STACK #157 Nov 2017

DVD&BD FEATURE

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In War for the Planet of the Apes , the noble simian leader Caesar faces his most perilous moment, as he begins to mistrust his principles and any hope for peace with the human species that has wounded him in the deepest of ways. Star Andy Serkis reflects on his challenging role. Words Adam Colby UNFORGIVEN

EVOLUTION OF THE APES Caesar, the central figure. “When Matt first sat me down and pitched the movie a couple of years ago, before we even had a script, he explained that it was like a cross between The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and a biblical, Moses-type of story. There are elements of mythic Westerns, and of I n this third and climactic chapter of the critically acclaimed Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, director and co-writer Matt Reeves understood the stakes had to be high – no less than the fate of both humans and apes. “Matt’s passion for this story is bottomless,” reflects Andy Serkis, who plays

Clint Eastwood films.” In War for the Planet of the Apes , peace between both species has collapsed and a renegade band of hardened human soldiers are in attack mode. They are led by Colonel J. Wesley McCullough, played with brooding intensity and menace by Woody

for the fate of Caesar. We have become deeply invested in his journey. This is largely thanks to the remarkable performance by Serkis, who has played Caesar throughout the course of this epic trilogy. “It is very rare as an actor that you get the opportunity to play a role from infancy through to mature adulthood, with such a great arc, and so many great twists and turns, and all the emotional deviations,” Serkis says. The actor is renowned for bringing another digital character, Gollum, to life in The Lord of the Rings films – but has never rested on his laurels. Producer Pater Chernin, who has guided the Apes project from its inception, always saw it as a trilogy.

Andy Serkis

Harrelson. Part of what drives the Colonel is his foreboding realisation that the apes are evolving, while the Simian Virus is having the opposite effect on humans – they are devolving. He believes that only an apocalyptic war can salvage the last vestiges of humankind. Yet as an audience we feel genuine concern

We take a look back at the rise of the movie monkeys.

PLANET OF THE APES (1968) Astronaut Charlton Heston time warps and crash lands on the eponymous world, where humans are regarded as animals and have been enslaved by their ape masters. A sci-fi classic with a shock ending as iconic as its simian stars. Line to quote: “Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape.”

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (1970) Expanding on the monkey mythology, another astronaut (James Franciscus) is stranded on future Earth, where he also encounters a cult of telepathic humans in the ruins of NewYork, who worship an atomic bomb. Line to quote: “The only good human is a dead human.”

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