Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) - Soundtrack

While I do not dislike the fifth and final film in the first round of Planet of the Apes movies. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the original franchise, is considered to be the last of the truly good ones. Or, at the very least, the last one where the creative team appeared to have made a game effort at having detectable level of creative quality and energy.

Due to the lower than hoped for box office returns on the modest-budgeted Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Conquest was given a smaller budget for its ambitious concept, dramatizing the uprising that would result in the creation of the world and society of the first two films.

Because the budget was low, neither Jerry Goldsmith, who had scored the first and third film, nor Leonard Rosenman, who had scored the second, were approached to compose music for this entry. Instead, on the recommendation of Lionel Newman, Fox's head of music, Tom Scott was hired to score the film.

Faced with a tight post-production schedule, Scott asked fellow composition Lalo Schifrin for advice.

"There was no time to write the sort of full-on orchestral battle scene that I really would have like to do." Scott recalls in the liner noters for the Film Score Monthly release. "Lalo said I should do a row of orchestral events. This was something I had heard him do in other pictures. You'd have ten seconds, for example, of all the woodwinds playing a low, atonal growl, and then you'd have another wall of muted brass playing high, fast staccato notes, and paint these little tone pictures, and that would get you through a great deal of the drama and give the impression that something was going on without having to kill yourself composing and orchestrating."

One thing Scott did not foresee was how the film, which had been shot in a semi-documentary style, would struggle with its harsh tone being a hindrance to maintaining a family friendly rating. Of the first five films, this was only one not to be awarded a G-rating.

Because of all the retooling, most of Scott's score for the film went unused and, in some instances, was replaced with tracks from Goldsmith's score for the first film. Which explains why I do not remember or recall a great deal of music from this particular release.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) - Soundtrack

Since Jerry Goldsmith was busy composing the score for Patton (1970), Leonard Rosenman was brought in to work on Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It was a wise choice, as the composer's distinct style proved to be an excellent thematic fit for this bleak and uneven sequel.

"I felt that it wasn't as good as the first one," Rosenman explains in the liner notes, "but at the same time it was different and it gave a more interesting idea for music."

Rosenman's approach is described by Doug Adams, in the liner notes, as being "so densely complicated and multifaceted that it almost [feels] unwritten at times." The music consists of "oddly voiced brass, woodwind and string choirs acridly sifting back and forth between one another without ever establishing a repetitive melodic snippet."

Okay, that description is a tad convoluted, but it is also an accurate one. Rosenman's score for Beneath the Planet of the Apes is, for the most part, an atonal soundscape of unique and unnerving power. One that elevates the film it underplays to heights it might have otherwise failed to achieve.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) - Soundtrack

This fifth and final entry in the first set of Planet of the Apes films is, for the most part, considered to be its weakest, cheapest, and most uninteresting installment. Which is true. Battle for the Planet of the Apes was the last gasp of an empty creative tank. But even those fumes had something to recommend for a diehard Planet of the Apes fan.

First were all the thematic and storyline "Easter Eggs" that tied the series continuity together into a self-contained unit. Second is Leonard Rosenman's score for the film. A score that Lukas Kendall's liner notes describe as being "driven by a four-note motif expressive of the concept of 'battle' itself." Okay.

Rosenman's score for Battle is all-new music, save for one artistic flourish. The track March to the Dead City contains "the same rising, oppressive brass and winds, along with harp doubled by piano, that characterized his Forbidden Zone music [for] Beneath the Planet of the Apes." Rosenman understood the assignment,