Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)

Review: written February 2012

Levity refreshes Apes franchise in decent sequel

By the time Escape from Planet of the Apes came along the year after Beneath the Planet Of The Apes, the production values were a shadow of their former glories. That said, despite an uneven tone moving from broad humour in the first half through to serious and foreboding in the second half, this story works surprisingly well. Roddy MacDowell and Kim Hunter return as the sympathetic chimpanzees, having escaped the planet in Heston's spacecraft (some of the ideas are best just accepted rather than thought about too hard..) and returned back in time to `current day'. The change to ape being the odd one out in a human society adds a needed fresh twist to the franchise, and a new way to explore societies reactions to those who are ‘different’. The franchise regains a sense of intrigue by ignoring – “what came next” and focusing on “how did we get to this point when apes were the dominant society?”. Ricardo Montalban in a small role is a treat, opening the door to him appearing in the next of the franchise.

Feeling like an event movie despite the budget, from the opening shot we realise that this is going to be a movie with a lighter tone, as the widescreen opening onto that familiar waves crashing on the beach from the original Apes ending, wrong foots us when a helicopter appears and we realise we are not in fact in that grim future. Jerry Goldsmiths return to the Planet of the Apes franchise as score composer is welcome and injects the right amount of levity along with the required tension as things develop into a man-on-the-run storyline. Or perhaps that should be – Ape-on-the-run. Certainly, the shift from high concept to character driven storyline works well.

All in all, still watchable and comes across as a breath of fresh air after the bleak “Beneath the Planet Of The Apes”.

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