With Fox's Rise of the Planet of the Apes opening today, I thought it might be fun to look back at the original five-film saga that thrilled sci-fi-hungry audiences from 1968 -1973. (We'll leave out the 2001 Tim Burton-directed reboot, as for the life of me I can't remember a thing about it.)
Yes my valued readers under 20, there was actually a complete Apes franchise before most of your parents had completed grade school. If they didn't see it in theaters, they probably discovered it the same way I did: through videocassette, Saturday-afternoon TV and questioning why all the Halloween aisles were filled with ape masks.
Below you'll find all five tales in order of release. Read on and you'll have something to dazzle Mom and Dad with at the dinner table, in between texts of course.
Planet of the Apes (1968): Based on French novelist Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel Monkey Planet, the first and best Apes film stars Charlton Heston, in all his machismo glory, as astronaut George Taylor who travels forward in time and crash lands on a planet where humans are ruled by apes. Befriended by two chimpanzee scientists, Zira and Cornelius, Taylor ultimately learns he has returned to Earth some 2,000 years in the future. A true classic of sci-fi cinema.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970): Sure it's hard to follow a classic, but this was the best they could come up with? Another astronaut crash lands on Ape Central in search of Taylor, befriends Zira and Cornelius and finds a group of humanoids living underground worshiping a nuclear missile. Heston makes a cameo but it's not enough to save this unwatchable turkey, the worst of the saga. The budget was cut in half just before shooting and it shows: with the exception of Zira and Cornelius, every ape looks like it's wearing a store-bought mask.
Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971): My favorite behind the original and a return to form for the franchise. Zira and Cornelius escape their home world before it is destroyed and travel back to present-day Los Angeles where they are received as celebrities. While there, Zira gives birth to a son who becomes the target of a nefarious government advisor. Loads of humor and a shocking ending make this a film worth revisiting.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972): The darkest and most violent of the saga. 20 years after the events of Escape, apes have become conditioned servants in human society. Tired of their abuse and oppression, Zira and Cornelius' son, Caesar, organizes his simian brothers and leads a revolt against the government. A frighteningly effective episode, made even more so at the time by the social and racial strife of the early '70s.
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973): The final film of the series takes place 27 years after the events of Conquest and finds human society laid waste by the war with the apes and nuclear fallout. Caesar has forged an ape civilization that attempts to harmoniously co-exist with human survivors. That all becomes threatened, however, by a band of well-armed mutant humans looking to take their revenge on Caesar and eradicate apes once and for all. A satisfying, thought-provoking conclusion to the saga.
