Polling of the Apes

Originals briefly discussed here: Planet of the Apes: Classic or Dud, Burtone one here: What happens at the end of the new Planet Of The Apes? and Rise here: a thread for RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES w/cgi apes, yalies

Dawn of the Planet of The Apes out next summer, with Gary Oldman (unfortunately not as an ape): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103281/

Beneath the Planet of the Apes is no match for the original, but I'll note its a terrible film to watch during one's first psychedelic experience.

In descending order, Planet of the Apes '68, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The Tim Burton is terrible, Rise of the Planet of the Apes not so bad but I don't care. There are also the live action and animated tv series.

o.g.>escape>conquest>rise>beneath>burton>battle

Battle... is pretty awful but I do love the ending where the statue cries.

Of the ones I've seen: original > rise > beneath = burton remake (which are both terrible)

I just watched beneath the planet of the apes the other night. the scene where the ape city army marching through the desert encounters a field of squirming apes crucified upside-down in flames while in the background an enormous statue of the lawgiver begins bleeding from his eyes is like a halfstep from jodorowsky-level wtf.

and the ending is so hardcore! how the fuck did that movie get made?

― Edward III, Friday, January 25, 2008 12:32 AM (5 years ago)

I have no time for beneath haters

yeah the first half is a boring retread of POTA but the second half is total squealing batshit up to and including the most committed conclusion in the history of apocalyptic sci-fi

how the first 3 movies are rated G is beyond me, MPAA were you high

weirdly, my own ranking matches exactly the order in which they were made (haven't seen Rise)

I have no time for beneath haters

Same here, I love it. TBH tho I only remember the first 3 films, tho I've seen all the others... except Rise... Tim Burton's far and away the most boring Planet of the Apes film I've ever seen

oh man, see the 4th, it's bananas, darkest entry

Oh i've seen it, i just don't remember it, I was probably about 10 at the time

the R rated cut of conquest is on blu-ray now btw

Sanpaku, did u try to tear yr face off?

any choice but #1 is obv trolling, tho 2-4 have their virtues, esp 4.

I think the second one was literally the most violent film I'd seen at age eleven (and that was via network TV).

I imagine the '68 original will, and probably should, win but Beneath & Conquest are both pretty batshit and great. I just love the way the old ones look - kind of shoddy and cheap by contemporary standards, sure, but they tapped into some really elemental heavy icongraphy. Apes on horseback and with guns and all that - there's something really powerful about it.

http://meansheets.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/go-ape-planet-of-the-apes-movie-poster.jpg

^This was '74 mega-rerelease, I went to see #4 and 5.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/potagift.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Conquest4.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Conquest2.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Conquest8.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Conquest3.jpg

68, but Beneath scared the shit out of me as a kid. What a bizarre sequel.

The first is 'the best', but Beneath is truly the wildest and my vote for it isn't trolling

Still need to see the director's cut of 'Conquest'

the scene where they take off the masks and sing the choral ode to a nuclear warhead -- i mean, how can that not be great

the 4th one with the choreographic re-enactment of historical riots is also quality

the original was great, and probably had the most quotable dialog, as well as creating the narrative conceit

these movies suck

Beneath is the only interesting one, just for pure wtfness

I saw Beneath in the theater as a tiny urchin and was scarred for life, so that one.

Yall have convinced me to see it!

Shakey, this thread was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it!

You hafta look for the ape extras in Beneath who, with the cut budget, are basically wearing rubber Halloween masks.

original film is a total classic, can't think of any way it could be improved. i need to get around to seeing all of the sequels some time.

I'm not exactly sure how rubber-masked ape extras are a positive addition to any film, but I am willing to concede it may be a matter of taste.

totally voted beneath

there was a 90m documentary that's on the recent DVD releases w/ lots of funny background stuff

Beneath also has Johnny Iselin/Inspector Luger as the Curtis LeMay of gorillas.

Beneath also has Johnny Iselin/Inspector Luger as the Curtis LeMay of gorillas.

Yes! Does he have a "homespun" John Wayne-like accent or am I thinking of a different one?

Maybe the cadences a bit, yeah. (James Gregory was from New York, but he mighta been going for that.)

Nifty book for Shakey, all Secret Santas:

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Apes-American-Myth-Politics/dp/0819563293

holy shit! that book sounds awesome

original film is a total classic, can't think of any way it could be improved.

maybe cut out 'dont trust anyone under 30!'

over 30, sorry

love all the originals to varying degrees, wasn't sure i'd seen battle but looking at the synopsis remembered 'o right, the one w/ john huston'. voting for rise just cuz it allows me to avoid picking from the originals and also cuz it was such a surprise that it was actually good plus the actual ape rampage in it was so awesome, everytime that chimp comes out of the fog on horseback i want to cheer.

hell yeah

yeah i was surprised how much i liked 'rise,' and how much of it stuck with me.

Rise really was good. Never saw any of the original's sequels, I should get on that. I'm hoping the next one can match Rise; they could certainly do worse than Matt Reeves, but the screenwriter's credits are woeful.

I enjoyed rise but voting for it over the originals is crazier than anything that happens in beneath

wanna throw some praise at escape, of the first 4 it's definitely the most low key and clunky but it has charm, and in a series specializing in wrenching endings, escape's is pretty crushing unless you're shakey and your cold cold heart does not allow you to appreciate the finer things in life, maybe as a young monkey his mother was wire not terrycloth

plus in escape zira and cornelius get to rock some styling 70s duds

http://www.chud.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes.jpg
http://furiousfanboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/pota03.jpg

nice to see ppl throwing votes at beneath, general ursus would approve

http://i.imgur.com/URyEn8P.jpg

i think escape is the one i've seen most after the first, tbs used to play it quite a bit, turner must've been a fan. reminds me of a star trek episode. beneath they'd play occasionally, i remember being surprised to find out it was the first sequel though it makes sense to me now. conquest and battle i only saw if they were playing all of them.

yeah Beneath and Escape were great. no recollection of what the hell happens in Conquest.. ?

conquest is where humans have enslaved the apes, who eventually go apeshit and riot

I posted 4 huge stills from it somewhere upthread

The James Franco one is essentially a very loose remake of Conquest.

I wonder what started the very bad trend of ppl thinking "crazy shit" = good movie

Sontag iirc. A saint she was.

drugs, boredom, bunuel

plus there are plenty of "crazy" movies that are crap, but beneath's brand is a very special kind

paul dehn, who wrote all of the apes sequels, is a really interesting dude and prob the closest the series ever got to an auteur figure.

drugs, boredom, bunuel

New board description?

I thought I'd just come up with a great band name for a second... but of course, someone already did it...
http://www.gigposters.com/posters/1436.jpg

the 5th one has plenty of crazy

-mutants ride an armed yellow school bus
-they are led by Chicago comedy improviser Severn Darden
-John Huston wearing orangutan makeup where none is required
-crying statue
-this guy playing most intellectual ape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE2m355-JRo

Paul Williams is actually less freaky looking as an ape.

I retract saying beneath=burton. I was only remembering the retread first half of Beneath.

yeah - Beneath takes awhile to get cooking

the Burton has Heston dying in bed clutching a rifle. I figured that'd get it on the Sight & Sound list from some of you.

guy in beneath is the fakest fake heston

<3 general ursus. "the only good human... is a dead human!"

James Franciscus really had nothin to work with. tot hot body, tho.

btw first script with Liberty ending had gorillas shooting Heston dead right after he saw it

was heston already trying to evade a sequel?

Heston claims in the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes that he personally suggested the ending, saying, "Why don't I just set off this bomb and destroy the world. That's the end of the sequels."

oops, glad that didn't work out for you

imdb trivia section on beneath, more fun than a barrel of humans

Orson Welles was offered the role of General Ursus, which he turned down. Burt Reynolds was considered for the lead role of John Brent before James Franciscus was cast due to his resemblance to Charlton Heston.

Originally, there was going to be a scene featuring a half-human/half-ape child. However, the producers were afraid that not only would the scene be too confusing, but that they would also lose their "G" rating.

oh yeah, that certainly would've been a bridge too far

I remember the endless laughs when I worked at a restaurant and some elderly customer ordered the Chicken Française as "Chicken Franciscus"!

or was it the veal?

veal never know

what's missing from this poll is the TV series, which i remember being a massive deal in the UK (it was prob more popular here than in the US. when I was a boy my dad took me to see a double bill of the first and third movies, re-released on the back of the TV show - so all v. confusing. All the young kids in the audience went wild when heston has his ass bared to the camera in POTA).

Marvel UK launched a Planet of the Apes comics on the back of the TV show, too, but again, it was more popular here than in the US, so they soon ran out of reprint material. Their solution - turn the character 'Killraven' into 'Apeslayer'. They re-lettered all the word balloons and pasted ape heads on all the bad guys.
http://planetoftheapes.wikia.com/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes:_Apeslayer

When I was a little kid (in the US) I was really into the TV series. It must have been syndicated reruns that I watched. I don't really remember it and have the impression it was not so good? I think there was also an animated series, though I don't personally remember it.

yeah, cartoon series prob ran longer than the one with Roddy.

I appreciate that Beneath is weird and it also has that killer ending, but the camp is unintentional the way that Escape uses it for satirical purposes. Also that first half is :/

unintentional camp >>>> intentional camp

and I posit that powerful psychic mutants able to manipulate the minds of men into acts of savage violence, and who also sing gospel hymns to a nuclear bomb, is not some form of accidental satire

It's not accidental but it comes off WAY too goofy

c'mon, these are comic books, not the freakin' godfather

all the sequels were pop culture cash-ins aimed at kids, made on the cheap with successively dwindling budgets

the fact that the series managed to be thought-provoking in its social crit and married to a love of the bizarre outweigh the cheap rubber masks and workmanlike aesthetics imo

and Victor Buono is billed as "Fat Man"

black mutant as "Negro" xp

it was the late '60s man, it was all serious.

I mean, I'm not voting for beneath either but I understand why folks ride hard for it

it was the late '60s man, it all looks goofy to us now

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=5293652
http://technicolordreams70.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/go-ape-conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-directors-cut/
http://technicolordreams70.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/75788405_03fbbd3823.jpg?w=450

no Big Loud Mountain Ape, no cred

part of why I admire the sequels is *because* of their grubby scrappiness, here's how the budgets ran from POTA->beneath->escape->conquest

$5.8MM -> $3MM -> $2MM -> $1.7MM

the studio wasn't exactly throwing cash and talent at the franchise e.g. the guy who directed POTA went on to direct patton and papillon, while the guy who directed beneath went on to direct the baby and the harrad experiment

I'm forgiving of the sequels' aesthetics failings because they never gave up the ghost on ideas (similar to my take on cronenberg but in reverse, the more money he got the less I enjoyed his films)

typically franchises get more watered down and recycled as time drags on, but here the sequels turned up the volume on things that were only whispers in the original and expanded its world in every dimension including time & space

and against all odds conquest manages to be the darkest & most provocative entry, subversive in plain sight, it's prolly what will catch my vote

can't remember any of the scores on these movies apart obv from the goldsmith musiquey concretey orig

the dissonant tribal/orchestra style continued - goldsmith even returned on escape

and an interesting note from the article milton parker linked

Alternate music:
Additionaly to the new violence the music score of the unrated version differs heavily from the one used in the theatrical cut. This is especially noticable during the riot of the apes where the unrated version makes only little use of the score and when it does one mostly hears deep drastic bass melodies. However the theatrical cut makes heavy use of an eccentrically varied version of the main theme. This could have been a sanction for the PG rating to light the tone of the movie.

^ in re: conquest

def going to rescreen these thanks to this thread, and yr posts in partic EIII

and I would like to thank you for "veal never know"

I may still have the novelizations of the sequels in a box somewhere.

GOLD

wish I still had my copies of the comics & magazines from the 70s, lost to the sands of time alas

only seen the first four, but what a weird bunch of movies. the tonal shift beetween each entry is really odd ...semi-serious sf--->nihilistic camp--->zany fish-out-of-water comedy--->angry dsytopian allegory. love how they all end on such a bleak and depressing note. none of them are really great (or even "good") movies but they all got something interesting going on.

today only amazon has the blu-ray set with every movie in this poll for $27, how perfect

http://www.amazon.com/The-Planet-Apes-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B00F9CZYWI

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

don't know how I missed this poll but I'm a Beneath partisan. the battle scene in prison. the reveal. the epilogue. that movie blew my fucking mind when I was a kid.

would take all of the 'apes' films i've seen over any incarnation of star wars tbh.

your vote for "not star wars" is duly noted

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

good showing for beneath but fuck rise on general principle

Someone voted for the remake?!??! What the fu....