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Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes [DVD] [1972]


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There is something but what is it?
Review date: 2010-08-30 Rating: 8 out of 10

That one was supposed to come and we waited twenty years for it to come, but it came of age and here we have it at the tips of our fingers on the DVD console. This tale is so simple that it is in a way emotionally overwhelming. How can we accept to see some humans mistreating their servants and home pets that they have turned into slavery. Let's revisit America and the auction block and the electric shocks and the torture and the humiliation and the sex on command and the procreation for a profit. Dirty old town indeed, if it is Los Angeles, well the angels are having nightmares right now. It is amazing how romanticism may still inspire our rather weak minds. The point is that we feel sorry for these poor souls that are mistreated and victimized but at the same time we do not see and don't want to see what may and will and shall happen if that goes on too long. Sooner or later there will be a big bang somewhere in our social constellation. And the film tries to be factual about a revolution of unarmed apes taking over the city against machine guns with just a little bit of wit, massive participation and determination. The flaw of our romanticism confronted to that blunt violence and the words of it can only make us afraid. Let's fear what we cannot control and let us kill ahead of time all those who may possess the words of that revolution. How sad because this film could have been a lot more powerful in drama and tragedy. No death on any one side of a revolutionary battle is acceptable, even if it is the tyrant that has just been ousted, even if some kind of a trial has been organized in the urgency and emergency of the moment so that there will be no discussion when the steam has come down. My time be long, my time be short tomorrow or today unjust causes always come to an end, and all causes that do not respect everyone, including one's opponents, not to speak of one's enemies, is doomed to come to a sad and cruel end and the defeat is at the end of the road, even if you get out of it without any remorse. Without any remorse, my foot. This film is remorse building for you humans who are not even able to accept what god has decided to do. We are nothing, we are nothing, we are nothing, nothing but a smite of dust in the sunshine of the Lord.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID


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Reviews


Mixed feelings
Review date: 2010-01-13 Rating: 6 out of 10

The Planet of the Apes series is a sad example of how sequels are often not as good as the original. I loved Planet of the Apes and Escape from Planet of The Apes when I first saw them. I then saw the other films, but none of them quite reached the standard of those two.

Don't get me wrong, Conquest is not a bad film. If I could, I would have given it three and a half stars. It is quite entertaining and well paced enough to make it worth while: it's just that the lack of budget shows throughout. The sets and makeup are fair, but not as good as the first film; the acting is ok and the secenes of the apes revolting and taking over is poorly done. Given a bit more time, money and thought it may even have been better than "Escape" which in my opinion is the best sequel.

Watch it if you've seen the first three films, just bear in mind the things ive mentioned. at least it's better than the awful Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Planet of The Apes *****
Beneath The Planet of The Apes *
Escape From Planet of The Apes *****
Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes ***1/2
Battle For The Plnat of The Apes ***

Nuff said

Apes prequel, plenty of action but looking a bit cheap now
Review date: 2009-09-07 Rating: 6 out of 10

"Conquest Of..." seems to be maligned as one of the weakest in the Planet Of The Apes series, but actually after the almost rom-com style of "Escape From..." this film is a welcome return to the action adventure and confrontational nature- and, importantly, lots of apes- that were seen in the first two films.

It's another prequel, which picks up from "Escape From..." the story about how apes took over the planet. You should watch all the Apes films in order, otherwise they'll make very limited sense. It's set in 1991, which in 1972 probably seemed a long way in the future. In parts it's very much a film about 1972- the racism theme is handled with no subtlety at all, and the background science fiction elements, such as the technology being used in the civilisation, isn't really an attempt at science fiction at all- at one point when a filing clerk has to urgently check a record, we see him grabbing a Filofax style book and flicking through it to the right page. Didn't they think there might have been a computer or two by 1991?

The make-up is stunning and there are excellent performances from, among others, Roddy McDowall and Ricardo Montalban.

However the lack of budget begins to show in places. Almost the entire film seems to be set in one large modernist shopping plaza, and the same pieces of scenery crop up repeatedly through the film.

Two endings exist for this film- an original and much darker ending, and the eventual cinema ending which is very much softer. Only one ending appears on this DVD, and that's the "soft" ending, which very much looks like an afterthought to the rest of the movie. There's a Blu-Ray edition of this film which also includes the original ending, so big Apes fans should save their money for that.

The beginning of the hairy revolution
Review date: 2007-12-18 Rating: 8 out of 10

This is the fourth in a series of five films, and this is where it all begins...

In the third film (Escape from the Planet of the Apes) Cornelius travels back in time with his pregnant chimp-wife Zira. After giving birth they are ordered to be executed ...but their son survived.

This film sees the Circus owner Armando attempt to hide the intelligent talking ape (played by Roddy McDowell once again, and the likeness to his father Cornelius is made in the film) but is arrested. This is a time of slavery, with humans owning apes to carry out domestic chores and manual labour. Governor Breck is nervous after the revelation 20 years previous that the future of humanity is one of slavery under the rule of the apes and so the possibility that an ape in the city could be the son of Cornelius is one which must be investigated ...and the ape killed.

The slavery of apes and the fear of being enslaved by them in the future drives Breck to take an interest in an unusually intelligent ape he suspects might be the `talking ape' - after being allowed to follow a quaint Breck family tradition of selecting a name from a book, the ape `randomly' selects Caesar. He is dismissed as another stupid ape and ownership transfers to Aide MacDonald - a black senior. Parallels are drawn to the human trade of black slaves and there is level of empathy from MacDonald.

This film sets in motion the ape led revolution which is developed further in the fifth film, and sets up the first (confused?!). The politics behind the film is what makes it. Slavery and inhumanity are strong themes throughout the Planet of the Apes quintology. The great thing about this film though is that it doesn't polarise people into `good' or `bad' camps. The plight of the humans is expressed when the unemployed engage in protests at the loss of jobs to apes, Caesar the hero of the film seems torn between revenge and idealistic revolution, even the ape-despising Breck who sanctions torture is shown to be vulnerable owing to his fear of losing dominance to the apes. Which party is right? Is it less wrong for one group to enslave the other?

The stirring speech given by Caesar at the end of the film is one of the best moments in the "Planet..." series of films. The film certainly gets you to think, and the points raised have never subdued in their relevance since the films release in '72. I can see that to a non-fan this would maybe only merit three stars, but as a fan I have given this four stars.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Hari Rhodes
Don Murray
Roddy McDowall
Natalie Trundy

Creators:
Roddy McDowall (Primary Contributor)
Don Murray (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036022859
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Colour, PAL,
Release date: 2005-08-22
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 83 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1972
Language: English (Original Language)

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