict, some time towards the end of the 20th Century, apes have supplanted humans as the dominant life-form on planet Earth.  The ape leader, a chimpanzee named Caesar, is determined that his species will live in peaceful coexistence with the few remaining humans, but the gorilla General Aldo has other ideas and plots to overthrow his king.  Caesar still laments not having known his parents and so he becomes excited when he learns that within the Forbidden City there are taped recordings of his parents, made after their arrival on Earth in the 1970s.  Accompanied by his human assistant MacDonald and orang-utan friend Virgil, Caesar ventures into the Forbidden City, unaware that it is still inhabited, by a handful of radioactivity-poisoned humans.  From the tape recordings, Caesar learns that it will be the apes, not the humans, who will destroy the world.  At last, he comprehends the humans’ ill-treatment of the apes and why they were so keen to kill his father, Cornelius, the first talking ape.  As he wonders whether it will be possible to change the future, Caesar and his party are attacked by the radioactive humans, led by the aggressive Governor Kolp.  As the intruders flee to their own city, Kolp gathers together an army and swears that he will exterminate the entire ape population.  Meanwhile, General Aldo has grown tired of Caesar’s benign tolerance of humankind and makes plans for his overthrow...

Battle for the Planet of the Apes brought to a close the original cycle of Apes films that were inspired by Pierre Boulle’s classic sci-fi novel La planète des singes, not so much with a bang as with an almighty whimper.  The box office appeal of men in rubber monkey masks had waned as the unavoidable attrition of ideas asserted itself, so that by the time the fifth instalment went into production it was clear to just about everyone that the series had run its course.  What should have been a climactic conclusion to the apes-versus-humans saga ended up looking like a rather embarrassing playground brawl, made in the manner of a low budget TV movie.  Tedious Squabble for the Planet of the Apes might perhaps have been a more accurate title.

Aware that they had reached the point of diminishing returns, Twentieth Century Fox made the film on a comparatively low budget, and it shows.  But, ultimately, it is the lack of ideas and creativity, not the lack of funds, that mars this production and relegates it to the bargain basement of sci-fi entertainment.  One of the great strengths of the first four Apes films is the quality and sophistication of their screenplays, which offered not only strong storylines, but also believable characters and convincing dialogue.   By contrast, Battle for the Planet of the Apes feels as if it was written in a hurry by an adolescent who had his mind on other matters.  (In fact, it was a  toned-down rewrite of an original script by Paul Dehn, the author of the previous three Apes films, which was deemed by the studio to be too dark for a family audience.)   Lacking the cohesion and vision of its predecessors, the film could hardly have failed to end up as a bland and plodding timewaster.

Whilst it does not compare favourably with the four films that went before it, Battle for the Planet of the Apes does at least manage to bring the cycle to a close and doesn’t fall quite as low as most film series when they reach their fourth sequel. Once again, Roddy McDowall is convincing as the central ape protagonist, giving an intelligent and nuanced performance that holds the story, what there is of it, together, whilst putting the rest of the cast to shame.  Veteran filmmaker John Ford puts in a guest appearance as an aged orang-utan at the start and end of the film – you may ask why given that his face is completely hidden by a monkey mask.  Other than that there is little to distinguish this film.  J. Lee Thompson’s direction is as half-hearted as the screenwriting, with a mere fraction of the energy and inspiration that he brought to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.  The camerawork and effects are generally okay, but the lacklustre performances from a dull cast (Roddy excluded) have a far greater, negative, impact.  Even the make-up work fails to impress this time round.   The penny-pinching budget would not allow John Chambers’ prosthetic ape make-up to be used on all of the ape characters, so most were equipped with cheap, badly-fitting rubber masks – the result is as awful as it sounds.  

This may have been the last film in the original series but it was by no means the end of the apes saga.  Twentieth Century Fox still saw there was mileage in the concept and hastily remade it as a TV series, which was first aired in 1974.   Roddy McDowall returned as the benign chimp, this time named Galen, and the series was a pretty respectable reboot, now regarded by many as a classic in the sci-fi TV genre.  Unfortunately, the 1970s audience had been well and truly aped-out by this stage and low ratings discouraged the company from making a second series.  It was not until 2001 that the apes returned to claim the world as their own, in Tim Burton’s effective big budget remake of the first two original Apes films.  Have the apes finally had their day?  Don’t count on it...

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