Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes-480P

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes-720P

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes-360P

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes-480P

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes-720P

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes-360P

In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar, the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces after almost twenty years of hiding out from the authorities, and prepares for a slave revolt against humanity. Screenwriter Paul Dehn wrote the film incorporating references to the racial conflicts in North America during the early 1970s. This is evident, as the theme is about apes becoming servants and slaves. Now, it is not really explained how the chimpanzees go from being normal chimps to the more humanoid apes we see in this film. But I guess we are supposed to just pretend these are all real chimps. The message is a bit strong, but maybe made more sense at the time. Today it seems like they tried too hard and it almost seems silly.

With most movie franchises, the sequels are often inferior to the originals. While this may also be true for the 'Planet of The Apes' series, the fourth entry in the franchise surpasses the rest. While it may not have been as much of a ground-breaking success as 'Planet of the Apes', 'Conquest' had a social commentary that still resonates today, much like the original. This movie has two different endings, but the best of the two is the Unrated version. 'Conquest' has wonderful special effects, the best of the series. With a wonderful performance by Roddy McDowell as Caesar, this movie is fantastic. Don't ignore the sequels simply because of their bad reputation, give these films a chance.

While this movie lacked the same "coolness factor" of the second ape movie (BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES), it was every bit as good and was a big improvement over the last film (ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES). This was a very strange movie, because while it was the fourth movie in the series, technically speaking #3 and 4 both occurred BEFORE #1 and 2, BUT #1 and 2 needed to occur first sequentially because,...well, never mind,...it's all too confusing to try to explain in only 1000 words! But trust me on this, #4 occurred 2nd---or did movie #5?!? I dunno--it's all a giant time loop thing. Cornelius and Zira's baby, thought to have been killed in movie #3 was secreted away by the well-meaning Ricardo Montalban and raised to adulthood by the time the movie starts. Since movie #3, a lotta bad stuff has occurred on Earth. Apparently, some people saw a loophole in the 13th Amendment (to those who failed Civics, that's the one that freed the slaves)--the Amendment did not apply to apes!! So now we have chimps, orangutans and gorillas doing slave labor all across the globe. How these three types of apes came to look NOTHING like chimps, orangutans or gorillas, we don't know--maybe there was some sort of cloning or cool potion used to enhance them and make them look like people inside ape suits! Cornelius' nice life in the traveling circus is brought to an end when a zealous dude begins to wonder if MAYBE Cornelius' and Zira's baby had NOT been killed, so he goes on a personal Jihad looking for the baby. When questioned, Montalban chose death over betraying the offspring--thus confirming the baby MUST have survived. But finding him is a problem since by now the now-adult offspring has blended into the mass of slave apes. This offspring soon is allowed to choose his name from a book. The people who let him do this think that maybe he'll pick a word like "apple" or "the" or maybe even "dookie", but he finds the word "Caesar" and so he is christened with this cool name. Now, at this point, you think someone would have realized that something was amiss--picking a name like this! But, the humans in this film are either totally stupid or bloodthirsty (much like real life, I guess). Caesar lives up to his name and leads a slave rebellion--after all, he's appalled by the way humans treat these poor animals. And so the movie ends--finishing the series, right?! Well, no. The fifth movie and a spin off TV series were to follow--along with a crappy remake of the original that recently was dumped on the public. I've got to say that this movie was really good--mostly due to the excellent character played by Roddy McDowell. Yes, we know he had played Cornelius but this time he plays his own son and does an excellent job--combining great humanity with his character. Great stuff.