Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Year: 1971
Director: Don Taylor
Starring: Eric Braeden, Bradford Dillman, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowell & Natalie Trundy
Runtime: 98 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 08/02/24
Director: Don Taylor
Starring: Eric Braeden, Bradford Dillman, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowell & Natalie Trundy
Runtime: 98 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 08/02/24
Warning: This review contains spoilers for Beneath the Planet of the Apes
To call Beneath the Planet of the Apes a car crash of a film would be sugar coating it. But it was a box office success and Fox wanted more Planet of the Apes sequels. Significantly reducing the budget, setting a release date of just one year later, but somehow managing to convince Kim Hunter & Roddy McDowell to return, Escape from the Planet of the Apes would be marginal improvement over its predecessor, but still a hollow imitation of the original film.
Having repaired Taylor’s spaceship and fleeing the future just before the detonation of Earth, Zira (Kim Hunter), Cornelius (Roddy McDowell), and Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo) find themselves transported back in time to 1973. There they become celebrities and beloved public figures, but the presidential science advisor, Dr. Hasslein (Eric Braeden), believes them to be a threat and the beginning of the end for mankind.
For the most part, Escape from the Planet of the Apes is just a role reversal of the plot of the first film. Rather than a human being stranded in a world run by apes, it’s about apes being stranded in a world run by humans. They’re captured, experimented on by scientists, and persecuted by the military and government. The only aspect of it that is different is the way that the media portrays the apes and makes them into celebrities. But this is a short-lived novelty that really only serves to pad out the runtime and put the characters in stupid situations to do silly things; for example, dressing them up as humans, or getting Zira drunk. They don’t really do anything to service the story, and the film never pushes the anti-war rhetoric as hard as the first film.
Having repaired Taylor’s spaceship and fleeing the future just before the detonation of Earth, Zira (Kim Hunter), Cornelius (Roddy McDowell), and Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo) find themselves transported back in time to 1973. There they become celebrities and beloved public figures, but the presidential science advisor, Dr. Hasslein (Eric Braeden), believes them to be a threat and the beginning of the end for mankind.
For the most part, Escape from the Planet of the Apes is just a role reversal of the plot of the first film. Rather than a human being stranded in a world run by apes, it’s about apes being stranded in a world run by humans. They’re captured, experimented on by scientists, and persecuted by the military and government. The only aspect of it that is different is the way that the media portrays the apes and makes them into celebrities. But this is a short-lived novelty that really only serves to pad out the runtime and put the characters in stupid situations to do silly things; for example, dressing them up as humans, or getting Zira drunk. They don’t really do anything to service the story, and the film never pushes the anti-war rhetoric as hard as the first film.
I must say a lot of what makes the film so endearing despite the relatively low quality of the writing is Hunter & McDowell’s performances. It’s great to see McDowell return as Cornelius following his replacement in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and the chemistry he and Hunter have is excellent.
The costumers and prosthetics are as great as they were then first time around, and in this more character centric story compared to the action heavy Beneath you really get to see these costumes to their fullest.
Similarly to Beneath, Escape is let down massively by a very disappointing ending. It’s nowhere near as offensively bad as Beneath’s, but it does feel like a bit of a middle finger to fans. Zira and Cornelius get cornered by Hasslein following the birth of their child. Hasslein shoots and kills Zira and the baby, whilst Cornelius kills Hasslein, and then the military kill Cornelius. The twist being that the baby isn’t actually dead and so begins the chain of intelligent apes, and the eventual downfall of man, but both this film and the last one seem to have a weird obsession with unceremoniously killing off its protagonists. It’s a weak way to end the film and you feel like the film was a waste of time as a result.
Whilst the film certainly doesn’t feel as offensively bad as Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes isn’t much of an improvement. The performances of Hunter & McDowell are the highlight of the film, but even they can’t save the weak story no matter how hard they try.
It’s also just weird to have a Planet of the Apes film set in the 1970’s with only three ape characters. I know the budget was slashed significantly but is this really the best they could do?
The costumers and prosthetics are as great as they were then first time around, and in this more character centric story compared to the action heavy Beneath you really get to see these costumes to their fullest.
Similarly to Beneath, Escape is let down massively by a very disappointing ending. It’s nowhere near as offensively bad as Beneath’s, but it does feel like a bit of a middle finger to fans. Zira and Cornelius get cornered by Hasslein following the birth of their child. Hasslein shoots and kills Zira and the baby, whilst Cornelius kills Hasslein, and then the military kill Cornelius. The twist being that the baby isn’t actually dead and so begins the chain of intelligent apes, and the eventual downfall of man, but both this film and the last one seem to have a weird obsession with unceremoniously killing off its protagonists. It’s a weak way to end the film and you feel like the film was a waste of time as a result.
Whilst the film certainly doesn’t feel as offensively bad as Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes isn’t much of an improvement. The performances of Hunter & McDowell are the highlight of the film, but even they can’t save the weak story no matter how hard they try.
It’s also just weird to have a Planet of the Apes film set in the 1970’s with only three ape characters. I know the budget was slashed significantly but is this really the best they could do?