Since I may be seeing Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in a couple of days I decided to do some preparation. Seeing as the Tim Burton film is trash and not even considered "canon" I decided to watch the two films from the original series that featured the ape king Caesar. I figure this will provide a template against which to compare films.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is the first film and stars Roddy McDowell as Caesar and Ricardo Montalban (in yet another strong performance) as Armando, the human circus keeper who hid him as a baby in the previous movie (Caesar is the child of the intelligent apes Cornelius and Zira who traveled back in time from the future of the first two "apes" films) and has raised him like his own son.
Basically, Conquest is set in a dystopian future where all dogs and cats were killed by a virus that came to Earth from space. Humans wanting companionship started with pet chimpanzees and over time this evolved into them using apes as menial labor - like a slave class. However, the same virus that killed off dogs and cats is also affecting simians by increasing their intelligence. Into this unstable environment step Caesar and Armando. After Armando is murdered by the government because they want to find and kill Caesar out of fear that as the talking ape he is a danger to humanity, Caesar hides among the ape slaves and indeed winds up in the service of the governor of the city. From this vantage point Caesar, grief stricken over the death of Armando, plots his rebellion.
Conquest is easily the darkest film in the whole series. The humans for the most part are unpleasant people and you wind up rooting for the apes. On their side, however, they are no longer the buffoonish characters from the first two films but an armed (with cleavers, machetes, guns, anything they can find) and extremely violent insurgent gang. The revolt is a bloody mess and it is shown exactly like that - in a film made in 1972 no less.
Acting in this film is simply superb. I already mentioned Ricardo Montalban gave a strong performance but the show was stolen by Roddy McDowell. No longer playing the very civilized Dr. Cornelius he took the chains off as Caesar and gave him a very textured portrayal of a lower key veneer that wears off over the course of the film exposing a fierce revolutionary leader. And he did this under a ton of latex and still was authentic. His two speeches at the end of the film are amazing work. Don Murray also does fine work as the ape hating Governor Breck - you almost want him killed but when Caesar spares him you also understand why.
Add in good direction, pacing and a great musical score and this is a strong science fiction film in its own right.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is the first film and stars Roddy McDowell as Caesar and Ricardo Montalban (in yet another strong performance) as Armando, the human circus keeper who hid him as a baby in the previous movie (Caesar is the child of the intelligent apes Cornelius and Zira who traveled back in time from the future of the first two "apes" films) and has raised him like his own son.
Basically, Conquest is set in a dystopian future where all dogs and cats were killed by a virus that came to Earth from space. Humans wanting companionship started with pet chimpanzees and over time this evolved into them using apes as menial labor - like a slave class. However, the same virus that killed off dogs and cats is also affecting simians by increasing their intelligence. Into this unstable environment step Caesar and Armando. After Armando is murdered by the government because they want to find and kill Caesar out of fear that as the talking ape he is a danger to humanity, Caesar hides among the ape slaves and indeed winds up in the service of the governor of the city. From this vantage point Caesar, grief stricken over the death of Armando, plots his rebellion.
Conquest is easily the darkest film in the whole series. The humans for the most part are unpleasant people and you wind up rooting for the apes. On their side, however, they are no longer the buffoonish characters from the first two films but an armed (with cleavers, machetes, guns, anything they can find) and extremely violent insurgent gang. The revolt is a bloody mess and it is shown exactly like that - in a film made in 1972 no less.
Acting in this film is simply superb. I already mentioned Ricardo Montalban gave a strong performance but the show was stolen by Roddy McDowell. No longer playing the very civilized Dr. Cornelius he took the chains off as Caesar and gave him a very textured portrayal of a lower key veneer that wears off over the course of the film exposing a fierce revolutionary leader. And he did this under a ton of latex and still was authentic. His two speeches at the end of the film are amazing work. Don Murray also does fine work as the ape hating Governor Breck - you almost want him killed but when Caesar spares him you also understand why.
Add in good direction, pacing and a great musical score and this is a strong science fiction film in its own right.
But every theatrical release since the premieres had the alternate ending with Breck being spared.