If you've only ever seen the original PLANET OF THE APES film -or Heaven Forbid, only the remake or the reboot- then DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL! But seriously folks, all five films of the old franchise are mastercrafted of gems of commentary on our being Human, All Too Human. You maniacs remember that bit of the end of the first 1968 film with the Statue of Liberty? Charlton Heston, in a forgivable piece of hyperbole screams, "You blew it all up!" which is a more succinct way of saying "Your arms race led to a nuclear winter wherein the next species down the ladder of evolution revolted & became the dominant animal of the planet!" Except, at the end of the sequel BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, the entire Earth actually does explode, forcing all subsequent sequels to play the time travel card, going back to an era of Earth with a little less nuclear winter, but no less a hotbed of oppression & violence.
Paradoxically, the threat for humans here isn't so much in the split atom but in the potential evolution revolution brewing in the DNA of these speaking simians from the future. Throw in the melting pot of different ape species having their own cross-cultural conflicts, and you have some of the most reflective social commentary in all of 1970's cinema. It says a lot about this series that the lighthearted & quirky threequel -the one where the talking apes become celebrities at a modern city zoo- is also the one that ends with an unwilling abortion enforced upon the protagonist. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the prologue montage from the opening of BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, with the speech from the climax of the previous CONQUEST FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES over the top of it. Pretty much sums up how brilliantly bleak the whole franchise is, hopefully whetting your appetite enough to track them all down.
P.S. Monkey business aside, if anyone can find me a good torrent where I can download the 1975-1976 animated series RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES, I'll go bananas.
/mr_metaphor.
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