After the huge box office success of the original film The Planet of the Apes, 20^th Century fix rushed into production a number of sequels. The second film, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, was a dreary affair, with a convoluted plot that was composed of more plot holes that plot. Charlton Heston didn’t want to return but was persuaded to be in film with a promise that his character Taylor would get killed off. The next sequel, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, while have a dark third act and an emotionally charged ending, was played more for humor, with apes from the future traveling backwards in time to the present day setting of the film. This film too made money, and while not as abysmally insulting as the previous film, still fell short of being a decent movie.

Conquest of the Planet of The Apes became the fourth film in the franchise. Roger Corman is of the belief that a film series generally is played out after three movies, but ‘Conquest’ is my second favorite Planet of the Apes movie, only the original film works better for my tastes.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is set in the near future – 1991 from the film’s release date of 1972 – a deadly plague has destroyed both the canine and feline populations, and humanity turned to apes and monkeys as their new household pets. Very quickly these pets were trained into servants and a new slave class emerged. Like all slave states, the United States has become very concerned with security and the possibility of revolt. These fears are heightened because it is known by way of the Apes from the future that eventually humanity will be reduced to animals and the Apes will become lords of the planet.

Into this violate environment comes Caesar, the offspring of the future Apes from the previous film, and his friend Armando, a circus owner who has been harboring Caesar all these years. The early part of the film is given to some rather clunky exposition, but soon the action starts when Caesar, angered over human brutality towards apes, shouts insults at security forces. Armando takes the blame to preserves the secret of Caesar’s vocal abilities and Caesar hides while Armando attempts to bluff his way past the security apparatus.

Armando’s bluff fails and he is killed, leaving Caesar alone and friendless. Ceasar hides among the slave apes, eventually finding himself as the newest slave to the state’s fascistic Governor Breck. Breck is convinced that the ‘talking ape’ is out there and will stop at nothing to find and destroy the ape. Breck aid, MacDonald, an African-American, has more sympathies for the apes, the echoes of America’s first instituted slavery a clear shadow on the man’s mind.

Despite Governor Breck’s best efforts, Ceasar organizes the apes into riot and revolt. The third act of the film is the revolt and from this point there are two versions of the movie. The original theatrical release, with subdued violence and an ambiguous ending suggesting  possible peaceful  coexistence of ape and man and the original edit with explicit violence, bloody wounds, and the savagery to be expected when slaves when a revolt. I prefer the original ending. The tone shift to the less graphic ending doesn’t work for me, and it is clear that this dark ending is the one that organically flows from the rest of the film.

Coming in 1972 this film uses the Apes as a metaphor for racial relations and the ease with humanity is all too often inhumane to members of their own species, much less to the other species. The original ending I think is explicit in its meaning, the bitter fruit of cruelty and hatred is an ending cycle violence, destruction and death. If you rent the bluray and you have never seen this movie, watch the original first.