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Beneath
The Planet
Of The Apes
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U.S.A.
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1970
Directed by Ted Post
Starring
James Franciscus
Kim Hunter
Charlton Heston
Color |
94 Minutes |
G
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
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5
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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The
first of four follow-ups to the groundbreaking
1968 science fiction classic, Beneath
The Planet Of The Apes bears all the marks
of a cheap, quickie sequel designed solely to
cash in on the phenomenal success of the original.
This wasn't entirely due to the edicts of penny-pinching
studio execs, however. Charlton Heston, A-List
star of the first film, loathed the idea of returning
for a sequel. He was eventually cajoled into appearing
in it by the suits at Fox, on the condition that
he'd only be available for two weeks of shooting
and that his character, Taylor, would not be the
lead role. Heston also dictated the shockingly
downbeat ending — shocking, that is, for kiddie-age
fans like me at the time — which the actor believed
would not just preclude his participation in any
further sequels, but bury the notion of there
being any additional Apes movies at all.
Given such demands by the ostensible star of the
then-potential franchise, it isn't so surprising
that Fox hedged its bets and slashed the production
budget in half.
At any rate, ol' Chuck was
certainly right on the first count but very, very
wrong on the second.
Beneath
literally picks up where Planet
Of The Apes left off, using the famous final
scenes of the original to pad its relatively short
running time. Taylor, accompanied by his primitive
mate Nova (the gorgeous Linda Harrison), rides
off into the desolate Forbidden Zone to find his
"destiny". Enter astronaut Brent (Valley
Of Gwangi's James Franciscus), sole survivor
of a rescue mission launched on the same trajectory
as Taylor's missing spacecraft. Beyond knowing
that he's somehow been thrown forward in time
to the year 3955 A.D., Brent has no idea what
planet he's on or whether the same fate befell
Taylor and crew. Luckily he encounters Nova, riding
alone, when she approaches the wreckage of his
crashed ship. Being mute she's unable to explain
her history with Taylor —
from the NASA dog tags she carries Brent knows
that she's at least met him at some point —
nor can she describe how he mysteriously vanished
into thin air after experiencing weird phenomena
in the Forbidden Zone. (Which we're made privy
to via flashback.) Obeying Taylor's command to
seek out sympathetic chimpanzee scientists Zira
and Cornelius should anything ever befall him,
Nova leads Brent to Ape City. Here the astronaut
clandestinely observes the apes from a vantage
point in the woods. Brent is staggered by what
he sees: a swaggering military leader, the gorilla
general Ursus (James Gregory), giving a speech
to assembled ape officials calling for a preemptive
war of conquest against the unknown beings said
to exist in the Forbidden Zone. Extolling the
virtues of "naked, merciless force"
and making plain that "the only good human
is a dead human," Ursus' harangue leaves
Brent with little doubt that whatever planet this
might be, it's going to seriously suck
being stranded here. There's no alternative but
to continue the quest for Taylor while avoiding
the apes as much as possible.
Given
a map and provisions by Zira (Kim Hunter) and
Cornelius (David Watson, subbing for Roddy McDowell),
Brent and Nova try to sneak away from Ape City
but are caught by a security patrol. This merely
sets up a plot-padding set-piece in which they
escape captivity —
narrowly missing out being used for target practice
by Ursus' troops —
and are subsequently chased by gorilla cavalry.
The humans shake their pursuers by ducking into
a cave which they soon discover leads into the
ancient ruins of the New York City subway system.
Brent, faced with the same chilling truth as Taylor
at the end of POTA,
takes the demise of civilization in comparative
stride — no "Goddamn
you all to hell!" outbursts of rage from
this guy. Besides, there are more pressing matters
afoot... He and Nova are taken prisoner by human
mutants possessing formidable mental powers (telepathy,
mind control, image projection), who've created
their own subterranean society beneath the ruins
of old New York and worship a nuclear missile
as a god. The mutants have no empathy for the
'lesser-developed' members of their own species,
looking down on the newcomers with as much disdain
as would the apes. Joy at finding Taylor alive
— he, too, is held
captive by the mutants —
is stillborn with the revelation that their hosts
don't intend to let them live. And the ape army,
led by Ursus and Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), has
found ingress to the mutant's underground lair...
When
compared to its masterful progenitor, Beneath
The Planet Of The Apes looks pretty shoddy.
The reduction in budget is principally reflected
by
lower quality special effects (some unconvincing
matte paintings, dodgy front-projection)
and the noticeably stiff
pullover masks worn by many of the ape extras
in lieu of more elaborate (i.e., expensive) makeup
appliances. The episodic script plays as if hastily
cobbled together from various drafts,
as was apparently the case in order to meet Heston's
conditions. Ted Post's direction is workmanlike
and uninspired; it certainly lacks the artistry
and visual force of Franklin Shaffner's original.
Hunter and Evans, excellent performers returning
from the first film, are pretty much wasted in
their greatly reduced roles. As Cornelius, Watson
does a surprisingly good job of imitating McDowell's
voice and mannerisms, although
you can still tell he isn't really the
Cornelius. (If you're a fan of the '68 original
it's actually a bit distracting.) Franciscus,
a likable, athletic second-tier leading man, gives
a fine physical performance but, as written, his
character is so generic he could be called simply
'American Astronaut' instead of Brent. (Contrast
this with the fascinating character arc undergone
by Heston's Taylor in POTA.)
The only performer to really make an impression
is TV veteran Gregory, whose booming, gravelly
baritone seems the perfect voice for the warmongering
Ursus. Heston, of course, is Heston —
Taylor may only have 20 minutes on the
screen this time around but he's for damn sure
going to have the final say on how things turn
out.
Heavily
flawed as it may be, the movie is still not without
entertainment value. Beneath
blows as the continuation of a landmark "SF"
film but as pulp "sci-fi" it's actually
not too bad —
certainly as good if not better than any contemporary
stuff made in that genre. Other than a disposable
scene in which chimpanzee peaceniks vainly protest,
Vietnam War style, against Ursus' military campaign,
there are no stabs at social commentary or analysis.
The film is purely content to show us what happened
next after Taylor rode away from that statue on
the beach, throwing in some action, adventure
and bomb-worshipping mutants along the way.
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Until just last month, the
only DVD edition of Beneath
The Planet Of The Apes had been packaged
in the long out-of-print Planet of the Apes:
Evolution box set. That widescreen disc was
not anamorphic; furthermore, it was never issued
in stand-alone form —
one had to buy the entire Evolution set
to get it. In March 2006 Fox Home Entertainment
finally rectified that situation. Beneath
is now available as a bargain-priced single edition
boasting a new anamorphic transfer and cover art.
It can also be had via the simultaneously released
Planet of the
Apes Legacy Collection (six DVDs) and the
super-duper extra-special Planet
of the Apes Ultimate DVD Collection, which
contains a whopping fourteen
(!) discs: the five original films, Tim Burton's
2001 remake, the short-lived 1974 TV series, the
1975-76 animated series, plus documentaries —
all fitted inside a chimpanzee-head bust modeled
after Roddy McDowell as Caesar in Apes flicks
# 4 and 5. If, like me, you're content with the
saga ending with Beneath
but also want some worthwhile bonus features,
then the best route to simian satisfaction is
pairing the stand-alone DVD of Beneath
with the excellent, extras-packed
35th Anniversary
edition of the '68 POTA
released in February 2004.
The Beneath
disc is a bare bones affair save for a collection
of seven trailers covering all the Apes films
including the Burton flick. The film itself (2.35:1,
16x9 enhanced) looks clean and crisp, certainly
better than I can ever recall from previous home
video editions and cable broadcasts. (Seeing it
in the correct widescreen AR dispels the made-for-TV
movie feel afflicting its pan-and-scan incarnation.)
A 5.1 Surround audio mix punches up the action
and sound effects while significantly enhancing
composer Leonard Rosenman's eerie score.
4/10/06
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