It's Friday night, y'all. Time for #wenchwatches
Tonight: #battleForThePlanetOfTheApes
So, it's the last of the 70's Apes films. And we're starting off in the...25th century with a Zaius-like figure giving us the exposition of the last two films.
Previous followers of the tag would know that in the last film we had the treat of two different endings. The original, darker ending where Caesar gives no quarter or reprieve to humanity is *not* the one this film continues from. Instead, we get the revised, softer ending where Caesar's love interest spoke, interrupting the death of General Kolp -- the racist asshole from Conquest.
This opens a fun read for the previous film: Both endings are valid, but are different timelines. The original PotA and Escape follow from the darker original, whereas Battle follows from the softer ending instead. I'm sure there's deep lore about this somewhere someone on fedi would be happy to point me to.
The new Ape city is populated both by Simian and human alike. And unlike the original PotAs, humans retain their minds, their skills, and their power of speech. The harmony is delicate, as one would expect.
Nor has it been that long since Conquest. MacDonald is still alive, an not elderly. Humanity has indeed been decimated due to nuclear war. As such, Ape city is more basic; treehouses with thatch walls. Some human technology still exists, kept carefully under guard and out of common use.
Cinematically, the film is trying to return to the more Ape-centric fantasy of the first film while still continuing the existing plot. We even get some callbacks to the loving shots of stark desolation with some nice incidental music.
After the previous four films, you'd think we'd have sucked every last bit flavor from this setting. Instead, it feels like a much welcome return.
As the first act draws to a close, we also return to the Dead City, The Forbidden City, which we can guess will become the Forbidden Zone. Caesar and MacDonald hope to recover archives of Zira and Cornelius's testimony of the future. We find that indeed, the radioactive city is inhabited by humans, highly suggested to become the bomb worshiping mutants from Beneath.
And I was wrong. MacDonald is actually the same actor, but playing the descendant of the character from Conquest.
Holy crap, the movie is really going there. This film *is* explicitly in an alternate reality.
Or rather, an attempt to found an alternate reality.
Caesar and MacDonald aren't trying to get Zira's and Cornelius's testimony of the future of the planet just for Caesar's indulgence. They're trying to get the record of the destruction of the Earth as seen in Beneath.
The titular "Battle" then, really is twofold. It's not just the coming altercation between the humans of the dead city or Caesar's coming conflict with the gorilla General Aldo. It's for the future.
All combined, this adds some nice dimension and stakes for the film. For Conquest, we already knew the conclusion, we knew how it would end. Here, the entire timeline is in doubt, and that adds interest.
The transfer for my DVD copy of this film is really quite good. Delightful technicolor widescreen.
The heavy makeup is solidly on point as well. Actors have refined techniques for communication and expression through the appliances, and the appliances themselves bear none of the reused, decay that we saw in the background during Beneath.
The second act closes with Caesar's son mortally injured after overhearing Aldo's plan for a coup. Meanwhile, Kolp and the rest of the irradiated humans make their way to Ape City.
So far, the film doesn't seem to be in conversation with the racism metaphor it used in the first several films. The conversation here seems more of a three way fight:
Kolp, who wants humans on top.
Aldo who wants apes, and particularly gorillas, on top.
And Caesar, who wants a third path. Not one where we bury the subjugation and horrors of the past, but where we are constantly, and painfully aware of it. It feels a bit of 60s pastorialist idealism while also maintaining that 70s work to found a more equitable future.
One that began to die on-screen in the 80s with Reganism.
The fourth act ends with Kolp being dead but the power struggle between Caesar and Aldo unresolved.
Its at this moment, in front of a crowd, that it is revealed Aldo killed Caesar's son. Support for his coup dissolves, only leaving Caesar's grief and rage against Aldo's crime.
In terms of plot, it all comes full circle. The ape's proposed idealism -- ape does not kill ape -- is tarnished forever. And with that moment, the future does indeed change.
@socketwench - Funny thing. In the theatrical versions, the mutants retreat and that's the end.
The death of Kolp was actually ADDED to the TV Edit. Parental guidance suggested indeed. :)
@dolari Looks like my copy is the one with all the deleted scenes re-added. I can imagine the film without them, but leaving them in really enriches it.
@socketwench - If it has the scene with "Sargeant York" reporting in font of Mendez and Alma as they play checkers, it's the TV Edit.
The TV Edit isn't missing footage, just had a lot added to round out the playing time.
@dolari Ahhhh.