I recently bought the complete boxed set of all five Planet of the Apes movies on blu-ray, for a couple of reasons: one, I’m a fan of the series and wanted to upgrade from the DVDs I owned; and two, Amazon had the set on sale for $60, a steep discount over the original $140 cost (and less than I paid for the DVDs).
The first thing I did, after getting the thing open and admiring the backage design and 200-page book included wothe the collection, was pop in the disc of Conquest for the Planet of the Apes. The fourth in the series, it’s my favorite, in that it gives us a fantastic action-filled and dramatic story: an ape rebellion in the future (1991 – heh), lead by talking ape Caesar, the son of the time-traveling apes Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall, who played Cornelius in two previous Apes films, plays the son in a fantasic performance).
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The disc contained the original theatrical release as well as an unrated version, the original cut that the producers thought would, like it’s predecessors, get a G rating.
After watching this original cut, one question immediately springs to mind: What the hell were they thinking?
The original version, unseen by me until now, is as violent as movies get. There are at least three closeup shots of Apes shot in the face at point-blank range, there is an incredible moment of an ape trainer being consumed with fire from his own flamethrower, the final scene has the rebelious apes piling dead humans, covered in blood, in front of Don Murray’ character, Governor Brent… Before Brent himself is beaten to death.
Here’s a bootleg video someone posted on youtube of the original ending:
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I read that Quentin Tarantino LOVES this version, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.
And the studio thought it could get a G rating? The only explanation I can come up with is that cocaine is one hell of a drug (it was made in the early 70s, after all).
Not that I disliked this starker version of the movie – in fact I prefer it to the version that was released, as the producers had to cut the aforementioned ultraviolence and tack on an additional “let us rule with compassion” segment to Caesar’ speech at the end which was completely inconsistent tonally with the rest of the movie.
Finall, I have to add my appreciation for Ricardo Montalban for his performance here as Armando, Caesar’ surrogate father. Montalban was always great, but he was especially good here.
Needless to say, if you are an Apes fan, you need to see this unrated version. It is incredibly unforgiving in it’s vision of the violence that rebellions bring – and for a SF movie about talking apes, that’s doubly impressive. I doubt this movie could be greenlit today, which is yet another reminder how Hollywood has changed over the past three decades.