Battle for the Planet of the Apes: Not the Epic Finale This Series Deserved

• Directed by J. Lee Thompson
• June 13, 1973 (US)
• Based on characters created by Pierre Boulle

Caesar struggles to keep the peace between the surviving humans and their ape masters, but when they come to the attention of surviving humans they must fight together.

So here we are at the last of the original Planet of the Apes films. What started with a bang ends with a bit of a whimper. It is not a total waste of time but far from the heights with which these movies began. Battle for the Planet of the Apes opens with an effective recap of the previous four films by none other than the legendary John Huston as a character referred to as ‘Lawgiver.’ If you’re going to get somebody to give a recap, he was probably one of the better options at the time. He is able to give it a dramatic weight that sets an elevated bar for the rest of the film. A bar that the movie cannot quite make.

While the tale is for the audience to bring them up to speed, what Lawgiver relays to his students is supposedly secret information as implied from Planet of the Apes. At least until Cornelius was given a crash course sometime between Planet and Escape. Those apes had great community college courses I guess.

Caesar (Roddy McDowall) is a much nicer character here than he was in the last film (either the Director’s Cut or the theatrical release which was censored because of certain events of the day). He’s trying to find ways to make peace with the humans of the radioactive city as well as those living among him. And he’s a very nice dad. A far cry from the revolutionary that gave a speech to his assembled forces in a burning city.

Kolp (Severn Darden) is the leader of the glow in the dark survivors from the city. Darden is once again bringing his Second City skills to a dramatic presentation. He is not outright comedic but more like he is some haughty aristocrat in a cheesy movie. A mockery of a Bond villain if James Bond were very hairy. Depending on the actor he was. I’m confusing myself now.  Anywho…

General Aldo (Claude Akins) is a better villain than Kolp but not one that helps elevate things. He just fits better with everything that the story purports to be about. He is ambitious yet bigoted and just kinda stupid. He wants to go mindlessly to war for…reasons. Yet Akins does not perform with any silly airs.

We do not get MacDonald returning but his brother who is also creatively called ‘MacDonald.’ No first name. Methinks Hari Rhodes declined the part and in an act of extreme laziness screenwriters   John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington along with director J. Lee Thompson made the character an unmentioned brother. It certainly alleviated the need for heavy script edits.

McDonald 2.0 (Austin Stoker) takes on a pretty prominent role here. Almost equal to that in my opinion of Caesar or other ape characters. For somebody who’s a member of the oppressed class he certainly has a lot of personal freedom. In fact he’s practically an ape character.

A strike against this is that film looks more like a higher end television film of the 70s rather than a theatrical release. It looks like a cheaper episode of the Planet of the Apes: The Series which came out later. And that was a really well produced show. The shots are tight and there are moments during action sequences (specifically the climactic battle) where shots are reused multiple times. Explosions and cannon fire and even a few deaths are repeated to make things look bigger but it only emphasizes the cheapness of the planet.

This film also lacks any strong allusions to any timely or significant topics. At least Conquest touched on race relations. This is firmly an action story about two sides going to war with the humans doing it for revenge. And in that it happens not really as an outgrowth of events but because they want a big show for the end.

A good ending can make or break a movie-usually. The ending is quite good. It is ambiguous enough that one could infer that the time loop begun in Escape is complete or in combination with dialogue uttered by Caesar’s buddy Virgil (Paul Williams) earlier in the movie a better future will unfold this time. What is left largely to the viewer. I lean towards something in the middle that it is still too early to tell. But that quality ending only makes this less bad than elevating the material.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is not a finale that lives up to any of its predecessors. By itself it is an okay movie but compared to the others it is a step down. Proceed with caution.