Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

A point raised by Caesar's enemy, Kolp (Darden in a mustache-twirling snidely elegant turn at maddened villainy), in this 5th and final Apes film. But a king usually has more than one enemy, as Caesar finds, to his grief. A predictable and mostly logical follow-up to the previous "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes," this one, like "Beneath the Planet of the Apes," stresses sci-fi action rather than any deep themes related to slavery or culture shock. Several years after a nuclear war, we find a surprisingly peaceful yet primitive village occupied by both apes and humans, governed by chimp Caesar (McDowall), who began a revolution in the previous film, as a young radical. Now much older - either about 10 or 30 years older, depending on various sources - he projects a benign fatherly personality. It's not quite paradise: though not the slaves as apes were previously, humans have shifted to 2nd-class citizens, despite an image of equality, and tension escalates due to local bully gorilla Aldo (Akins - 'call me by my proper rank, General, huh!'). Then Caesar himself opens the door to other possible problems by visiting a nearby nuked city (obviously the same one from the previous film). There, the human governor from "Conquest..." has been replaced by his security chief, Kolp, who was bad enough as 2nd in command - now he's bored just sifting through the rubble with his few mutated followers - time to work off the doldrums and teach a clever ape how to show respect.

This entry is generally regarded as the worst of the 5 films, if most fans had to pick one, but it's not a complete waste by comparison. There really is a battle at the end, a mini-war between the invading mutants and the village - but then the final confrontation between Caesar & Aldo is slow going. This film is almost like a precursor to all of those post holocaust sci-fi pieces in the eighties ("Steel Dawn," etc.). The biggest weakness is that nothing really new is added to the saga. The new character, Virgil (Williams), for example, is a genius orangutan, but he's a retread of the genius chimp from "Escape..." What this film does, really, is bring things full circle for the 5-film saga, though not in a very creative way. As with the previous film, "Conquest...", events that should occur over the course of decades or centuries are depicted in the span of days. The filmmakers got all the old costumes from the first 3 films out of mothballs and outfitted the apes here the same way, against logic. The mutated humans from the bombed out city are the ancestors of the mutants we've seen in "Beneath..." - they even show the alpha-omega bomb which, though almost detonated here, remains as is until it supposedly destroys everything in two millennium. However, a prologue and epilogue set about 600 years from now with the orangutan Lawgiver (Huston) shows that the future is not set, so now we're left guessing. This movie was followed by the short lived TV series, which took place about a thousand years in the future.

Fmovies: In my opinion this film is underrated it is not a great film by any means but is better than Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes. This is the fifth and final chapter in the ape saga and in my opinion it didn't disappoint the planet is a desolated place, Ceasar wants apes and humans to live together however ape has the edge over man as leaders and the humans fight back... This film stars Roddy McDowell, Claude Akins & Natalie Trundy this film was directed by J.Lee Thompson i recommend this film even though it has a low rating on IMDb it is an enjoyable film so watch and enjoy THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

***/*****

MORD39 RATING: **1/2 out of ****

For starters, it's true that this film is the least in the series. But it's still enjoyable and it's got values (something we could really use these days).

The missing scenes involving the nuclear missile were essential to the intelligence of the film; without them, it suffers. I'm basing my review on the full, uncut edition (as a major APES addict, I have it). If there is a real problem with BATTLE, it's mostly due to the lack of a great story and new blood. Each of the previous films gave us some kind of new direction to explore, whereas this fifth movie is more of a rehash.

I disagree about the casting of Paul Williams as Virgil. I mean, was that guy born to play an orangutan or what!? Similarily, I think Claude Akins as gorilla general Aldo was also an inspired piece of casting.

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES should be a film anyone can enjoy somewhat, and especially by someone claiming to be a fan of the series. Can anyone tell me what film series has an exceptional fifth chapter?

Battle for the Planet of the Apes fmovies. Again the Apes along with an underground civilization of mutated human beings living on remains of a nuclear catastrophe . Average and stirring science-fiction movie with a first rate Roddy McDowall and special intervention of John Huston as the Lawgiver who literally disappears in the beginning and re-appears on the ending . This known story is the last and inferior of the primates sequels ; it starts on a culture where simians rule over humans and they are divided in three lineage : gorilla , chimpanzee and orangutan . Humanity has gone awry and Earth has been reduced to a wasteland . Militaristic General Aldo (Claude Akins) wishes humans to be treated as animal of burden and regarded as scum . A couple of chimps formed by the chief Caesar( Roddy McDowall) and his wife Lisa (Natalie Trundy replacing the usual Kim Hunter) think otherwise and even agree a peaceful existence with humans .Caesar is son of Cornelius and Zira from ¨Escape from the planet of apes¨ and was the leader in the ¨Conquest of the Planet of the apes¨ Caesar attempts to ease disputes between apes and men . Meanwhile, an expedition commanded by Caesar , Virgil (Paul Williams) and MacDonald (Austin Stoker ) sets out the forbidden zone where live human mutants ( Seven Darden, France Nuyen among them) who survived a nuclear explosion several years before . The group finds an underground civilization in the ruins of a bomb-blasted city and the battle begins . Meantime , mean gorilla Aldo is itching a coup de état and take over from Caesar and murder every human in sight . At the ending happens a spectacular confrontation between a human army ruled by governor Kolp and the simians commanded by Caesar .

This is an average , lackluster sci-fi flick plenty of metaphysical significance with thoughtful reflexion about origin of human being , racism , atomic danger and nuclear catastrophe , though also packs action, adventures, intrigue and entertainment. The performers , particularly Roddy McDowall, Natalie Trundy and Claude Akins are pretty good , the characters are well drawn and in spite of makeup they are still oddly convincing . In spite of time and being mostly a mediocre follow-up of the former stories , some moments of energy remain and turns out to be a B movie full of action, battles and suspense . Writing credits by habitual Paul Dehn from Pierre Boulle novel , however his screenplay is not just clever and was cut , eliminating the violent scenes and obligated to happy end . Acceptable production design with passable sets and great visual effects by means of matte paintings reflecting the ruined city inhabited by mutant survivors . One of the important attributes of this work, is the magnificent and luminous cinematography by Richard H. Kline . Phenomenal make-up by John Chambers, a first-rate expert, such as proved in 'Blade runner, Ssss, Island of Dr Moreau' among others . Sensational musical score by a top-notch Leonard Rosenman though imitating sounds from the great Jerry Goldsmith .The picture is lack budgeted by usual Arthur P. Jacobs , producer of whole saga, in his last film because he suffered a stroke . It's regularly directed by J. Lee Thompson , using sometimes a nice visual sense. It's followed by a short-lived TV series, again with Roddy McDowall .

This is a very good film, not anywhere near as good as the first four of the series, but for only one reason. 10 minutes.

The Japanese release of 'Battle' contains an extra 10 minutes of footage that I feel is not only important to the storyline, but it completely changes the feel of the film. Without those crucial 10 minutes of footage, the viewer is thus given a somewhat watered down t.v. series type version of the film, originally done to attract a more younger audience. I personally love this film either way, Trust me, before critisizing 'Battle For The Planet Of The Apes', seek out the Japanese release (I have it on laserdisc) and see for yourself just how different (and better) a decent film can become with only 10 minutes of added storyline.

So the final entry in the Planet of the Apes series takes liberties with the timeline and the plot wanders through other prior installments, but I feel the movie delivers a degree of pathos seldom seen in a sequel. The bookend scenes involving the Lawgiver, John Huston in heavy make up, speaking to a group of schoolchildren--apes and humans--tie up the saga nicely, leaving open the future for more sequels.(Tim Burton in his dreadful remake should have filled in the blanks instead of "reimagining" a different world of apes. Only my opinion.) Things I like include the character Mandemus, keeper of the armory(Caesar's conscience), the trek to the radioactive city, Caesar's viewing of his dead parents in the Hall of Records and the final ambiguous shot of the movie. The money allocated to Leonard Rosenman's impressive score was well spent. The pop singer Paul Williams display a deft touch for acting in his debut. Try and catch this screen gem on Fox Movie Channel and you will be treated to additional scenes involving the always looming doomsday bomb. And special praise to J.Lee Thompson for delivering more with less.