Battle For the Planet of the Apes

J. Lee Thompson
1973

Unfortunately for the franchise, it's last installment "Battle.." goes out with a whimper undeserving of such a great series. This one finds the rift between ape and man clearly drawn with humans serving as an underclass to their patrician counterparts. The former world of men has crumbled to become underground archaeological strata inhabited by a group of rapidly mutating survivors (these will be the mutants from "Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970))." Inevitably the paths of ape and mutant cross resulting in the film's titular skirmish. Besides the fierce battle itself, complete with mutant helmed tank and other patchwork war machines, most of the interest comes from the apes discovering their darker side. The final revelation that Caesar's son has been murdered at the hands of a militant rival rends asunder the old axiom that "Ape Shall Not Kill Ape." This last message provides the unsurprising sum total that despite physiological and purported philosophical differences there is just as much capacity for savagery in ape as there is in man.