The final Apes entry unfolds as a flashback, as the orangutan Lawgiver (John Huston!) relates the history of how a nuclear war destroyed most life on earth, but the surviving humans and apes kept an uneasy truce. An enclave of human mutants led by human supremacist Governor Kolp (Severn Darden) wished to exterminate the intelligent simians. On the apes’ side, leader Cesar (Roddy McDowell) was plagued with Kolp’s gorilla counterpart, General Aldo (Claude Akins), who believes all humans should be killed. Despite Cesar’s efforts, all-out war was declared.
“There’s a lot of action and the usual political parallels (at one point Caesar says ‘Let us reason together,’ just like LBJ). John Landis can be seen as a human slave. Landis got to know Apes make-up designer John Chambers, who later appeared in Landis’ directing debut, Schlock.” – Rob Gonsalves, ecritic.com
John Landis talks Battle for the Planet of the Apes for Trailers from Hell.
Chris D explores director J. Lee Thompson’s extensive career on the New Beverly blog.
