Battle for the Planet of the Apes

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Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Directed by	J. Lee Thompson
Written by	Pierre Boulle (characters) Paul Dehn and John Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington (screenplay)
Starring	Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy John Huston
Release date(s)	June 15, 1973
Running time	93 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is a 1973 science fiction film and is the fifth and final entry in the Planet of the Apes series. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in flashback to the turn of the 21st century, this sequel focuses on the ape leader, Caesar (Roddy McDowall), about ten years after he led the ape revolution in the previous film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. In this post-nuclear war society, Caesar tries to cultivate peace between his simian peers and the surviving remains of humanity. Gorilla leader Aldo (Claude Akins), however, wants nothing to do with this, so he plots Caesar's overthrow and doom, as do a band of human survivors from their former city of the last film who want to destroy the entire ape society.

Towards the end of the movie, however, Aldo and the human mutants are overthrown. The apes and humans then decide to coexist with one another and begin to make a new society.

It turns out that the story is being told by an elderly ape (the Great Lawgiver, played by John Huston) over 600 years later to a group of young humans and apes. It is left ambiguous as to whether the ape-dominated society as seen in the first film and the eventual destruction of Earth as seen in the second will actually come to pass. However, as this film takes place after a nuclear war has nearly wiped out civilization, at least one major element of the first film still occurs.

Screenwriter Paul Dehn stated that the final shot of a tear rolling from the eye of the statue of Caesar is a final comment to the audience that Caesar's vision of a joint ape/human society ultimately failed.

[edit] Goofs

When the humans from the dead city and two of Aldo's gorillas meet in the desert, Governor Kolp watches the gorillas through his binoculars. He then issues orders to shoot the gorillas with a cannon. The cannon fires in a completely different direction to the way he was looking, but hits them anyway.

Caesar's famous "Now, fight like apes!" line is marred by his ape lower-mouth appliance beginning to fall off, revealing his own human mouth inside. The director tried to hide this by blurring those frames of film at the lower end of the screen. What looks like dust on the camera was intentional.

[edit] Extended Cut

The CBS television version adds a few scenes cut from the theatrical release. One scene takes place after Aldo chases teacher Abe, where MacDonald reminds him why humans should not say "no" to an ape. Another scene towards the end of the film shows the beginings of the House of Mendez cult, as the humans in thecity are about to fire off the doomsday bomb (as seen in Beneath the Planet of the Apes), but decide not to, as it would threaten the world.

In 2006, the Planet of the Apes movies were re-released separately and in a new box set. When Battle for the Planet of the Apes was re-released on the box set and separately, it was advertised as a digitally-remastered, extended version with 10 minutes of additional footage.

This version has been released before, via bootleg, and has been widely acknowledged by Apes fans as the definitive version. Here listed are the additional scenes:

Near the end of the opening credits, the score continues to its original ending for 25 seconds, with extra footage of General Aldo approaching on a horse.
The chase of the teacher of the apes is longer by 20 seconds.
The mutant chief is walking around in his HQ, and has more dialogue.
The entry into the ruins of Los Angeles of the ape scout party with Caesar is 40 seconds longer, with more dialogue.
The escape from the Forbidden City shows more footage and dialogue involving the apes.
The scene were Cornelius is "shot" by a human boy begins slightly earlier, making it clear that the shooting is a game — which makes more sense, since no mutant party had yet even approached the ape city.
DELETED SCENE: In this edited scene, Governor Kolp tells his lieutenant to fire an atomic missile on Ape City when he give the signal. This adds to the tension, and it is odd that this element was left out.
The assault by the mutants is shown 45 seconds longer. (In this sequence there were three more smaller cuts that reduced the battle scene by 40 additional seconds, and originally there was no musical score.)
The scene where the Governor Kolp calls "Sergeant York" is missing.
Again, parts of the assault are cut by almost 40 seconds.
There are additional shots and dialogue before the mutants lay down the smoke screen.
15 more seconds of the battle were cut.
20 seconds of later battle footage cut.
The scene where Aldo kills Governor Kolp and his followers in the school bus was cut in the U.S. theatrical version, but has been restored.
The fight between Aldo and Caesar is longer.
DELETED SCENE: Mendez talks the mutant lieutenant out of firing the atomic missile. As they argue, they discover it is the ALPHA-OMEGA bomb. This scene was cut. (Only with this sequence reinserted the odd cut from the Caesar conversation involving the humans to the ending sequence makes a little more sense and looks better.)