BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (1973) was an ending… Movie Reaction/First Time Watching

[@tofersiefken]

The best part of Paul Williams' character is that he is instantly recognized because he looks so much like actor Paul Williams even without makeup.

[@melenatorr]

By the way, the John Huston, playing the Lawgiver, is one of the most famous directors of what you might call the late Hollywood era. His first writing/directing job was "The Maltese Falcon", with Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor and bunch of great talent. His dad was Walter Huston, another great actor, whom you can enjoy in a cool Halloween movie, "The Devil and Daniel Webster". John directed his dad in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre". John's daughter, Anjelica, is probably most famous as Morticia in the 1990s movies of "The Addams Family". John Huston has a cool voice, and I could listen to him pretty much all day.

[@RobToob]

Another director, John Landis (American Werewolf in London) is also in this movie as an actor and amusingly recounts missing the opportunity to speak with John Huston during the making of the movie: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpCpd5-Cms1opK8

[@melenatorr]

@@RobToob Thanks!

[@josua1146]

Congratulations, you're the first to respond to all the classics from this franchise now and I've enjoyed every reaction. 👏 If you are looking for more productions in this direction, I can tell you that you may have seen all the movies, but not the old original film series of “Planet of the Apes”, which might interest you.

[@RandySmith-e6s]

i knew one other then his channel was gone

[@shawnzzz]

Great! I am glad that you hung in there and watched ALL of this fun series. It is so very interesting and now you know the history.

[@BigGator5]

"Can one murder be avenged by another?" "Perhaps only the future will tell." Fun Fact: Theatrical movie debut of Colleen Camp. The Rest Of The Story Fact: This is supposedly the film that inspired Tony Mendez to create the operation "Argo" during the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981 in which he traveled to Iran in disguise as a film producer and had the hostages disguised as a film crew in order to flee the country. As such, a clip from this movie is shown in Argo (2012). Casting Notes Fact: Kolp (Severn Darden) is the only villain other than Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) to appear in more than one film in the series. Roddy McDowall and Natalie Trundy are the only cast members to appear in four of the five original "Planet of the Apes" movies. McDowall appeared in all except the first sequel Beneath The Planet Of thye Apes (1970), unless you include the flashback at the beginning for which he received an uncredited appearance. Natalie Trundy did not appear in the Planet Of The Apes (1968), but appeared in all four sequels.

[@richardzinns5676]

As well as being a great director, John Huston was an actor with one of the most instantly recognizable voices in film history; his most famous role was Noah Cross in Chinatown, a character who is parodied in the animated movie Rango. In the Clint Eastwood movie White Hunter, Black Heart, Eastwood plays a character who is an extremely thinly disguised version of Huston during the time he was filming The African Queen, and does a creditable imitation of Huston's voice characteristics.

[@IggyStardust1967]

Hey, Ollie! Glad to finally see this one release on YT! I'm very glad you stuck with the entire series. But also check out the "Behind the Planet of the Apes" documentary about the making of these five movies. It's a pretty interesting story in itself. Edit: The ending is left very ambiguous, with the statue of Ceasar having a tear. It begs the question, will history repeat itself, or have they actually changed the course of the future. It's basically left up to the viewer's own beliefs, really. Oh, I forgot to mention the rather short lived Planet of the Apes TV series. The channel "Ape Nation" posted links to the episodes online. You may enjoy that, too. However, do know that it's set in a different timeline than these movies.

[@maestro80smusic93]

One of the scenes added back in for The Director's Cut was the fact that Kolp's people had the Alpha Omega bomb (from Beneath) in their possession and considered firing it if Kolp lost...

[@AbrasiousProductions]

this was my thirst favorite too, beautiful ending

[@skywaymanaz]

Mendez is presumably an ancestor of one of the mutant leaders in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. There were busts labeled Mendez near the cells in that film. Alma was played by France Nuyen. She was the Princess in Elaan of Troy on Star Trek. Virgil was played by musician Paul Williams. He was on television a lot in the 70s. As mentioned earlier The Lawgiver John Huston is a legend with his distinctive voice.

[@shwicaz]

So glad you watched all 5.

[@tomyoung9049]

So happy someone went thru them all. They all have at least some good ingredients.

[@errolthomas9426]

The extended version of Battle is the best version

[@BEBruns]

One issue I’ve had with this movie is how advanced the apes have become in the twelve plus years since the last movie. In my head canon, this is because it does not accurately depict what “really happened.” Because of the framing device with the Lawgiver, I see the story as generally what happened but with centuries of myth and legend layered on top.

[@dunringill1747]

First off - Thank you for reacting to the original PotA franchise. Yes, those mutants were the ancestors of the telekinetic mutants you see in movie 2. The Tim Burton 2001 stand alone is not good IMO. It has great make up, but I find the plotline poor. It's more of a curiosity to watch IMO. You and I differ greatly on our original 5 ranking. You might appreciate things on the stand alone reboot that I didn't care for. The new 4 are much less on sci fi concepts but great on action, emotional pull, and special effects. I found the 4th one to rank lowest of the group but it was still good. The Future was changed into a new timeline. In sci fi terms, this is called a Bootstrap Paradox. In the original timeline, it was Aldo that first said "NO!" to humans. He led the Ape Rebellion that gave us the future from movies 1 & 2. This new timeline started with Caesar leading the Ape Rebellion. In this new timeline, Aldo is still important. Aldo made 2 major cultural changes. 1) "Ape has killed Ape!" - By killing young Cornelius, Aldo changed the Ape culture to accept both humans and apes as equals. 2) By Aldo killing the mutant human leader, a more peaceful mutant became in charge and changed the mutant culture to be more peaceful. -- At the end of the movie - The Lawgiver told the entire story of both the first timeline and the new timeline. It pans out and we see that ape and humans are equals. The Lawgiver mentions being wary of a possible mutant attack that never happens because the mutants are now a more peaceful society.

[@auntvesuvi3872]

Thanks, Oliver! 🦧

[@КиануДепп]

Planet of the Apes, (1974) 🙏🙏🙏

[@antarfodoh]

Yeah, this series did have dwindling returns, but I'm glad you stuck it out! To me, this was a "stop at the first" or "watch them all for the story", and I rather enjoyed how it all came together.

[@tofersiefken]

This was never a strong movie in the franchise, but I like the resolution. Seeing that the "time loop" is disrupted and the future that Taylor experienced will no longer exist in that form gives me hope. The time-travel paradoxes never get addressed, however. If the future changes and the Earth that Taylor discovers is different, then Zira, Cornelius and Dr. Milo would never repair Taylor's ship and return to Earth's 1970s past and Zira's baby would never grow up to become the leader of the Ape revolution.

[@keverzoid]

That restriction about humans not saying no to apes came out of the intense behavioral conditioning the apes suffered in the previous film when they were being trained to be slaves. Yelling “NO!” At apes was a big part of that. It became a strong taboo

[@Renegade2786]

Like saying the other N word.

[@themotleycollector]

I knew this was a much lower-budgeted movie when I saw the same hut being shown blown up four times (but from different angles.) The music by Leonard Rosenmann was recycled almost entirely for the 1978 animated Lord of the Rings movie.

[@gallendugall8913]

A planet where apps evolved from memes? No wait, that's our planet.

[@jonmercano1138]

That old ape is THE Lawgiver! The one that they basically worshipped with statues in the first two movies And Natalie Trundy is back again, this time reprising her last role as Lisa instead of in a new role. The partly mutated humans are indeed the progenitors of the mutants from Beneath. The one who was trying to dissuade Kolp from conflict was named Mendez. The leader of the mutants in the future was Mendez XXVI. In the extended cut, Mendez takes command and it’s revealed they have the Alpha Omega bomb. There were ideas for this movie to be darker with signs of it going closer to the status quo of the first movie, like Caesar becoming a dictator that has human’s vocal cords removed. Maybe the continued diminishing returns and this being the last film made them choose an ending that was more potentially hopeful. We see human and ape kids together hundreds of years later, but we did see a couple have a little tiff. Right on the money with the two interpretations of the tear. Either one of happiness that apes and humans are finally coexisting peacefully, or one of sadness because that peace is fated to end It’s oddly fitting you would like this one best, since you liked Beneath, and both of them over Escape and Conquest. Both of these tend to be fans’ coin flip for weakest of the originals. I think someone said it best in a podcast about this movie. (This isn’t word for word, but the gist of it is): “There’s too much going on. There’s two stories with good potential that could have their own movies and stuffing both into one results in a not great execution. I’d love to see them as their own movies…wait we did! This is Dawn and War!”

[@joebloggs396]

I actually agree on his ranking and after he liked Beneath I thought he would go that way too. More think that way than you realise. There can be a kind of herd mentality where people just join with other opinions on youtube and that can drown out other views which get ignored.

[@jonmercano1138]

@ Oh I’m sure there is. I’ve just only heard it…damn I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone preferring Beneath and Battle over Escape and Conquest. And I’ve heard people’s thoughts on these movies for years. Like them more than I expect maybe, but prefer, I think this is my first.

[@joebloggs396]

After you liked Beneath and didn't like Escape so much I was thinking your final ranking was likely, and I actually agree with it. I think I'd put Conquest bottom as it's quite predictable for me. The ideas and fantasy help drive the films and despite the low budget by the end there is an interesting last installment.

[@shawnzzz]

I really enjoyed the Tim Burton first movie, Planet Of Apes. I think that you would too and I hope that you do react to it. Thanks Ollie

[@JusticeGamingChannel]

I say watch em all, even the ones that aren't good, at least then you can form your own opinion on them.

[@Sopmylo]

Battle of the Reduced Budget B-Movie

[@silikon2]

Definitely diminishing returns. I liked Escape way more than Ollie, but yeah it wasn’t exactly a masterpiece. Didn’t like Beneath at all. Obvious Heston clone among many other things 😊

[@AbrasiousProductions]

I hated Beneath, I genuinely wish that film didn't exist.

[@Panzer4F2]

You are too young to recognize Aldo's voice. You should watch The Devil's Brigade sometime.

[@AbrasiousProductions]

I knew it was Claude Akins immediately and I'm 21, I've seen him show up a lot in The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke & Bonanza, haven't heard of The Devil's Brigade though

[@Shilohpreston]

Too much pathos and sweetness. That's why I don't like this movie much. If you want to see Austin Stoker - the guy playing MacDonald here - in some other movies, I recommend original "Assault On Precint 13" (1974) directed by John Carpenter.

[@RandySmith-e6s]

my least fav but i like it