50th anniversary of Beneath the Planet of the Apes
by Rob - May 26th, 2020.Filed under: Anniversaries, PotA, Reviews.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the second film in the series. I gain more respect for that film on each viewing.
There were production choices, dictated by budget I suppose, that bothered me when I first saw it as a kid:
- the use of so many extras in masks instead of full make-up appliances, especially in the Ursus “Invade” speech scene
- the ridiculous ape body suits Zaius and Ursus wore in the steambath
- the terrible matte work when Taylor disappears into the illusory cliff face
- the fairly crappy looking crash site (even as a kid, I recognized the Jupiter 2’s landing gear)
- the pretty unimpressive looking Alpha-Omega bomb.
And, even as a kid, the continuity errors bothered me:
- Brent on a rescue mission for Taylor — why? As far as Earth knows, Taylor is doing just fine, thanks.
- Zaius calling both Zira and Cornelius “animal psychologists,” when Cornelius is, of course, an archaeologist.
- Nobody in all the time they were making the film bothering to slap the first reel of the original onto a projector to check what the date meter said in Taylor’s ship so that the year in Beneath is 3955 instead of 3978.
And, of course, I keenly felt the lack of Roddy McDowall and was pissed off that they cut a line out of his resued reading from the Sacred Scrolls before the opening credits.
But I’ve come to appreciate the film more and more:
- James Gregory is absolutely wonderful as Ursus
- David Watson’s take on Cornelius is actually fine
- Of course, Paul Dehn’s dialog is terrific
- And the mutants and their ceremonies have grown on me over time.
It’s not a magnificent film, but it is a good, thoughtful, and ambitious one, and probably the best they could do given that Heston refused to appear in any more than just a cameo. And, given how graphically violent it is, it’s satisfyingly pacifist in its messaging.
And, as one reviewer noted, it still stands as “the most batshit insane G-rated movie of all time.”
Robert J. Sawyer online:
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